Overview
This is a general guide into issues and how to resolve and general tips on maintenance.
Cleaning the Lens
Use a lens cleaning cloth to clean the lens every time you use the units. The 16mm unit can easily be clean with a finger and the cloth. The 8mm unit does not have enough space to use a finger and cloth so I use a Q-tip with the cloth on the end of it. I also use a flashlight shining across the lens to see if it is clean.
Lube 8mm Shafts
At the front of the machine, pull the reels off. Pull the shaft out as far as it goes and put a couple of drips of sewing machine oil on the shaft behind the shaft flange. Move the shaft in and out and spin it to get the oil all over the shaft. Careful to get oil else where. Clean up extra oil.
8mm unit races and then goes back to normal
This may be resolved by cleaning the sensor.
- Take the back of the unit
- Locate the wheel with the white knob that is located sort-of in the centre of the unit and to the left of the motor. The white knob its attached to a black wheel that has a slot/key cut into it. Line the slot up to the sensor (so that the sensor is "open"). Then use compressed air to clean the sensor.
8mm Unit Take-up Reel Stops and Starts
Open the back of the unit. Lightly sand the edge black wheel (top left) at the end of the take-up reel shaft. Also, lightly sand the part of the white wheel that contacts the black wheel. Wash both parts with alcohol. Take a photo of the belt and replace the belt as per photo.
8mm Unit Starts Slow And Then Comes To Speed
Usually after a break of using the machine (1 hour or more) when the motor starts the machine starts up slow and then slowly gets up to speed. At first I thought it may be slipping belts. Problem is dry or sticking "transmisson". Check to make sure the transmission shaft has enough play by going to the back of the unit and pushing and pulling the white knob...you should see the cam on the front move in and out from the face of the unit. A few drops of sewing machine oil should be added on the shaft that is visible between the back of the cam "plate" and the front of the unit (about 1/8" space). Move shaft in and out and manually turn it and let it soak in. After soaking run the motor on and off a few times. I applied the oil a couple of times to make sure enough got on the shaft....can't get the nozzle close to the shaft so "accurate" dripping is the best one can do. CLEAN the oil reside from the front of the unit.
Clean the 16mm unit's Audio drum
Every time a job is started one should clean the audio drum using a paper towel and some rubbing alcohol. The drum is a silver round object about 1" in diameter located in the film path just above the "treble" knob. Put some rubbing alcohol on the paper towel and place the towel on the drum. Then rotate the drum by hand until the drum has been cleaned.
Setting the 16mm Unit Timing Wheel
When the scanning encounters flutters or blurrs it usually means that the timing wheel is not set correctly.
- should not move the wheel more than the thickness of the slot (in the timing wheel)
- alignment should be....
- select the "play" position on the knob so that the claw shows through the slot
- move the claw to the bottom of the slot by rotating the DC motor shaft up and toward oneself (standing at the back)
- the timing wheel slot should be coming down into the gap (I found the sweet spot to be the slot's leading edge just coming into the gap)
16mm Garbled Audio
Issue....after transferring the optical audio the audio sounds garbled. Like this example going from good to garbled:
[audio mp3="http://www.lifetimeheritagefilms.com/knowledgebase/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/good_to_garbled_audio.mp3"][/audio]
Solution
Make sure the bottom loop in the film path has a loop. The loop at the top of the film path is normally fine. However the loop at the bottom is sometimes tight around the roller and this causes the garbled sound. How to:
- Make a larger than normal loop at the top and close the switch half way from STOP to PLAY.
- Then pull a bit of the loop down from the top to the bottom.
- Then move the switch to PLAY
- Should now have a good loop at the top and bottom (better to generous than not).
Sometimes the top and bottom loop shrink when hitting a bad splice....watch for this as the audio may go garbled....this is what happened in the above example.
