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I have owned my Elf RM2 around since 1997(ish). I picked it up at a BFCC fair at Ealing Town Hall. It was old ‘new’ stock so in mint condition in its cardboard box with 2000ft spool, cleaning cloth, cleaning brush and paperwork. At the fair I remember there was also an attractive woman of my same but much younger age also expressing an interest in the machine, who was chatting me up. That was nice but I had to make the move and buy it, and my girlfriend at the time would have rather I brought home another projector rather than another woman I’m guessing!
The projector has served me well and is kept nice and clean and lubricated. The newer belts have lasted far longer than the red ‘candy like’ ones that were originally installed. However over the years I have looked at the mysterious camtank and other components and wondered about the old lubrication in/ on them. I recently decided that the time had come to sort this out, with the help of this forum, its ‘daddy’ forum and gaining a service manual. Generally speaking everything went well but I did have a problem right at the start. I found that one of the 2 screws holding the transformer was stuck solid to the chassis. I could not move it (and still can’t) and to gain access for most things it needs to be removed at the start. I found that if I removed the amplifier module that this would then give clearance to allow the transformer to be tilted on the one screw and give space to then remove, very carefully, the camtank. This was taken apart with not much difficulty, but I did make notes, checked the position of the blades to the claw and took pictures of each stage. I also made marks with a pen to show where the shutter blade was positioned. After cleaning the whole thing I re- lubricated as per the lubrication charts and soaked the felt wick in white spirit for a few hours. It was then put together, but not before cleaning the area it had been mounted in. I also was able to clean the gate thoroughly and re-grease all cogs. The rear take up axle spindle had been squeaking recently, so the cork lining was cleaned and re-greased and the ball bearings soaked in white spirit and re-lubricated. Moving on, the fan blades were dusted, and as I usually use the unit with an external amp I decided to add an audio out directly linked to the signal coming from the optical sound head. I created a 3.5mm female phono out socket in the case for connection to external equipment. Internally this connected to the 3.5mm male socket already existing within the machine, which would normally plug in to the amplifier module, and which is now out of use. The sound is detailed, smooth and delightful to hear, one of the benefits of 16mm. After putting it all back together it runs smoother and quieter than before though I did find that the lower loop would be lost in reverse. After scratching my head at the ‘rubber reverse’ wheel inside I realised the problem was the 2# sprocket had to be finely tuned ( by moving the teeth a mm each time) to gain the correct timing when in reverse. Final jobs were to put some new rubber tubing on the focus mechanism and make a new strap from an old glove to retain the power cord when packed away.
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