No I didn't, but I do now thanks Stuart.

Whereabouts do they repair these units?
Handy to know if in future it ever develops any serious faults.

I've got a couple of 16mm reels where the film sags, and the only way I can get them back on the original reel is by using rewinders with adjustable tension. Hats off to Edwin for continuing to supply the needs of film collectors.

Even the Spondon has a tendency to allow a slight amount of sagging upon rewind of very large reels of film.

The problem is on most of these things, there is no way to tension the free wheeling hub, just as there isn't on the Spondon.
My way around this issue when using this unit on very large reels of film, is to apply light finger pressure throughout onto the rim of the freewheeling spool.

The Beaulieu does however do well at keeping even the very large reels of film, gap and sag free with no external assistance necessary.
It does so by having some constant pressure applied to each spindle hub internally by virtue of a mechanical compression spring and a tab containing a felt washer.
The spring pressure forces the felt washer shaped pad onto the rear of the spindle hubs internally and gives just enough pressure to allow the spindles to move freely by the motor yet have some resistance to allow the freewheeling spool never to run faster than the rewinding or take up spool and gives some constant tension in the film throughout rewind and film input duties.
It is a very finely balanced and critical aspect of its mechanisms but when it is set up correctly and all parts are good, it does work really smoothly and very well indeed.

My GOKO rewinds faster too, but I use those ELMO rewinds and my Spondon unit when cleaning films.

The Bell & Howell rewinders have 2 speeds, one fast, with a 4 to 1 ratio, and slow, with a 1 to 1 ratio, which is very handy when you want to examine films .

Probably me being stupid, but what is Spondon? A motor or something?

Robert, i like those rewind arms, i use the premier ones at present but would like the adjustable geared ones at the right price.

Wenn Sie hier auf Links zu eBay klicken und einen Kauf tätigen, kann dies dazu führen, dass diese Website eine Provision erhält.

I was lucky to get those, there was no interest when they were on Ebay. I think you need two geared ends. Someone else made them with two speeds but I don't remember the name.

Vidar, the Spondon is the super 8mm long play unit, Spondon produced these little (or not so little) beauties.

Spondon was a company who made various parts. The one referred to here would be the long lay unit. It came with two aluminium section uprights with a small electric motor on the take up arm and a free turning on the supply arm. You could use large reels with it, the standard version 2400ft on 8mm. Mine has the extention parts which allow up to 6000ft 16mm reels. An adapter is used on mine from 16mm to super 8.

You mounted the arms on a plank and put the projector between. I have an ECCO cleaner which also can sit between the arms. The take up arm had variable torque.

Somewhere I should have scanned the ad from them.

Another reel extender was from America this one stood behind the projector and the reels were mounted coaxially. This was 8mm only RA Cine I think was the name . They were based in Racine.

Wouldn’t it be great if Edwin could make a long-play unit if these rewinds prove successful!

There is no question he could John if he so wished, just as many others probably could do likewise if there were either the desire or the demand to do so.

When I asked around a while back to see if there were any demand, I was hardly inundated with eager participants willing to back the project John.

It's often the way, some people express an initial interest and say they would be most interested in pursuing one, but then instantly get cold feet when the subject of cost becomes an essential aspect of any prospective project plan.

Fumeo "Classic" very much a prime example.

I will post the photos I spoke of here in a bit Greg, regarding the spindles and spindle hub adapters for Super 8mm spools on the LPU.
Sorry it slipped my mind later yesterday.



Top RHS picture shows how the spindle is made originally with a square drive for 16mm films with no adapters fitted.

Andrew, are the parts available "off the shelf" if one wished to build an LPU?

Pretty much so Stuart, although some internal coupling parts may be easier to 3D print now than to find "off the shelf" as it were. There is typically an alternative part even if the exact replica type cannot be easily found.

The white nylon housings seen above is the only part that would require machining besides the spindles themselves if they were not 3D printed.

The Super 8mm adapters themselves can be purchased as I did with these, from Edwin or a similar kind from Wittners still.

So is it literally just a torquey 12v motor with a slipping clutch?

If you look at that last image you can just see the tensioning knob on the rear. Near the power unit.

Mine have an extension part that fits in to the bottom of the arm to enable 6000ft reels to be used.

12v quality durable motor and highly geared down through the integral gearbox so no clutch required or even necessary Stuart, just variable voltage to the motor to achieve the required take up torque and rpm for any given film amount or take up spool size.

A very simplistic yet effective design that is totally silent in use under load and gives a lifetime of trouble free usage if treated correctly.

#42

A better view of the rear controlling pot and switches etc can be seen on the rewind photo in the recent Lion King thread btw.

The rewind function uses a separate switch as a simple on/ off switch that bypasses the potentiometer to allow full voltage to the motor/ gearbox to give full power when rewinding while ever the other switch is in "rewind" mode.

Another switch is there to switch between rewind and general play mode.
When in "play" mode, the potentiometer comes into effect so you can vary the speed and resulting torque to allow the user to set just the desired amount dependent on take up spool size and other factors like the amount of film already on the take on the spool.

When used with 1200ft Super 8mm spools, I've found after finding a decent starting torque for the beginning of the film to be taken up sufficiently, no further adjustments are necessary throughout the duration of the film.

When using very large 2200ft or 2400ft spools, it may prove necessary after the mid point onwards to then apply a further adjustment to the potentiometer to see the remainder of the film taken up correctly and not risking the motor stalling.

No more than one further adjustment after the initial set up adjustment has ever proved necessary for Super 8mm usage on my own version of these.

Both of the small 2 pole toggle switches can be seen on this photo also.
The small circuit board that the switches and potentiometer is mounted to is fitted inside the motor /gearbox hollow box section that forms the take up leg of the assembly.

Seems it would be pretty straightforward to build, if as you say you can fabricate the nylon parts required, and source a suitable motor.

Here is the exact same motor Stuart.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/dc-geared-motors/0440082/