Well, here goes, the images are large size so clicking on them will give you a better detailed view,
i am going to experiment/play with what was a running Eiki Elf NT1 before parcel force got hold of it. It was purchased as a rough machine but a runner. To start with the back cover is not good and hand painted, not by me, broken and only contains one speaker on the forward part of the cover which is odd as i thought they all had twin speakers like my main machine so i will be on the hunt for a decent back cover with speakers, The first thing i noticed, (apart from broken bits of plastic in the box), was that the reverse selector lever, (image 2, the front slot where you feed the film), was in the reverse position and if i pushed it back to play position it simply wont stay, it just springs back into the position you see in the image.
So, tonight i will start with the absolute basics and the easiest part, getting the machine stripped to as far as i dare. Please remember here, i am not trying to show how it's done, nor am i showing it in order to gain a smart ass clever twat status, this is just me sharing with you all my attempt to bring it back to life while spending absolute minimum.
The lens holder is removed already as i required parts for my main machine, this is simply two screws to remove the assembly.
First i disconnected the transformer connectors and removed the three screws holding the unit in, this thing weighs half the weight of the entire machine, followed by the flywheel,
Next, i removed all the belts, you have to move the tensioner in order to get the main drive belt out, this was followed by disconnecting the main motor electrical connector, removing the three securing screws and taking the motor out. You may notice this motor has the new capacitor on that i bought previously when my main machine had a fit and blew it throwing much everywhere so i pinched the motor from this machine to get my main one going with minimal fuss. Hopefully this one will fire up when it's all back together.
Before going further i retracted the claw, if you forget to do this it is easy to strike the claw on the body when removing the cam tank assembly, which will of course result in damaging the claw itself.
Next was the very simple removal of the lamp housing out of the way by simply unscrewing the single knurled nut,
Now all this is out i can get a spotlight in there to see what the rest looks like, from what i can see it isn't too bad.
I have ordered a replacement lens holder assembly complete with the pressure pad and focus knob which has the later Red coloured polyurethane sleeve, originally this was a modification by Eike and this focus sleeve was Not available separate but supplied as a part of a new focus knob, the sleeve was moulded from factory to the shaft.
This is all for me for tonight so my questions to you chaps is this,
Take a look at the close ups of the front arm gears please, do you think this looks over lubricated? This is how it was when i got it. I am wading through the service manual to check.
Can anyone out there throw any tips my way with the next moves. It will all be quite random for me as i will try and check everything through as i go.
I will be doing little bits here and there and will add to this page as i go and if it gets interest i will continue until it is back together again.
Any support, (or shouting THAT'S WRONG), will be more than welcome.

I don't have an Eiki, Elf machine Tom, so I'm not much use here, but i'm impressed with what you have done so far. If you can eventually get it all back, and even make a slight improvement, I think that is a big achievement. It could lead to you being able to strip and rebuild a working projector.

I wish you good luck and thanks for sharing. In your place, I should clean the gears from old grease and re-lube them.

Thank you Robert, and also to you Mats, i will clean up and re-lube, i may also open up the cam tank to re lube this one, i did this on my main machine so will try and do step by step on this important part of the machine.
in order to give the machine as deep a clean as possible i will remove the amplifier tomorrow which on these is dead simple, even for me
What i would give to have Kevin Brown on here giving some great tips.

Session two,
and it looks as though this is going to turn into a major cleaning operation more than anything, The first thing i needed to sort out was the rewind lever not staying in place but this turned out to be nothing more than a very simple case of loosening the two screws which hold the lever in place & moving it backward slightly while it was in the reverse position, it certainly took a knock in the post service, image 1, All the rest of that mess in image 2 will be cleaned after i sort the inside of the machine. I removed the upper and lower gears which are used for the rewind mechanism, these were virtually glued in as you could see in the last images yesterday, all the grease had turned into what looks like PVA glue both on the gears and the shafts. To clean all this up i used a cleaner RS 180-847. Am Italian collector who repairs his own Beaulie and GS 1200 recommended this stuff and i have to say it is brilliant BUT, must be used in a ventilated area, it does have the X on the tin and it does stink so went to the open window, I poured a small amount into an old cup, got the nitrile gloves on, a tooth brush and bathed the gears, this cleaner can be viewed here, it takes literally a few seconds to soften the old much to get it off.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/precision...031383038343726

Also using cotton buds i had no alternative but to clean off the other visible gears in the machine, (front end at present), and wipe off and allow to dry before playing again tomorrow. All in all the machine appears quite clean and with a few items being sought hopefully will run fine again at the end of all this,
Not as many people looking in here as i thought might but lets see how it goes.
The only reason for me not removing the mechanism all together is after reading the service book it is clear that this will cause more problems than it solves. This is where the experts come in, and i do not have the ability to make the fine measurements of adjustment shown here on this one example page. If this machine was too severely damaged or covered in mould and rust then i would take everything apart but the intention here to attempt to experiment with a hope it may run once again.

Tom,keep up the good work.I am enjoying the pics and commentary.(I assume the toilet roll was for cleaning the machine and not when that small screw fell on floor)
I must say you are braver than me having taken mine apart to clean to go as far as you are going is quite something.
Good luck I watch with interest 👍📽📽

Yep that blue roll is what i get from work for £1.50, it great stuff, very absorbent and a roll lasts for ages.
Thank you for your support and kind words Gwyn, i really would like to take much more apart and i will do as each day goes by but those fine adjustments shown on the service book page, (0.2mm) are simply too fine and are for the likes of Bill Parsons and Kevin Browns expertise and experience. |I think when you take certain things apart they simply either dont perform properly or cause other problems. We shall see at the end how this one goes. I will be taking a look inside the cam tank later so that will be interesting

I'm enjoying this as well Tom. Sometimes you wonder if Parcelforce treat our parcels like footballs; they can break the unbreakable. I've had new items where the box was punctured, probably by having another box thrown against it. I found this statement on their website. Would love to know the name of the person who made this statement:- UK parcel delivery services
Our dedicated team delivers every parcel with care. We’re all about reliable parcel delivery with a personal touch offering a huge range of services and access points. You only pay for the speed you need – you can take our quality for granted.

your not wrong Robert, once i was at my post office waiting to send a small packet, i looked to the end of the counter and watched in disbelief as the van driver was scanning large parcels to go, as he scanned them he just let each one drop from chest height to the floor and they hit with a bang. He looked at me as if to say what are you starring at, suffice to say i went to the front of the counter and demanded the post master to come out.
This very machine you are looking at was sent to me but somehow ended up in another city up the line, it clearly got abused there and then got sent here eventually, clearly taking a hell of a lot more abuse. when i got it the damage was clear to see, i guess it was only luck that more damage wasn't done.
if i am able to get it all running again i will have to ensure that any films i have dont get damaged so shall make up several loops of film to test it.

Hurry up Tom,I can send you mine to do then!! Ha Ha,Mark

Handy if you have some old leader Tom.

Tom you are clearly doing a magnificent and professional job here regarding your methodology and materials used to aid the clean up.

One half of all maintenance in industry comes under the banner named C.I.L's
This is an abbreviation of Cleaning, Inspections,Lubrications.

95% of the invested time keeping just about any machinery I have ever come across even including routine servicing is all to do with these three basic elements.

You often find E&I staff in industry that if no PLC work or Breakdown work is required at that time,then they will spend the entire spare time almost, simply just vacuuming out Electrical Cabinets to leave them dust free and just giving every component a visual inspection.
Many cabinets are forced cooled or temperature controlled.
Some may even require dehumidifier equipment installed to them just to keep the expensive drives and inverters are constant temperature.
In these cases many cabinets are air tight and remain flawlessly clean at all times.

Part failures and breakdown repairs make up only a miniscule of the time it takes to keep most rotating machinery and other industrial machinery working well.

The majority of the time it is all about just getting stuck in and putting in the necessary graft to give everything a damn good cleaning and fresh lubrication after a thorough in depth and detailed inspection, once all is spotless again.

The inspection side of things can however often require precise measuring equipment to assess accurately and professionally so don't be afraid to get your Vernier gauge, feeler gauges or micrometers out etc while you are in there just to satisfy your own mind everything is fitting as it should and likely to run sweetly upon start up.

You are doing a fantastic job Tom and don't let any man tell you differently.

I once had an Elf ST/m sent through the post I'd bought off eBay and it came in a black bin bag,absolutely nothing else,no packing what so ever,made it in one piece,amazing!! Mark

I wish I knew the name of that courier handler Mark.

I´m happy that DB Schenker is operating in Sweden. I have never had any issues with damaged goods. I have sent and recieved a lot of projectors without one single problem. It sounds that Parcel Force and the Swedish/Danish Postnord are handling parcels in a similar way.

I saw a mint looking B&H TQ1 on Ebay a few years ago. It is like new, but needs a service as it still has the old worm gear, and the auto threading doesn't always engage. When it arrived it was in a single cardboard box, with no bubble wrap or anything else. The deliverer told me to hold the box underneath as it was in danger of coming apart. That really was a miracle that it reached me undamaged. Some people try to save money on postage, but don't they realise that a damaged product would have to be returned, and after they can't re-sell it.

Yes Andrew I was shocked by seeing it delivered that way,I've had three Elmo's sent that have been really well packed but unfortunately it's always the handles that take the bump and cracks the casings, one unrepairable,was more an Elmo jigsaw when it arrived!! Mark

Blimy Mark, that WAS lucky.
Thanks Andrew, unlike my Elmo super 8s i dont have any spares for the Elf, i do have a complete lens holder on the way to make this machine 99% complete, i will put a call out later to see if i can get another back cover with hinges and another decent front cover with the two speakers. i dont wish to spend too much on this projector as i will later be taking my main one to Mr Brown for a full on check and service. One of the things i do on the elmos is quite a scilly & simple thing, an old timer electrician told me, (years ago), that i should simply use a very soft brush, or blow brush and gently skim over the tops of those resistors and capacitors that you see standing up on the boards, he was referring to my HDs when i first bought them. He said dust is a killer in electronics as it holds heat and can, im extreme cases, cause parts to over heat and blow. i have always done this with all of our projectors and have to say have had very little in the way of electrical faults. of course it may be an old hags tail but i like to listen to all professionals.

Parcel Force and UPS here in the UK are two of the more expensive options to ship goods with.
They do tend to have without doubt here, some of the better reputation regarding these kinds of services here.
I suppose as with most things in this world, it again is very much a case of you get what you are prepared to pay for.

My Hermes, Yodel etc all get a terrible slating here by all accounts, but again they are two of the budget options claiming to offer the same service.

I've used an expensive DHL option once to ship 30kg to Germany and while it arrived there in a reasonable state, it wasn't completely without damage despite my very best efforts to safely package and protect a machine in an inner transit case fully lined with polystyrene swirly packaging pieces ( whatever they happen to be correctly termed). 😁😁

Once I recieved 5 or 6 projectors sent without boxes or bubble wrap. None of them were damaged. Some people in the courier business knows how to handle goods, others just don´t care.

It is most certainly not an old hags tail in electronic component terms. He was spot on and in electronics circuitry, hygiene is almost everything Tom.
Temperature control is another biggie btw.

Mark; that's the reason I wouldn't want to trust a projector in the post again. I did label mine very well, with Fragile and This Way Up. Kevin Brown recommends UPS.

As Mark said earlier, and common sense states, the sender must pack it properly. I never liked sending my HDs through the system but believe me when i pack a machine i swear you could drop it down a flight of stairs and it will be fine. It has multiple layers of tightly wrapped bubble wrap, at least four layers, then i stick air bags around it, it goes in a box, then into another box. the bubble wrap and air bags are all around it 100% coverage.
I think Bill took a day just finding it and getting it out. And i always put in the box a new roll of heavy duty brown parcel tape for the re wrapping.
Well, i shall return tomorrow to see what i do next, thank you to all who have encouraged me to continue.

After reading Marks thread earlier, if some of the Elmo machines are to be transported in the future via our UK courier services in their various guises,
It may be an idea to perhaps remove the handle before transporting just to protect it a little if it is this part in particular that typically gets bashed around and is vulnerable more than any other.

When I think of my own ST 1200 sat inside its attractive protective case, it is without doubt the protruding handle which is the only part then exposed externally of the protective case.

It is only 4 or 5 screws to remove the rear cover and then a further two inside to remove the handle altogether while transporting, from recollection.

I never send them in there black cases Andy. I remove and keep the lens. Then i wrap the whole thing like no one would believe.
Then it is placed in a new hard box with extra air bags top botton and sides then placed in another box again. Bill did suggest a long time ago not to send them in there black cases.
The bubble wrap i use makes the machine twice its normal size before boxing it and bubble wrapping and air bagging it. Thats the way to do it.