Working on 8mm film projectors

Last Updated or created 2023-01-04

I’ve got some old 8mm film from my father. And i wanted to digitise them.
Luckily he had some projectors. One was his own and a borrowed one.
Don’t know about the third one.

Not being used for 30+ years, none of them worked.

So i took them apart and tried to fix them.

Most of them had a driving belt issue, and two of them needed a new bulb.

In the end I had three working projectors. Let the digitising begin!

I started off with putting a Nikon camera beside it and selecting 24 frames/second and putting the speed dial just right .. i got a decent recording.

Tips:

Most drive belts still can be bought, sometimes you have to search for an alternative with same dimensions.

Measure the resistance of the power connector. The old transformers could have a shorted connection. (cause: dried out insulation of copper wires)

Use a pressurized can of air to clean the insides.

Keep track of the parts when disassembling. Those things are not made to be easy fixed.

Below a uncut/unaltered recording, so the media needs some cropping!
I love the authentic shutter sound!

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