Repair & Service Concerns

[Simon McConway]

I'd be interested in thoughts on the recent trend of fairly serious repairs being attempted by people, where no warning is ever offered here about how complex these jobs are and almost certainly not for newcomers to the interest. I was fortunate enough, around twenty years ago, to get to know an ex-B & H service engineer...even he thought twice about doing some repairs and he'd repaired probably thousands of projectors. I know from experience that we can easily think "it can't be that difficult a job" then find I cannot get the projector back together or cannot get it to run as it should. We then see messages on here asking "where does the spring go that's just flown out?" I realise there is a lack of good repairers, but do feel we owe it to people to say that no repair is ever as easy as it seems...and in most cases even the service manual won't guide you step-by-step, like some users think they will. If you'd never done it before, would you replace a clutch on a car? I certainly wouldn't, yet the equivalent happens here, with users hoping step by step written guidance will suffice. "Just turn screw 214b a little to the left, ensuring screw 4345.g is turned to the right".

Simple repairs, yes, we absolutely can advise successfully. But some of the major repair requests we get here really do require a small warning!

[Ken Finch]

Unfortunately, thanks to the throwaway society we now live in, there are very few people left who have the knowledge or skills to do the repairs, especially for complex equipment like cine film projectors and any replacement parts now have to be made. You may be lucky and find someone in a model engineering club can make the part for you but you still have the problem of being able to remove the part for it to be copied. In my own personal experience, the simpler manual threading projectors are easier to repair and have fewer parts to go wrong. But I am of the generation that does have the knowledge and mechanical skills to some extent.

[Rob Young]

Simon, I think your comparison with changing a car clutch is a good one. I don’t know if you ever watch the TV show “Wheeler Dealers” where incredibly experienced mechanics try to show us all how it is possible to do a lot of car repairs at home. Great entertainment and certainly supports the notion that “everything is fixable”. But there is no way in a million years I’d attempt a lot of what they do.

Same with projectors that can be incredibly intimidating and complex machines and require absolute, often minuscule and precise adjustments, often using specific, dedicated tools that are just not commonly available.

Adjust a claw mechanism? For me personally not ever…just feels like heart surgery.

Sometimes there seems like no option but to have a go yourself. I remember fixing the rear take up mechanism on my Beaulieu which turned into a weeks long dilemma and a ton of advice from various people. Not something I’d want to repeat.

Yes, there can be an enormous amount of satisfaction when fixing a projector properly, but “proceed with caution” as they say.

I certainly admire many of our own forum members who are not as intimated by repairs as I am myself.

I do fear that one of these days there will be “game over” problem with one of my machines for sure, with the increasing loss of experienced repairers and parts. I do appreciate my projectors more and more these days as both they, and I, get older!!

[Michael Piquemal]

For those out there who want to to have a go, I recently acquired the complete Australian Eumig parts catalogue, and have most parts for most models of Eumig projectors, including Gate assemblies, sprockets, sound heads, claw assemblies, internal gears and drive parts etc, So contact me if your interested in any parts for Eumig's and hopefully I can help you out.

[Brian Fretwell]

Wheeler Dealers have a large workshop and seem to be able to buy or hire the newest specialist tools for their work. We can't match that. I believe one episode of "The Repair Shop" did tackle a 35mm projector, but I missed that one. the episode with a silent 8mm one ws very sparce on details of what they did and mainly seemed to be cleaning and lubricationg it.

[Simon McConway]

Rob & Brian, yes, I love Wheeler Dealers. But they often remove a nut in seconds that has not been undone for 30 years. In reality, that itself could be a job taking an entire day!
I have replaced several worm gears myself, but only because of my B & H service engineer guiding me...and not once was the service manual of any help. Videos on youtube exist, but like on Wheeler Dealers, they make complex and frustrating jobs seem easy and that's the fool's gold really. It's when you read "I'm new to the hobby, does anyone know how I remove the shutter" that I worry, as that really is not a simple job at all. Some may remember Sound & Screen Service in Kent who repaired 16mm projectors for decades. Hugh Bell who owned the company once said overlubricating was the bane of his life...users adding oil/grease excessively only made them feel better, not the projector!

Michael- looks like you have some rare items there! Very useful.

[Rob Young]

Yes, I remember being terrified by people much wiser than me about how difficult worm gear replacement was. Nothing but respect Simon.

Like the Beaulieu arms; “remove the circlips” the manual reads. Easy. Step 3 or so in 50 odd steps. Except they’re the smallest, most difficult circlips to handle. Took me several days to deal with that alone!!

[Steve Klare]

These days projector repair is kind of a minefield. New (-or even: good) spares are difficult to find and the very documentation that helps people to find out what's wrong in the first place is often even harder to come by. Then again, personally, there is the even bigger issue of time, from having a family. a full-time job, a house, three cars and my own hobbies.

(I put a new blower in the furnace last weekend: no hobbies were done that day! -and what a way to spend a Saturday morning, in the basement with the dust and dampness!)

A couple of times I've had people tell me I should open a side-job repairing projectors, and given all the potential "gotchas" in taking on one of these for somebody else it seems to me to be an excellent way to really irritate other people and ruin the hobby for my own self!

An inbox full of "You've had my machine SIX months now..." is enough to send me back to model trains for sure!

I'll only take on other people's repairs:

• for friends
• when I'm reasonably confident I can pull it off
• with the understanding that I'll try, but make no promises (I DO try not to make things worse.)
• at no cost to them beyond any parts I have to buy: it's strictly a favor to a friend.

Frankly, as long as I have enough functional machines, my OWN machines can easily take six months to be repaired when they become "disabled".
-I don't trust myself with everybody else's!

[Ken Finch]

I have replaced a worm wheel once on a Bell and Howell 16mm machine. Never again. It’s a nightmare without the special jig to prevent the meshing gears from moving when removing and replacing the worm. On the other hand, repairs on a Debrie D 16 are a doddle by comparison. The projector on the “Repair Shop” programme was a silent auto threading Elmo. Super 8 from the look of the film as far as I could see. Nothing appeared to be broken, just running slow through want of a good clean and lubrication, plus drive belt replacement.