8mm Forum: Elmo F-80 Cloth Belt Coming Off Rails

This is topic Elmo F-80 Cloth Belt Coming Off Rails in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=012212

Posted by Diego Macario (Member # 6389) on April 07, 2018, 01:10 PM:

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here. I discovered this forum 2 months ago, and I have been coming back daily since then. This is such a positive and helpful community; I'm really glad I found it.

I am writing this post because I recently acquired an Elmo F-80. It is a beautiful machine, and it functioned perfectly until last night, when the thin cloth belt that connects the shutter to the motor came off of its rails. After inspecting everything, I was able to thread it correctly through the motor, the shutter and the pulley associated with the clutch mechanism. You can see how the belt is threaded through the shutter and the clutch pulley in the image below:

But even with everything threaded correctly, the motor still doesn't get the belt to spin. When I turn on the motor, I can see the wheel connected to it spinning, but the belt slides on its surface (it is completely static). The image below shows the wheel that is connected to the motor, and how the belt is threaded through it:

Since everything seems to be in its proper place, I believe the cause of this problem is lack of friction. The belt is clearly worn out, and the projector has not been lubricated in many years. So my questions are:

- Is my analysis correct? And if yes, does anyone know how I can increase the friction between the belt and the wheel that is connected to the motor?
- Does anyone know what I can do to prevent the belt from coming off the rails in the future?
- Does anyone know where I can acquire a new belt? (Just in case the one have breaks in the future).

Thank you so much for any advice!

Posted by Diego Macario (Member # 6389) on April 08, 2018, 09:59 AM:

Hi everyone! I am updating this post because I discovered that the wheel that is connected to the motor was not actually rotating. When I peeked into the base of the projector with a flashlight, I thought I saw the wheel spinning and the belt sliding on its surface, but my eyes must have tricked me because a few hours later I checked again and the wheel was not spinning at all.

So I opened the base of the projector and tightened the screws that connect the wheel to the motor and now everything is working properly! The source of the problem was not lack of friction, as I initially thought.

Although I must remark that the belt came off its rails again just a few hours later. It looks like the clutch mechanism causes this problem, so for now I'm going to avoid using the clutch.

If anyone has advice on how to prevent the cloth belt from coming off of its rails, please let me know!

Posted by Nantawat Kittiwarakul (Member # 6050) on April 09, 2018, 09:46 PM:

Congrats on your solution. [Smile]

This is the "fun" part of this hobby lol.

Better take this chance to check the lubrication. After decades this will probably need some new oil/grease for smooth operation again. [Wink]

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2