Bolex 18-3 DUO super hot!

[Benjamin Watts]

Hiya! i am a teenager who loves film! i do some black and white 35mm photography and up until today had never seen a film projected on celluloid. so, for christmas this year i asked for a super 8 projector... received it, motors fine, but no light. hmm. after some wiggling of the little switch inside of the projector i got it to work.... strange.. anyway, just projected close encounters and i can now say that i have watched a film on celluloid! happy days! however, after finishing the showing i touched the side of the projector. but suddenly recoiled as it was far too hot to touch... the fan was working and was blowing out hot air... was just wondering if it is normal for these projectors to get this hot?

many thanks, Benjamin

[Shane C. Collins]

A projector should never be too hot to touch, other than if you're directly touching an area near the bulb. Take the rear cover off and make sure the voltage is set to the correct setting. Most projectors have this feature, and I'm pretty sure this model does. You want to have the voltage either at 117 or 125 which ever this model has not sure. Also check that the belts are in good condition and properly working. Also clean any dust and other debris from the front and back. This is a simple design so not much to go wrong. I once had this model and enjoyed it.

[Benjamin Watts]

i was touching the are right next to where the bulb is.... the bulb is just behind the circled area.... (by the way, that image below isnt actually my projector its just a google search result... didnt have a picture of my one to hand.. same model though) should it still be this hot. i can hold my finger against it for about a second or 2 before it becomes too much....

[Shane C. Collins]

That area of any projector can get pretty warm to hot. It's really hard to say in your case! My Bolex 18-5 and 18-5L Super machines can get quite hot in that area of the lamp housing. Both these units are compact like your Bolex. Smaller compact units will get hotter because there is less room for air to move around. Engineers and designers back then would have taken that into account when these were on the drawing board. As I mentioned earlier, check to see what voltage is being applied from the transformer. I see you are in the UK so originally I gave the U.S. values so make sure this machine is not set to those values ie: 117 or a 120. Below is a photo (2) from Van Eck Video Services website. It shows the voltage values for your country, etc. To take the back off just remove the two screws on the cover. Make sure you don't have a 18-3 Duo sold for the U.S. market. If that was the case the machine would get quite hot at the wrong voltage and running at 60 cycles instead of the 50 cycles used in your country.
PS: Looking at the photos below you will see the European models only include the voltages for those area, no U.S, voltage values. Some machines sold will do both voltages, and cycles. My Eumig Mark S 709 is set-up this way. For More info on this machine click here.....https://van-eck.net/en/spare-part-fi...ype=18-3%20DUO

[Shane C. Collins]

Thought I would add some photos of the Bolex 18-5L Super 8 projector for comparison! As you can see it's quite compact. However, the neat thing about this model, and all 18-5's both Standard 8 and Super 8 use a different ventilation set-up. The unit draws air in from the gray plastic vent to the right of the motor. As the air circulates around the inside of the unit, it eventually finds its way to the bulb area. This design allows for cooler air to start with, versus air being drawn in from the interior only. Anyways, thought you might enjoy seeing a different design for cooling, and the smaller size comparison to the 18-3 Duo.

[Benjamin Watts]

I have just checked the voltage on the projector it is correctly setup for the uk specs... Thank you

[Joerg Polzfusz]

When the projector is getting too hot, I would check the ventilation. I would assume that it’s working too slow or not running at all. This is most likely due to dust and other objects* blocking it plus grease/oil that turned to stone over the last decades plus a transmission belt that is broken or deformed.

Another reason might be that the previous owners messed around with the projector and upgraded its lamp to e.g. 200W without upgrading the ventilation. (The original bulb should have been an EFP with 100W, 12V.)

Unfortunately, I don’t know your projector. I guess that you have to use a coin to turn the screw that I have marked yellow to remove the front cover. But please check your manual first (there should be a chapter on how to replace the bulb) - and ensure that the projector is disconnected from power and cold enough. The cover should have a „heat shield“ (simple metal plate) in the area that is close to the lamp. That’s unless this shield is part of the lamp housing. When it’s missing, it could also explain the heat.

In any case, the projector’s interior should differ from the images provided by Shane. That’s because his images are from a 18-5 that has been built by Bolex in Switzerland, while your 18-3 was in fact built by Eumig in Austria. (Somewhen in the 1970s, Bolex „merged“ with Eumig. After this, Bolex focused on only constructing its H16 and H8 cameras, while all „Bolex“-Super8-gear was produced by Eumig under Bolex‘ supervision. To ensure the highest synergy effect (aka cost savings), the „Bolex“ devices from that era shared a lot of parts with their Eumig counterparts. That’s why your Bolex is looking more like an Eumig 614D than like its predecessor Bolex 18-5: https://www.filmkorn.org/super8data/...eumig_614d.htm )

Good luck!
Jörg

*= so far, every used projector that I bought had pieces of splicing tape, short segments of film or the rubbish, that gets produced when cutting the film/leader to shape to ensure proper auto threading, somewhere in it.

[Dominique De Bast]

Benjamin, welcome to this forum, and to the real film world. If you live in London, I would suggest you to come to the 9 5 projection that willbe held on the 18th January (details in the 9.5 section). You could, in addition to enjoy a film projection, bring your projector, so that "experimented" people could check if everything is ok, or even just touch the projector that will be used and compare the température with yours.

[Benjamin Watts]

Hiya... Might check that out... Side note: I have currently got my audio separate on a computer and I start the audio at a certain point of the leader... That way they should stay synced... But the projector isn't actually keeping framerate causing the audio and video to slip out of sync... Do u know of a way that I could fix this.

[Brian Fretwell]

As others have aid there could be hard grease that would alter the speed as well as affecting the cooling. Also it looks like an AC motor and mains frequecy isn't exactly 50Hz so that could put the frame rate out slightly affecting sync over the length of a film.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Benjamin,

The majority of projectors will drift from their set frame rate. There are only a few high end (expensive!) projectors that will accept a sync pulse input and maintain a constant speed. Does your projector have a variable speed dial? You'd have to ride that to maintain any sync over a period of time.

[Benjamin Watts]

ok thanks!

[Dominique De Bast]

Benjamin, I advise you not lifting or moving your projector while the lamp is hot as the filament is then more fragile and can break more easily. I personnally always wait until it's completely cold.

For the 9.5 projection in London :

9.5mm Sound Film Show 18th January 2025 - 8mm Forum

[Shane C. Collins]

When the projector is getting too hot, I would check the ventilation. I would assume that it’s working too slow or not running at all. This is most likely due to dust and other objects* blocking it plus grease/oil that turned to stone over the last decades plus a transmission belt that is broken or deformed.

Another reason might be that the previous owners messed around with the projector and upgraded its lamp to e.g. 200W without upgrading the ventilation. (The original bulb should have been an EFP with 100W, 12V.)

Unfortunately, I don’t know your projector. I guess that you have to use a coin to turn the screw that I have marked yellow to remove the front cover. But please check your manual first (there should be a chapter on how to replace the bulb) - and ensure that the projector is disconnected from power and cold enough. The cover should have a „heat shield“ (simple metal plate) in the area that is close to the lamp. That’s unless this shield is part of the lamp housing. When it’s missing, it could also explain the heat.

In any case, the projector’s interior should differ from the images provided by Shane. That’s because his images are from a 18-5 that has been built by Bolex in Switzerland, while your 18-3 was in fact built by Eumig in Austria. (Somewhen in the 1970s, Bolex „merged“ with Eumig. After this, Bolex focused on only constructing its H16 and H8 cameras, while all „Bolex“-Super8-gear was produced by Eumig under Bolex‘ supervision. To ensure the highest synergy effect (aka cost savings), the „Bolex“ devices from that era shared a lot of parts with their Eumig counterparts. That’s why your Bolex is looking more like an Eumig 614D than like its predecessor Bolex 18-5: https://www.filmkorn.org/super8data/...eumig_614d.htm )

Good luck!
Jörg

*= so far, every used projector that I bought had pieces of splicing tape, short segments of film or the rubbish, that gets produced when cutting the film/leader to shape to ensure proper auto threading, somewhere in it.

Now that I read what you wrote, I hope I didn't confuse too many here, LOL. The second post I made is in fact the inside of a Bolex 18-3 Duo. The third post was just as a reference, showing how compact some of these Bolex projectors can be. The 18-3 and 18-5 share this same issue.. Hopefully he can figure out why this machine is getting so hot.

[Benjamin Watts]

going back to post No.7 i have already opened up the projector to check everything is ok. as when it first arrived the lamp wasn't working. we opened it up to fix it and test the lamp, we made sure that the correct lamp was installed: 12v 100w.