Ilford Elmo FP-C projector

[Gary Bolingbroke]

Martin,

Thank you for your interest, which promoted me to look into this further. I've just seen footage on YouTube of the restored Mallard running on the York to Scarborough mainline in July 1986. This appears to be pulling an identical train to that in my father's 8mm footage. That, along with the fact that this footage is preceded by film shot at Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors preservation line, suggests that my father travelled to Yorkshire to see the Mallard, and also went to the NYM railway while there. I suspect this would have been the last time my father used his Kodak 8mm cine camera.

[Gary Bolingbroke]

Janice, it just occurred to me that I didn't fully answer your question on straightening the standard 8 aperture.
As this appears to be made of a light sprung steel, it needs bending just over straight, so that when it relaxes back, it is straight. You can't do this in situ, all you could do is press it against the body of the projector, and when letting go it would be likely to spring back leaving a gap, it needs bending further than you can do with it in place. I deliberately bent mine so it was slightly beyond straight when relaxed, so it has a little tension holding it against the projector body when screwed back in place. Does this make sense?

[Gary Bolingbroke]

Regarding the Word doc I compiled from Onnie's posts and photo link, I've had to save it as two separate pdf's to get the file size small enough to attach, the first being a copy of the beginning of the post with missing pictures inserted, the other for completion, is the 2nd and 3rd parts of his post. I hope I did this justice for you Onnie. I couldn't match the icon names from your post to your photo filenames, but think I selected pictures close enough to those you tried to attach. This was a big help to me, and will hopefully be of help to anyone else coming on here in the future.

[Gary Bolingbroke]

s8 aperture maintenance.pdf

[Gary Bolingbroke]

s8 aperture maintenance continued.pdf

[Janice Glesser]

Total sense Gary! That's pretty much what I was anticipating. It's a common problem I've notice a few of my projectors that have that type of aperture mask. I guess it's a matter of how severe the vignetting can be tolerated. Disassembly can sometimes do more harm than good.

Thanks so much for the effort you have put in on the issue. You have been very diligent and thorough with what you have done. This makes for a great tutorial!

[Jon Byler]

Hi everyone,

I have had one of these projectors for many many years, and am just getting around to servicing it. I needed the belts, and didn't have time to order them from someone online. I measured twice, and still ended up possibly ever so slightly too big!

For anyone looking, I used a 4mm o-ring 160mm inner diameter for the longer belt that runs the spindles. This is possibly a touch too long, and I might do better with one slightly smaller. The next size down is 155mm inner diameter, which might be too short, and put too much tension on things. I will try the 160mm one that I have installed this evening and hopefully it all goes well! I did not find a standard/imperial measurement o-ring that would likely fit the upper pulleys.

As to the motor belt, my original urethane V belt was not in terrible condition, still pliable, and still no major kinks when removed from the pulleys. I ended up having enough adjustment in the upper pulley, that I was able to continue using it. I also ordered two packages of o-rings, one 3.5mm wide x 58mm inner diameter. the other 3.5mm x 60mm ID. the 58mm one would be workable, but the 60mm one is very much too big. I think 57mm or maybe even 56mm would be better if someone is looking to source this themself from a local hardware store or industrial supply house. The closest o-ring using imperial/standard measurements is a Dash 228 or possibly a dash 227. this is 1/8' nominal (actual 0.139") diameter o-ring with 2-1/4" nominal (actual 2.234") inner diameter, or 2-1/8" (2.109" actual) ID for the Dash 227.

I hope someone else finds this information helpful, and if the long spindle belt works for me, I'd be happy to sell the extras I have at cost (they were cheap!) plus postage.

[Jon Byler]

The belts did their job. I could imagine that slightly smaller (57mm inner diameter for the motor belt), and maybe 155mm inner diameter for the take-up arm belt would be better.

My machine has a problem that I have not yet solved, where the front reel sometimes slips during projection, and it allows the reel to spin too fast, which removes tension from the film, and allows it to dump some on the table. This is easy to fix by applying very slight pressure to the reel when playing back, or by wrapping a thick hair tie around the spindle inboard of the reel, which creates a bit of friction and keeps the reel from dumping film. I can't quite figure out what adjustment is off that causes this, or if perhaps something is worn too much, preventing the proper amount of friction during projection. It rewinds nicely and otherwise projects well.

[Gary Bolingbroke]

I have a similar problem with the front reel spinning too fast, but in my case, a lot of the home movies I inherited are on small Kodak reels that tended to snatch, spin too fast then dump film. I just hold my finger on the edge of the reel to provide sufficient friction to keep it in tension and stop the over run. Wasn't great when we had a family gathering and showed the movies. My arm ached after an hour or so of holding my finger on the edge of the reels, but it worked, and will probably be some time before I use it again. It would be nice to know if this is actually a maintenance issue that I could resolve.

[Shane C. Collins]

I have a similar problem with the front reel spinning too fast, but in my case, a lot of the home movies I inherited are on small Kodak reels that tended to snatch, spin too fast then dump film. I just hold my finger on the edge of the reel to provide sufficient friction to keep it in tension and stop the over run. Wasn't great when we had a family gathering and showed the movies. My arm ached after an hour or so of holding my finger on the edge of the reels, but it worked, and will probably be some time before I use it again. It would be nice to know if this is actually a maintenance issue that I could resolve.

Those small 50' foot reels never did work all that great on a projector. The problem is they don't roll all that smoothly. All my current home movies that have come back from the lab have been dumped onto 7" reels. This not only makes for easier transport of the film, but it allows you to watch more movies without changing the reels so often. Storage is also easier with 7" reels versus trying to store those tiny 50' ones.

If that was me I'd opt for a set of rewinds, a splicer, and either Kodak film cement or Super Glue. Splice all your 50' foot reels together and your home movie experience will be so much better! If you ever decide to go this route there's enough of us here on the forum to help you out..

[Gary Bolingbroke]

Makes sense Shane. I did get a splicer to repair spliced reels, where the adhesive on the old splices had dried and separated. I'll bear that in mind.