posted March 11, 2019 07:23 PM
An Imac Bisonix Dual Gauge 8mm Sound Projector on eBay UK caught my eye, the seller was asking 65 GBP or best offer. I messaged the seller and he assured me it was in working order and to cut a long story short it became mine for 55 GBP with free shipping. It duly arrived and the first thing I noticed was a broken front foot in two pieces in the packaging so wasn't very happy about that. Next, I found it was running slowly due to a stretched motor drive belt. Okay I thought, I can fix those two problems without too much trouble. I then discovered there was no sound on either gauge! I messaged the seller including a photo of the broken foot and describing the other problems and he told me to open a case with eBay for item not as described and he would refund me my purchase price. I did this, he immediately refunded me and said I could keep the projector and hopefully get it repaired! The sound problem just turned out to be a corroded fuse on the amplifier board due to storage, I cleaned the holder and fitted a new fuse and the amplifier sprang into life! A new drive belt cured the running slow problem and a bit of super glue fixed the front foot. So I now am the proud owner of an Imac Bisonix just for the cost of a drive belt and a fuse! Well pleased with that!
-------------------- A fan of 8mm movies since the mid 1960s and still as keen as ever!
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
posted March 11, 2019 08:37 PM
Well, you struck lucky in the end! However, I must admit that I've never heard of an Imac Bosonix. Would you say that they compare favourably with (e.g) a Eumig 800 series dual gauge?
posted March 12, 2019 06:32 AM
The clever thing about the Imac Bisonix is that gauge change is accomplished by sliding a single lever, this single action causes the sprockets to move, the film path to change for the correct picture/sound separation, the film gate aperture to change and the sound to switch from one head to the other. All done with a single lever! The sound is excellent with very little hum and with separate bass and treble tone controls, there's also two 5-pin DIN sockets for sound recording and tric functions. It has a DC motor also with electronic speed control so no Eumig rubber disc problems! Have a look here for more details: