Pathé Baby finding and restoration project

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

Hi to all,

my name is Alessandro and i'm from Italy; it is my first post in this beautiful forum.
I found a really amazing Pathé Baby in my basement, with more than 100 Films. I'm not familiar with projector, so i start to study and i found that there are some things to fix. For example, the obturator must be changed, and also the elastic that trasmitt the movement. Except that, the projector is in really good shape, with all the original part and also an "optional" (the Cone lens).
My objective is to fully restore it and probably sell it with all the films.
If you have some advice that can help i really appriciate! I share with you some photo, and the update of the project in every step

Thank you!

[Maurice Leakey]

Alessandro
I assume that the word "obturator" means the shutter, which rotates to obscure the film as it is pulled down by the claw. The projector seems to be missing its drive handle. It is a fascinating projector and I wish you luck with its restoration.
Regrettably, I have never owned or even seen one, so I can not really help you with any advice.

Maurice

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

Hi Maurice, yes is the Shutter I have the Drive Handle, founded in the box with the film, with also a second lamp It's really faschinating also working on it!

[Janice Glesser]

Hi Alessandro and congrats on finding the Pathe' Baby. I restored my Pathe' Baby 6 years ago. These projectors are a remarkable piece of machinery and well worth the effort to restore it back to functionality.

I purchased a custom made shutter from Ron Ashton in the UK. I haven't contacted Ron recently, but you can email him to see if he is still producing and selling shutters. Ron was very helpful in helping a non-engineer person like myself to successfully install the shutter. Do a search in the archives to find more detailed information on the restoration. I and other members have also modified the lamp system to make it safer to use.

Her is a video of my success:

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

Wow Janice, amazing! this is exactly wath i want to do I try to find out if Ron produce shutter because for sure i need one!

Thank you

[Janice Glesser]

Ron Ashton

ronashton.ra.eng@hotmail.co.uk

[Iain Petrie]

Hi Alessandro, I bought one of these shutters recently to restore my own Pathe Baby. They are fantastic. Sadly my lack of mechanical skills mean I haven't been able to fit it yet but that's not a reflection on the shutter itself!
I bought it from UK ebay here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233474592876

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

Thank you both guys! I have contacted directly Ron (that is also the seller of ebay) and he send me the piece!! Hope it arrive this week.
Now i have another question for you! For the electronic part, i see that the Baby is 110 v, and now the tension of my home is 220. How can i try the projector? I need a converter from 220 to 110? If you have one to advise to me please feel free

Thank you

[Maurice Leakey]

Alessandro
This may work for you if your power socket will accept this one with its two pins.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-...kAAOSwt51awmXD


Maurice

[Paul Adsett]

Before running this machine I would definitely rewire it by removing that lethal resistance matt in the base of the baby and replace it with a 220v to 12 volt transformer and a 12v 10watt halogen lamp. There is plenty of room to mount the transformer in the base and the halogen bulb will give you a brighter and whiter picture with readily available bulbs ( the original bulbs are impossible to find). You will also have a very safe projector.

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

PAul, you don't think that with the subsitution of all, the projector lost value and also his magician yellow-light effect?

[Paul Adsett]

The problem is Alessandro that you simply cannot get the original lamps anymore, so if you want to use it to project films, as opposed to simply displaying it, then you have no choice but to upgrade to a modern lamp. Also as I have stated the original dropping resistor matt, mounted in the base, is IMO a death trap. Get rid of it and install a 12 v transformer. The restoration can be done without affecting the external appearance of the projector at all. Yes the picture will be whiter and perhaps lacking the charm of an orange glow, but that will enable you to get a somewhat larger picture, bearing in mind that the Pathe Baby struggles to get good illumination on even a 24 ins wide screen!
I would not think that these changes would affect the value of the projector, rather the contrary might be true.

[Dominique De Bast]

Those lamps surface from time to time but often at an high price. Here are two examples : 40 euros ! https://www.toutvendre.fr/p/ampoule-...gine/369058162 and 49,50 euros ! https://www.antanbazar.fr/home/7055-...5-amperes.html

[Alessandro De Bartolo]

Little update, i have finish the substitution of the shutter, really hard work, but now it work well!
I found some difficult in the loading of the films, in particular the two teeth that must push down the films seems to re-enter too early , preventing the film to be loaded correctly. Do you have an idea on why it happens? Thank you

[Dominique De Bast]

Did you try with a film ? If not, the system will act like if there was a notch and work in "still" mode. If you tried with a film, keep in mind that it takes a few seconds for the "still" mode to switch to the normal one.