8mm Forum: Advice please? - Elmo ST1200 HD faults

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Topic: Advice please? - Elmo ST1200 HD faults

Jim Bishop
Junior
Posts: 28
From: London
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 10, 2016 03:35 PM

Hi Everyone. My ST1200HD's are both making a loud whirring/whining noise. One of them goes back to normal after warming up, the other does it constantly. On the latter the lamp also won't switch on during operation & I've checked it with a functioning one. These are recent faults & although these machines are miraculous to work at all after so long I'm hoping they can be fixed.

Any advice gratefully received.

Best.
Jim

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 10, 2016 03:50 PM

Beware a slipping motor belt!

Mine used to make a high pitched squeal for about 30 seconds before it quieted down. Later on I lubed the machine and it stopped the noise entirely.

Weeks later I figured out this was actually the motor belt slipping on the drive pulley until the old lube warmed up.

-but not before it destroyed the motor pulley...(What surgery THAT was!)

Here's a description of the lube:

My Great Worm Glop Weekend

(The pulley finally failed after I posted this: Old theories are still active in my posts.)

In any case where one of these machines acts up at startup and then gets better, I'd start with the lube. It's cheap and easy to do and it's good to rule this out before you get involved with something much more problematic.

-Really, if I had a machine in perfect health I'd do it anyway. It's just making life easier on your motor, gears, pulleys and belts and heading off trouble later on.

Even if your motor pulley isn't the victim here, something else may be getting abused.

-better to intervene before it's too late.

My second guess with a lamp is always the socket. (First guess is the lamp itself, but you've eliminated that!)

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Jim Bishop
Junior
Posts: 28
From: London
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 11, 2016 01:21 PM

Great advice, many thanks Steve!
Will try and give this a shot over the coming couple weeks.
All the best
Jim

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John Capazzo
Master Film Handler

Posts: 421
From: Hillside, NJ USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted February 14, 2016 07:55 PM

Steve is correct: a loose belt for the warm up noisy machine. If it's a constant noise, the fan could be scraping against the casing/shroud or sometimes the shutter is too close to other parts. Open the back cover and look around while it's in FWD.

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"the image is about 30 feet ahead of us."

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Jim Bishop
Junior
Posts: 28
From: London
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 17, 2016 04:59 PM

Thank you also, John, much appreciated.

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Simon McConway
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1085
From: Doncaster, UK
Registered: Jun 2004

posted February 18, 2016 04:41 PM

Asking Bill Parsons to service these machines will make them 10,000 times better. Bill looks after all my Elmo machines (both Super 8 & 16mm) and each one has come back like a brand new machine!

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Jim Bishop
Junior
Posts: 28
From: London
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 10, 2016 01:34 PM

Hi again, Steve. Instant success! It took a while for the SuperLube to reach the UK, hence the delay. But I just followed your lead & although the worm gear wasn't that bunged up, by picking out what gloop was there, then applying SuperLube, it ran normally right away. Another factor may have been that the projector is usually set up in our cold basement, but it's been in the warm for a few hours, so who knows if that affect things?

Anyway, just to let you know I hadn't forgotten you & to thank you copiously for taking the time to run me through it.

Also, belated thanks, Simon, for recommending Bill Parsons - I think he himself may have last serviced this exact same projector, but I shudder to think what year that was. Some people have been born and already left home and got married since then I think.

All the best, Gentlemen. Jim.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 10, 2016 01:45 PM

I'm glad I could be of help!

On one of mine I unspiralled this hair maybe 8 inches long!

(I thought for a moment maybe my friend Elmo was having an affair!)

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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