Anyone had much experience of Plio-Magic spools?; I received a feature a couple of weeks ago and both spools were made by this company; I had quite a problem rewinding after lubricating as they were so tight and squeeked. Any slight pressure to bend them slightly outwards resulting in them cracking,. Fortunately I managed to find two identical grey spools by another manufacturer to transfer the film onto. My favourite are Cecolite, as they seem slightly wider than Tuscan, and others.

Not sure if I have one of those. I love the Cecolite too, but I haven't had problems with Tuscan either. Metal spools are making more noise and they are heavier, but more forgiving to bending. I have cracked my spool a couple of times, but been successful with repairing them with super glue.

I also really like the Cecolite orange reels. Are those a British-made product? As the only films I have on Cecolite happen to have come from Englad/Europe. Some of the Tuscan reels I have pinched on take up and had to be spread a bit wider. I will say there are some awful poorly-made steel reels I have run into. I will see if I can find one of them and post a pic, but I may have junked them all already!

Cecol were a British company and originally sold steel spools that were much favoured by the UK services. If you find one with WD stamped on it that's one.

In later years they turned to plastic and now named them Cecolite. Their first were in a light green colour and were very poor in construction. No doubt the manufactures were aware of the problems and they then changed to a much better design and changed the colour to orange.

I think I prefer the orange Cecolite to Tuscan. Incidentally, the Tuscan spools started life being made by an Australian company. I can't remember their full name but I was buying their 2200ft spools in the 60s when they had their original name on them.

I don't mind metal spools if they are in great shape; sometimes I have changed features over, so that the spool is more in keeping with the age of the film; but sometimes they are badly out of shape, and can rub, and mark the front arm. I think the Tuscan blue spools I have were all made in London. I think I'm correct in saying that Tuscan are still in business in the U.S. Those Goldberg metal spools are very good.

Amazing that they are still in business . http://www.tuscancorp.com/products/reels.html

Are we talking about super 8 or 16mm here?

I only have experience with the Plio-Magic spools for super 8mm that are blue in color. My experience with them is that they are sturdy, well made and keep their original shape. I've never experience film rubbing any of those as it's coming off of the spool during projection.

Re #4.
The name Cecol was made up from the manufacturer's name. Cinematagraph Engineering COmpany Limited.
I referred to the early Tuscans having a name of an Australian firm on them, it was something like The Australian Reel Company. This may be borne out by Tuscan's current web-site which says:- "We are the sole manufacturer and distributor of plastic film reels in Australia. We also manufacture in the United States and distribute worldwide."

I've only experience in 16mm with Plio-Magic. Worst spools I ever had.

At last.
I have in front of me an 800ft blue plastic can with the words "Australian Reel Co. Pty. Ltd" and above it a "t" within a star. 180 degrees away is a boomerang with the words "Australian Made".
Obviously a fore-runner of Tuscan.
It took a bit of finding!!

Maurice; I'll have to sort out an old reel I have, it's stamped WD; I thought at first it must mean War Department; can you tell me what that means. Thanks.

Correct. War Department, and often an inverted arrow. Used by the Forces and sometimes marked with a reference number. They were usually painted grey.
Just looked at an orange Cecolite and it says "Made in England by the Cinematograph Engineering Co Ltd London".

This is an old Ceco metal can, with Cecol spool inside. The film inside is 1930s, from the Gaumont British Library. The second picture is is another spool that has WD stamped on it.

AKS is Army Kinema Service.

Thanks Maurice; I doubt the film is original to the spool.

#3 follow up...
So here are some pics of a 16mm 400 ft. reel made by "Compco" out of Chicago, IL.
There is a metal band locked around the hub. In the third pic, note the sharp barbs sticking up! These barbs
do not line up with film perfs.

Not sure the thinking behind this, but maybe to help "grab" the film on the take up reel?
Even though it might only be leader that would get poked by these barbs, I thought it unwise and removed the band with the barbs.
Has anyone else seen these?

Not seen one like that before, Greg, best to remove the barbs. I have one or two metal reels from companies I never heard of or can find on the internet. Will look for one tomorrow.

Nice reels and cans from Cinamatograph in orange. They would send me 1200ft reels that I could make into super 8mm reels.



I have Tuscan blue reels, but they seem a little flimsy in the large size.

The little claws on Greg's spool certainly look as if they are intended to be "grabbed" by the perfs. Are they only on one side?

Yes, only on the side of the reel with the round hole in the hub (not the keyhole side).
The barb can match one perf, but the next several barbs do not align with a perf.

Thank you, Greg.
The spool seems to be designed for the take-up of 16mm sound films, and arranged to only catch one perf.