8mm rewinder why it was not commercially available?

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Everytime I am rewinding reels on the projector I felt like I am torturing the machine. Very often the projector is slowing down during rewinding so I need to give some push to the reels to make it continue turning.

So in this regard why there was no commercially availabe an 8mm rewinder? I knew some people DIY it using external motors or sort of it but I am thinking something with mass production. I believe it would be sold out quickly since we could save our expensive projectors. Why?

[Dominique De Bast]

Most of people were probably happy with using the rewind function of the projector or their hand rewinders and didn't feel the necessity of an motorized set. I very seldom use my LPU to rewind and prefer hand rewinding.

[Joseph Banfield]

Any movie editor can do fast rewinds and is what I use. You also get the ability to tightly rewind them too, if desired.

[Maurice Leakey]

My Robert Rigby Premier 16mm rewinder can also take standard 8 spools. And, with one of the little plastic adapters I can also rewind Super 8 spools.
I never rewind on a projector.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Any movie editor can do fast rewinds and is what I use. You also get the ability to tightly rewind them too, if desired.

Yes, but rewinding them on movie editor will give a same sentiment too like torturing our lovely machine

If VHS or Betamax worlds did make external rewinder why the 8mm world did not. That is my curiosity.

[Dominique De Bast]

Winbert, there were (and still are) external rewinders, but not motorized.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Winbert, there were (and still are) external rewinders, but not motorized.

Surely I knew hand crank rewinder but that is not an option for me especially for reel more than 800'. I do not have enough patience to do that

I would open a new thread to find out the difference betwen these two.

[Tom Photiou]

I always bench rewind using manual hand winders, i use the Elmo rewinders, over the years they must have saved a lot of mechanical wear on our projectors. As you said, very often projectors wind the film very loose as the adjustments wear and often slow down, in some cases to standstill.

One thing i learnt regarding the Elmo 1200HD is to NOT use your hand to stop the rear spool spinning once the film is rewound, let it stop on as its own pace, sorry i cannot remember the exact reason but i was told that by stopping the rear spool spinning suddenly once you switch off when the film is rewound, this will eventually cause damage to the rear clutch which, on the these models, causes the problem of loose rewinding or damage to that clutch gear.

[Stuart Budd]

Ah. So not so much motorised for speed but convienience. Auto rewind while you watch the next reel so to speak. A reel to reel afair. Clutched one side and motor the takeup (original spool) side with a spring loaded micro switch follower wheel that releases and switches off once film rewound.