Eiki (Elf) help or advice, please

[Michael O’Regan]

Hi All. Looking for some help or advice. My Eiki RT-1 will not take up anything larger than a 400ft reel without becoming slack. I just tried a 2000ft reel and by 800ft or so it had started to go egg-shaped. I have put new belts on the arms and I have greased the cork liner with a medium tack silicone. Is there anything else that may need adjusting? All of the prints are fine. They all are warp/curl free and rewind easily and tightly on hand rewinds. So it’s not the prints. Thanks.

[Michael O’Regan]

To update on this, I am getting a lot of messages saying that the cork should not be lubed. Yet, the manual states that it should be. Confusing.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Michael,

Perhaps this thread may help:
Elf RT1

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

(Just in case that I need to rebuilt my Eiki's cork lining in the future.)

Wondering what's the recommended thickness for the cork lining? Is 1 mm thickness be good enough?

[Michael O’Regan]

Thank you, Doug. It was good to read that again -so long ago.
I think I’m going to try a new spindle assembly there.
The thing that I have found interesting in researching this over the past few days is the number of people insisting that the Eiki manual is wrong and the cork lining should remain dry and not lubricated at all.