8mm Forum: Sankyo 800 conversion?

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Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 20, 2010, 07:00 AM:

Has anybody ever converted the Sankyo 800 to 1200ft capacity?
Can it be done?
Would it be difficult?

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on April 20, 2010, 08:07 AM:

Someone did do it but not a forum member here. There was one on Ebay a few years back which had extended arms kind of. Unfortunately the way this was done was certain modifications to the chassis had to be done, ie: cut away parts of the plastic. It didn't look too good. But I lost the auction and another member here got it shortly after and then the machine died. I happened to purchase the 1.0 lens off of him but in the end I sold my Sankyo 800 as well.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 20, 2010, 08:46 AM:

Thanks, Alan, for the info.
You don't happen to still have that 1.0 lens, do you??

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on April 20, 2010, 12:20 PM:

Ha ha! I wish. Then I would let you have it! [Smile]

But I sold it to another collector in Italy I think.
I had 2 of them actually. The second one I tried to fit on the GS1200, Bauer T610, or the Beaulieu. It wouldn't fit any of them. Sad too because its such a nice lens and very well made. And it makes a big difference in picture quality. But I'm sure you know that. [Smile]

Good luck!

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 20, 2010, 01:20 PM:

Thanks.
I'm not holding my breath [Smile]

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on April 23, 2010, 04:53 PM:

Hi, Michael
It's certainly doable, but as Alan explained, you have to cut away a little piece of plastic from the body right next to the area where the film is fed to the upper sprocket. You can have a look (click here and scroll down - there are several photos), or the bigger reel will rub against it causing noise.

Also you need a longer arm for the take up reel: if you can find a spare supply reel arm (even from cheaper models, included 301) it will work perfectly. Of course you won't be able to fold both arms perfectly flat on top of the prj.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 24, 2010, 12:35 PM:

Thanks, Maurizio. It doesn't sound as difficult as I thought.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 25, 2010, 06:15 PM:

Michael, since I knew exactly you are more in 16mm, is Sanlyo already in your possession ?

If not ye, I would say that you avoid any modification to Sankyo and buy a dedicated 1200 machine, instead.

The reasons are:

1. Modification will cost you more than buying a dedicated 1200 machine

2. Sankyo is made from plastic at all parts, and I don't believe it is reliable to hold 1200 reels in full performance. I trust more to ST1200.

regards

Posted by Pete Richards (Member # 2203) on December 09, 2013, 08:40 PM:

quote:
Also you need a longer arm for the take up reel: if you can find a spare supply reel arm (even from cheaper models, included 301) it will work perfectly. Of course you won't be able to fold both arms perfectly flat on top of the prj.

I just tried this with using a Sankyo 600 as the donor for the take up reel arm. It absolutely does not work (which I found out after a few hours of tinkering/destruction).
If anyone knows which arms would work, please let me know, I now have two PJs in pieces [Frown]

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on December 10, 2013, 04:17 AM:

I have a converted (but not by myself) Sankyo 700. I don't know if this model differs a lot from the Sankyo 800. It seems quiete easy for someone who has some abilities and proper tools.

Posted by Michael Wright (Member # 1387) on December 10, 2013, 04:46 AM:

I have recently bought one of these projectors and I'm delighted with it. The gentleman who sold it to me, who's very knowledgeable about projectors was sure it could be modified to take the 1200ft spools. He showed me that the larger spool would easily fit on the feed arm and his suggestion was to cut away a small section of the body to make it take the larger take up spool. If this could be done without harming the projector, I think this would be preferable to buying an Elmo, they seem to have a poor reputation for scratching film. MIKE

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on December 10, 2013, 05:08 AM:

"Elmos seem to have a poor reputation for scratching film."

That's news to me - they certainly haven't been scratching my films in recent decades! Maybe there are one or two specific models with 'issues', but scratching would generally be associated with letting certain guides get excessively worn - something that members here would be be alert to. However, I would acknowledge that runnimng Elmos in reverse is risky without one or two refinements to stop marks.

Posted by Michael Wright (Member # 1387) on December 10, 2013, 12:05 PM:

Hi Adrian, perhaps I was a little hard on Elmos, but not much. If you search the forum for elmo scratch you end up with a shed load of results. The point I was trying to make was that the sanyo seems to be very kind to film. MIKE

Posted by Pete Richards (Member # 2203) on December 10, 2013, 04:53 PM:

Modifying the front arm to accept 1200ft reels is no problem at all.

The back arm is a problem, my understanding was you can take the front arm off any of the sankyo projectors and swap it out with the rear-arm.

I took the front arm off a Sankyo-600 to use as the rear-arm for the Sankyo-800. There is no way it can work, they are totally different designs.

I'm hoping there is a particular arm that *will* work, and that someone knows which one it is [Smile]

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on December 11, 2013, 04:47 AM:

I had ST1200 that was good most of the time with films. My GS1200 is also OK. I didn't own the ST long enough to get it serviced, but my GS was serviced by C.Z Scientific Instruments then Hanimex who took over the servicing.

I would think no matter which projector you have, if you don't keep it clean it will at sometime cause scratching.

I always clean my projectors first with a small vacuum cleaner, brush and finally a blast of compressed air.

Posted by Pete Richards (Member # 2203) on December 11, 2013, 09:20 PM:

My Sankyo 800 destroyed a reel, big green emulsion scratches due to a bit of rust on the studs on the gate. Any projector can scratch the crap out of film if not looked after [Smile]

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on December 11, 2013, 11:47 PM:

Pete, as I said, you can use the front arm of a model 301, 401, 501 etc, except 600. The longer arm will allow using 1200' spools without having to modify the rear film guide or the lamp cover.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on December 12, 2013, 09:09 AM:

That looks like a great conversion. Now, where can I get the arms to do mine?

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