8mm Forum: Safest method of cleaning plastic and rubber rollers?

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Topic: Safest method of cleaning plastic and rubber rollers?

Stuart Reid
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 720
From: Worthing, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Feb 2009

posted February 25, 2016 07:57 AM

Looking to refurb a projector which has accumulated a lot of muck on the rollers. What's the best non-abrasive substance to use to get them clean?

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Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

posted February 25, 2016 07:58 AM

What kind of rollers Stuart, rubber or steel?

Oh sorry, I didn't read your title properly Stuart.
Plastic rollers on the ST1200 and the likes, I always used to clean them in a bowl of hot water with Fairy liquid and a stiff brush, before polishing them with a little wax or furniture polish before refitting them.

In fact I was forever having to do this with all of the plastic guides and rollers on these!

Rubber ones, you have to take a little more care over but warm water again or diluted alcohol solution should be fine if you clean them quickly and get them dry quickly also.

To be honest, using Filmguard, I don't find that my rubber rollers ever require anything more than a photographic blower brush now to keep them clean. You don't tend to get any large residue build up aside from cleaning the mag heads frequently, I've found.

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"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

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Stuart Reid
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 720
From: Worthing, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Feb 2009

posted February 25, 2016 08:08 AM

Thanks Andrew, just the tonic!

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David Fouracre
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 123
From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Registered: Aug 2013

posted February 25, 2016 10:08 AM

I have found that for rubber rollers ONLY, a fluid used by the printing trade called "blanket bath" will clean and restore the surface and texture of rubber rollers. I found it suitable for pressure rollers in projectors and "pinch" rollers from tape transport systems. Rubber rollers which had taken a set (indentation) in their surface would restore well.
Your local printer would use the fluid to clean down their "Heidelberg" style machines. I last obtained this fluid in the 1980s, but should still be around.

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Stuart Reid
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 720
From: Worthing, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Feb 2009

posted February 25, 2016 10:57 AM

Blanket baths - that takes me back. David, I actually operated a Heidelberg letterpress for a brief period in the late 1980s! I think we had one of the last ones running in Plymouth, it was a thing of beauty but vicious if handled badly. Doubt it would be allowed in these health and safety times!

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