8mm Forum: WANTED- Take up reel for Elmo

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Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 01, 2016, 08:26 PM:

I am thinking i need a new take up reel, maybe a couple....
I never really noticed before but my wife noticed that the 400' reel is warped on one of the elmo's and causing the film to bend while being wound on the take up...
Where can i find a new good quality take up reel. I see some plastic on ebay but i can't be sure they are not warped as well...
Can someone help please. Thanx.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on March 01, 2016, 09:14 PM:

Steve Osborne of The Reel Image has the reels you want. He is a member of this forum and sells quality items.

The Reel Image
2520 Blackhawk Road
Kettering , Ohio 45420 USA

937-296-9036

http://thereelimage.jimdo.com
thereelimage_043@yahoo.com

Posted by Douglas Warren (Member # 1047) on March 02, 2016, 04:15 AM:

Matthew,
I second Pat regarding Steve Osborne.He's one of the best dealers out there and I've had many happy transactions with him.
Douglas

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 02, 2016, 04:25 AM:

The Elmo 800ft spools are, in my experience of using them, the very best manufactured take up spool available made from plastic.

They run very true (concentric), and you consequently never hear any reel screech from these.

The 1200ft Elmo spools as we all know here, are also superb.

Fear not using plastic, when they are manufactured as well as the Elmo ones spoken about here.
There are also many other highly respectable spools such as Gepe, Schneider, Bonum,Posso, Sankyo etc etc but the Elmo ones beat the rest for quality at 800ft sizes and probably 1200ft also.

Posted by Jason Schmidt (Member # 4526) on March 02, 2016, 08:13 AM:

Ian O'Reilly may also have some. I recently bought a 1200ft metal elmo from him.

Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 02, 2016, 08:33 AM:

Thanx very much all! I will follow up these leads.

Yes, i agree the elmo reels are nice. I think with mine however, it must have been somewhat compressed in the box from storage.

You may laugh at my invention, but what i did was to buy one of those foam tubes, pictured below...and then cut it into pieces about 1 inch thick. I then put it into the reel, equally spaced on the spines to open it up a bit and leave for a couple days in hope to re-stretch the reel...Desperate i know, but untl i get a new reel- he hee.

My 800' is in good shape still and i have a 1200' aluminum elmo i haven't used much yet(from vincent) but will one day. It is the 400' i need for the K110SM. It will not take larger reels. foam thing-a-ma-bop

ps- Steve's website is so cool.I can spend hours just looking at stuff...he makes neat animated gif's and such...

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 02, 2016, 08:37 AM:

For 400ft sizes, I would try to find a Schneider or Bonum spool.
Both are excellent.

Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 02, 2016, 08:41 AM:

Thanx Andrew!

Are there any metal ones that will not warp? or is that overkill....

Posted by Barry Fritz (Member # 1865) on March 02, 2016, 08:46 AM:

If you posted a picture, I don't see it.

Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 02, 2016, 08:57 AM:

Hi Barry,
It was just in the link at the bottom of my post that says
"foam thing-a-ma-bop'

Here is another pic(i hope it works)- you can get this stuff anywhere(home depot etc...) i just happened to have some around. Will it work? It worked on the aluminum reel, but took a few weeks of leaving it in... If one could reheat the reel ever so much for awhile while using this stuff, i bet it would work better. [Smile]

http://www.foambymail.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/polycylinder2.jpg

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 02, 2016, 09:31 AM:

I use a hair dryer to reheat plastic reels.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 02, 2016, 09:37 AM:

I think the success of using Janice's method here, really depends on what type of plastic is used.
From my college days, I remember there are two different types, thermosetting and thermoplastic.
The latter can be reheated and moulded into shape again while the thermosetting kind cannot.
It will just remain relatively brittle and snap into pieces if attempted.
This is definitely the case on the Elmo style reels but such as the Taylor type, you can do the above on.

If anyone has ever left a vinyl record close to an open fire or red hot radiator, you will know all too well which category was chosen for the majority of these! [Wink]

[ March 02, 2016, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Woodcock ]

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 02, 2016, 03:09 PM:

The Gepe 800 Footer is almost identical to the Elmo (Difference? color, cast-in markings)

The cream white of the Elmo reel is prettier than the Gepe's dark gray, but then again the Gepe has been in a lot more recent production and it comes in a nice protective storage case.

I've thought about demoting my Gepe to a storage reel so I can run my ST-800 with a genuine Elmo takeup.

(It would look nice with a black machine: just the way the machine was originally advertised.)

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 02, 2016, 04:10 PM:

I recently purchased 5x 800ft Gepe spools and thought it looks brilliant in the Matt grey against my projector. Trouble is, for whatever reason (which I haven't quite managed to work out yet), the Elmo spool "catches" the film far better than these Gepe ones ever do???

They look, as Steve correctly points out, almost identical, but there must be some subtle changes because there is no way these are anything like as reliable as an actual take up spool ( perfectly fine as a storage spool) as the Elmo ones?

I noticed the Gepe also come with a white plastic insert that fits into a hole to clamp the film after insertion.

This leads me to believe these may well have never been designed to be utilized as a "take up spool" per se.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on March 02, 2016, 05:45 PM:

I'm with Janice on this. After placing spacers to open up the reel I heat it then either let it cool or run it under cold water. Pull out the spacers and the reel runs true with no film scraping. [Wink]

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 02, 2016, 07:10 PM:

Only if the above applies here Pat!

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