8mm Forum: Projector Bolex SP8 Manual

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Posted by Kevin Bourret (Member # 6643) on October 03, 2018, 09:15 AM:

Hello,

I just got my first Super 8 projector, A Bolex SP8.

I am not able to find any manual online(free) for that model.

Anybody can help please?

[ October 04, 2018, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: Kevin Bourret ]

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 03, 2018, 09:29 AM:

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to the 8mm Forum!

By the time your machine was made, Bolex had stopped making 8mm projectors and instead sold rebadged Eumig 800 series machines. These are good, reliable machines: not the fanciest in the world, but sometimes there are advantages to keeping things simple. (Let's face it: anything that still works 40 years after it was sold must be pretty good!)

This Forum's website has a manual for the Eumig 810. (-among many others in the Manuals Section)

Eumig S810 Series Projectors

If you know only one thing about these machines it's that you need to use the inching knob to retract the claw (align the dots) when you clean the gates. If you don't you risk damaging the pins on the claw, which can be fatal to the machine. What's disturbing is this procedure is actually different between the Bolex and Eumig branded machines, so proceed with caution here. For Bolex purposes the manual is wrong in this case!

(No: I don't know why they did this either! They didn't have to.)

There are also materials in "Index of Technical Topics" up top which should help. You'll find nothing about "Bolex Sp8", but there are topics titled "8XX series" under "Eumig" which should be useful.

Posted by Kevin Bourret (Member # 6643) on October 03, 2018, 12:09 PM:

Thanks, i will check it out tonight.

So far it is running without issue.

Posted by Kevin Bourret (Member # 6643) on November 20, 2018, 01:48 PM:

Just got a sound movie and the speaker did work fine at first but then stop working after 20 minutes.

I was still hearing the hum of the speaker but no sound was coming out anymore and it did work few minutes ago.

I guess the speaker is done and will need to be replaced.

Is there any location i can look for a replacement?

Thanks

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 20, 2018, 02:20 PM:

Your speaker is probably OK, it's the circuitry that's driving it that's more likely the problem. The question is: is it the sound head or the amp?

Does changing the volume do anything?

What's interesting is speakers for these aren't very hard to find. They aren't of the kind usually used in home or portable audio, though. They are of the type very commonly used in car audio. Back in the day, probably millions of 'em were planted in dashboards looking up at windshields. (-back when dashboards still had one speaker in the middle)

Posted by Kevin Bourret (Member # 6643) on November 20, 2018, 02:28 PM:

I can hear the speaker while adjusting the volume but still no sound from the film and i know the sound of the film work because i was hearing sound before it stop after several minutes run.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 20, 2018, 02:41 PM:

Does the hum get louder and softer when you change the volume?

Kind of an interesting thing to try is to engage and release the red sound recording switch a number of times with the machine unplugged. This is usually something that works on Elmos, but I've seen it fix the sound on my own Eumig at least once.

While you're at it, there's a recording level control on these that has a switch built in. You could twist it and click that switch a bunch of times.

-and why not? Trying it doesn't cost anything and it should leave you no worse off than before.

Posted by Kevin Bourret (Member # 6643) on November 20, 2018, 08:18 PM:

Does the hum get louder and softer when you change the volume?

Yes the hum is getting louder and softer when im adjusting the volume.

I tried like you said by pressing multiple time the recording switch button then i was playing with all the different volume knobs and then..... It is working!

I was able to run it for an full feature and did not get any other issue since.

Thanks for the help. Hope that was just that.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 20, 2018, 08:31 PM:

It could be just that!

-It wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last either!

This is really good news, because once you get past this point you start to think in terms of electronic components being failed. You have to diagnose the faulty parts, then you need to find replacements, and then you have to do the repair. This can get awfully messy with 40 year old electronics.

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