8mm Forum: Film Cleaner

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Topic: Film Cleaner

Jeremy Day
Film Handler

Posts: 38
From: North Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted January 15, 2008 05:31 PM

I purchased my projector and screen. A bottle of Filmguard just arrived. I'm waiting for my media pads. I've got my films.

I want to make sure I don't damage my films or projector. That's why I purchased the Filmguard.

I've been doing some research online and reading what I could concerning the use of Filmguard and cleaning films in general. I keep hearing mention of film rewinds. As I have already spent a rather large sum just getting ready to project films (expensive hobby!) I'm not going to try and find any rewinds.

What is the best way for me to apply Filmguard? I guess I will ask a stupid question: why can't I apply Filmguard from a cloth as the film is being pulled onto the reel on my projector? Will I cause damage to my projector with the tension? Will the effectivness of Filmguard be diminished? Will it damage the film? Is it a problem of excess Filmguard dripping onto my projector?

Thanks to all the experienced film gurus for their help. [Smile]

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 15, 2008 07:26 PM

Jeremy,

I'm glad your Bauer arrived! Applying FilmGuard while screening won't hurt the film, but I'd be concerned about the tension damaging the projector. Unless you've got a Kelmar cleaner rigged up (I don't), your fingers will not only get tired, but they'll apply too much pressure at some point.

There are fairly cheap rewinds to be found on eBay and they're a good investment. You'll want to rewind on your projector as little as possible to keep the belts tight and avoid wear & tear.

As for cleaning, my method is very simple. I put the film on rewinds, spray a 2" piece of cloth, fold it over the film so that both sides (base & emulsion) get an application. Holding the cloth between my thumb and forefinger, I slowly wind the film through the cloth, stopping approx. every 50 ft. to change to a new 2" piece. I change the cloth sooner if the film appears to be particularly dirty. After cleaning/lubricating some eBay films, there's quite a collection of blackened cloths in the garbage.
There's no need to wipe FilmGuard off. If I'm not in a hurry to view a film, I let the film sit in the open for a few hours and then screen it. If I can't wait (You know the feeling), right after I've rewound it on the rewinds I thread it up and watch it. There's no harm caused by watching it right away, just that you'll notice some light streaking which looks like water on the film. This will be gone when you watch the film a second time.
Also, a little bit goes a long way. No need to over apply.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Jeremy Day
Film Handler

Posts: 38
From: North Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted January 15, 2008 10:32 PM

Thanks for the reply Doug. I appreciate all of your and everyones' help.

I did look on ebay searching the word rewind earlier with few results.

I think I read one of the posts on 8mm (I think) that said rewinds for Super 8mm were rare and expensive. I think I also saw mention that 16mm rewinds could be converted for Super 8mm.

Specific suggestions would be helpful. Maybe you guys could post a link if you see something on Ebay. Thanks. [Smile]

I just searched Ebay and found these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-2-Vintage-Dupage-Film-Rewinders-Rewinder_W0QQitemZ310013969292QQihZ021QQcategoryZ4790QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQtrksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

Is this something I could use? Thanks.

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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted January 15, 2008 11:42 PM

I am not sure about this model.
The shafts are very long. Seems to
fit 35MM?

I also prefer a second wind, where
tension can be adjusted when taking
up the film. If the other reel spins
without tension, it may become difficult
to control the film from excessively
unspooling

Just my 2 cents.

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Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted January 16, 2008 03:57 AM

Jeremy

The rewind shown certainly looks like a 35mm cinema item. Very few super 8 rewinds were made as projectors were used for this. Elmo produced a good rewind but it was expensive.

I used to use a 16mm rewinder (which I had) with the plastic standard 8/super 8 spool adapters.

Why not look out for a cheap super 8 editor? This will have a rewind attached and often a one-to-one ratio crank. Even if the editor itself does not work (bulb broken, for instance) the rewind will be very useful.

Maurice

[ January 16, 2008, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Maurice Leakey ]

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Maurice

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Bob Pucci
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 520
From: Westerly,RI
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 16, 2008 04:31 AM

Why not get a pair of cheap 16mm rewinds and put 8mm adapters on the shafts.That is what I did.Larry Urbanski's site sells those shafts for $45.00.

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Jeremy Day
Film Handler

Posts: 38
From: North Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted January 16, 2008 09:26 AM

Thanks all for your advice. I'll look around and see what I can find.

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David Pannell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1072
From: Horsham, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Nov 2004

posted January 16, 2008 04:09 PM

I clean and lubricate my films in exactly the same way as Doug, except that I do a 'double pass' so that 'excess' FilmGuard which is present at the start of each run is counteracted by the reverse run. I find that this tends to even out the coating over the length of the film.

By-the-way, welcome to the Forum, Jeremy.

Works perfectly! [Big Grin]

--------------------
Dave.

Valves and celluloid - a great combination!
Early technology rules OK!

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 16, 2008 05:29 PM

I do exactly the same as Doug and David and I too do a double pass. I only apply the Lube on the first pass. This evens the coating out better.

Kev.

PS Yes a very warm welcome to the forum...enjoy [Smile]

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GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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Jeroen van Ooijen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 823
From: The Netherlands
Registered: Mar 2008

posted March 10, 2009 04:49 PM

i use filmguard now,and have a question,last Sunday i clean my movie from A Walt Disney Christmas it is my favorite,and on my cloth there was a brown emulsion can anyone tell me what it is.
The movie is just like new with colors i never knew they existed.Is this enough to protect the movie?or must i use another bottle of cleaner for the rest of it? [Big Grin]

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Super8 that's the greatest hobby in my life,i was 9 to have my first viewer from GAF.

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Kurt Gardner
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 193
From: San Antonio, TX
Registered: Aug 2005

posted March 10, 2009 05:09 PM

I use Filmrenew and I will also get some brown on the cleaning cloth. It seems to be from the sound stripe, but it hasn't adversely affected the sound. Can anyone else confirm this?

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

Posts: 3085
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Oct 2007

posted March 10, 2009 05:37 PM

Probably just simply some emulsion dust or other harmless residue.
Its not terribly unusual - nothing to worry about [Smile]

-Mike

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Jeroen van Ooijen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 823
From: The Netherlands
Registered: Mar 2008

posted March 11, 2009 12:53 PM

I,am glad to hear that,i thought it can't be so dirty. [Smile]

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Super8 that's the greatest hobby in my life,i was 9 to have my first viewer from GAF.

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Jon Anders Klausen
Film Handler

Posts: 80
From: Trondheim, Norway
Registered: Apr 2007

posted September 08, 2009 01:39 PM

I cleaned an old Walton T&J film the other day with Filmguard, and there was some brown stuff that came of, like Kurt had, and it looked like it came from the soundstripe. Now the audio is pretty bad at moments, it goes up and down in volume and sometimes dissapear.

Next up I´m going to check reel 1 of Blood on the Sun that I also cleaned. Hopefully the same hasn´t happened to that also...

Update: seems like the audio is fine on that reel [Smile]

Q: is it possible to use to much Filmguard, so that the audiostripe will dissolve?

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My site: iSuper8

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