Do any forum members use a Bell and Howell for their 16mm films? Mark

I use to Mark, i had a B&H TQ3. It was a very nice machine and i was lucky not to have had to replace the worm gear which i understand to be a huge job. It was very reliable and ran very well. I've kept away from them as i think they are well over engineered compared to the Eiki's, if i bought one now it would have to have had a replacement worm gear. The one i had was an ex school machine so it had always been serviced.

Thanks for the reply Tom, I had one a few years ago, a real beauty in excellent condition but it was extremely noisy, I just thought they were all like that but I have just taken delivery of a 2592 model 1986 approx and it looked like it had been sat around for a while, first thing was check the worm gear which is perfect, gave it a good clean and lube, ran a film and the thing runs lovely and is pretty quiet, I was pleasantly surprised, it came with a few lenses ,spare exciter lamp and bulb, it's a real joy to use,I'm very happy with it and a huge thanks goes to Jimmy Waters , Mark

hi mark, bell and howell had sorted the worm gear problem by 86, so yours is a good one. they decreased the size
of the aluminium core and increased the thickness size of the nylon worm.not by much but it worked.
i have fourteen 1695 and four 1568 bell and howells. all mostly saved from destruction. have replaced maybe
five worms on those that really needed doing. maybe the one you had years ago was noisy because worm
was a goner, normally hell and bowells are really quiet. very best regards.

Thanks Clyde
Nice to know the worm gears did get modified and this new machine has many years of service left in it,so far I'm very impressed with it, Mark.

Mark, I have a 1695 (green) and 1698 (black). I haven't owned other brands but I've found both BHs to be quiet, kind to my films, easy to clean, bright and image-stable. My 1698 sadly now has a terminal worm, but I'm going to get it repaired because the housing and interior are like new.

That was another thing I was going to mention, kind to film? I've always been told that they scratch when loading so a long leader is needed, no problem doing this, you've cleared that issue up Martin, thanks.

Getting a worm gear done finished many a machine, I do know that non animated gears are only available these days, I don't think I've ever freeze framed a 16mm film so I'm guessing others don't either so not really an issue, Mark

I have a 2585 that I am running now. One of my keepers, it is a very well built machine that is the easiest to operate while delivering excellent rock-steady image and quality sound output. Other16mm projectors I use are B+H JAN, Kodak Pagaent, and Kalart Victor 75 series including arc lamp units. All fun.

Quote: Mark Mander wrote in post #7

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That was another thing I was going to mention, kind to film? I've always been told that they scratch when loading so a long leader is needed, no problem doing this, you've cleared that issue up Martin, thanks.

Getting a worm gear done finished many a machine, I do know that non animated gears are only available these days, I don't think I've ever freeze framed a 16mm film so I'm guessing others don't either so not really an issue, Mark

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