8mm Forum: My Elmo ST1200

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Posted by Joe McAllister (Member # 825) on September 10, 2010, 07:07 AM:

Hi I have picked up a magnetic optical version of this machine and was wondering if there is any simple maintenance I should do prior to risking a print on a machine that has been in a cupboard for a couple of years.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 10, 2010, 09:22 AM:

The first thing I would do would be a good cleaning of the interior of the machine and especially the film path. It's amazing the Jungle that can develop in there without regular cleaning.

Sometimes I swear all you need to do to keep your house clean is leave a projector out on the table. All the dust will eventually collect in there and then you just take the machine outside and bang it on the wall to clean it out for the next few weeks! (I've seen my share of projectors good for nothing more...)

Then closely inspect the film path (flashlight, maybe a magnifier) and look for places where there is wear such that the film is no longer touching on just the edges but the middle too. These will often be flat spots where the film is bent around a corner, but they were originally rounded. Also be wary of little deposits of emulsion and other foreign objects: these are land mines for film in terms of scratches. If you lay the machine on its back while you are doing this, the lighting will be better and the working position will be much more comfortable.

Go to each of the film rollers and make sure it spins freely. If not then figure out why and fix it. Very often this is nothing more than disassembling, cleaning, reassembling and then manually spinning the roller until it frees up. (Be wary of lubrication here. Do it sparingly if at all.)

Then run the machine without film (lamp off is OK) for a while and let all the moving parts become reacquainted with each other. Listen for nasty sounds and for at least the first few minutes stay close so you can pull the plug if things start to go badly.

Now you can splice a length of scrap film so that it forms a loop through the machine. Project it on screen and see if scratches develop in the loop. If they do, find out why, fix it, try it again. When you can go at least ten loops without damaging the film, you are ready to move onto your least favorite prints and then gradually on to the good stuff.

Enjoy! They are good machines!

Posted by Joe McAllister (Member # 825) on September 10, 2010, 10:59 AM:

Thanks for that Steve, thats my weekend sorted out!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 10, 2010, 03:04 PM:

My pleasure!

My weekend's just been salvaged...my Mom's computer seems to have recovered!

...three spam e-mails have arrived in the past half hour.

(Whod'a thought you could get electrocuted by a cell phone!)

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