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SILENT 9.5MM MACHINES
In my indomitable pursuit of the chitterlings of projectors (inside bits to you), to serve the insatiable appetites of you lot, I have been partially dismantling a Kid. Here are some pix for you.
I can't make up my mind whether to be impressed by the ingenuity that packs claw, shutter and notching mechanism into such a tiny space, or appalled at what a nasty little thing it is, wondering how Pathescope dared to inflict such a thing on an unsuspecting public at such an outrageous price (55/- (£2.75), for a few sheets of pressed tinplate).
The big issue, of course, is that gate; it don't open. Even Pathescope saw the problem and introduced the Imp - essentially, the same again but with a tilt-back lamphouse like the Baby/Home Movie. This feature must have been responsible for so many scratched films, and yet, and yet.....a vigorously wielded gate brush, with the notching device engaged so the claw is withdrawn, could have done so much. But Joe public don't do proper maintenance. The construction is an odd mix of labour-intensive, with lots of nuts and bolts, and flimsy - the notching mech involves very light springs and thin flexible strips. As ever, of course, it was taken far beyond any reasonable compass for a sprocketless machine by the addition of Super arms - think what havoc that pull on the film against the claw must have wrought.
Cinegel Silent
Did you ever have one of those days? There was I, innocently trying to run a bit of 9.5 I'd just checked, repaired and cleaned. I thought, "What a good opportunity to try out that little Cinegel". So I did; all well, quite a bright pic I thought from the 250v 300w A1/37, tho' the projection lens leaves a bit to be desired tho' of course nothing else will actually fit. Then a sudden clonk. Funny, I thought. Stopped (First Commandment) and checked. Projector turning over OK, concluded I had joggled the projector (I was tensioning the feed reel by hand). Tried again, OK for a moment or two then big clonk and projector stops.
Nothing for it now but to take it apart. Above are the projector, then a naked rear view with the lamp housing detached, then a close-up of the claw mechanism (which looks quite a bit like a Vox claw). What had happened was that part of the condenser lens, ie one of the two elements, and the spring separating them, had fallen out into the mech. They were supposed to be held in place by a circlip affair, ie a springy bit of wire in a ring bigger than the hole, squashed to fit and so grip. Clear? The circlip was still in place, it was just not doing its job. How or why I know not, but the missing bits were still able to fall out when I re-fitted them.
So, into my trusty gander bag to find something to replace it.
Remember one should never throw anything away (Second Commandment) ? Well, I
keep all sorts, and found an odd bit of spring wire that turned out to be just
right when bent to shape. That was the easy part. When I put the machine back
together, narrowly avoiding forgetting to re-fit the drive pulley and belt, came
to put the lamp back in and it wouldn't fit. I'd put the back element of the
condenser in the wrong way round and it was fouling the lamp. Open it all up
again, re-fit lens, then spot that I had broken off one of the lamp wires in all
my fiddling. Re-solder, struggle to re-align lamp. Other end of wire breaks off.
When I finally get it all back together ready to test, I found that, this time,
I had not managed to avoid missing off the main pulley and belt. By the time I
finally got it all working, I was a bit peeved. Not one of my better days.
The Bolex PIII is apparently quite a rare 9.5 machine. There have been rumours of a notched version, which would have been a great boon. Any sightings?. Bob Andrews loaned me a somewhat foxed copy of the instructions, which I have tarted up and reproduce below.
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