Right guys, I have a spare Spondon Long Play unit and would like to swap it for a Derann feature in excellent condition (no splices :-)), if you are interested in a swap, please PM me with what you have to offer. Please note I only have 1 set for swap, they are in a very nice condition (brass connectors), fully tested and if you want photo's then please let me have your email address via PM, thanks, Del.

Mats was interested in one of these Del. Hopefully you may be able to sort out something between yourselves.

As I say it's a swap so see what whoever wants to offload for it, I have no preferences film wise and have a lot of genres I like so we'll see.

The Brass super 8mm adaptors cost around £60 minimum for these now btw.
The ones from Wittners were over £100 last time I looked!

I got mine from Van Eck but prior to that, I made a set from Landrover Windscreen Wiper arm hubs. It was fairly easy to adapt them.
I bit of grinding to the bore size, a celloc pin to fit after drilling a small hole, and Bobs your Uncle as they say.

Mine didn't come with any originally, just the spindle square drives for 16mm reels.

any takers ??

Put it on ebay Del, there will be no shortage of takers there. Very popular these units.

Heaven only knows why these won't shift on a dedicated film forum?
Both of em????

Nothing doing nowadays by the looks of things.

I know you were after a film swap for it, but to be honest, you are probably better off buying whatever film you want from the proceeds from it.

Just a thought, but anyone wanting to buy a long play unit, may not be so keen to part with a decent low fade Derann feature. I know I wouldn't anyhow. I'd just want to buy the LPU outright.

I'd put a decent reserve on it if I were you if this is what you do decide.

Thanks Andrew, it was just a novel idea to swap rather than sell it, saving the other collector some hard earned cash. No worries, I'm in no rush, someone somewhere will want a set of these at some point, then I'll either sell them or swap them.

Hi Del! I´m surely interrested, but I´m afraid that shipping to Sweden may be quite expensive. What is the reel capasity?

Chaps, are these strictly 8mm only or can you run 16mm with them?

They are built initially for 16mm reels of film. you have to use the separate adaptors I spoke of earlier here to then use these for Super 8mm.
So yes they will work for both.

800m (2400ft of Super 8mm film) fits easily onto these with bags of room to spare so I'd expect you could perhaps run an hour and a half's worth of 16mm film on one of these Stuart, if not more!.

Here you can see my own set of these loaded with 2200ft 750m Super 8mm spools. You can gauge yourself from these photographs, what you would expect it's capacity to be with 16mm film. It really would only depend on what size your projector is really.

When i bought mine the dealer said it allowed up to 1200ft of Super 8mm film to fit on these!
I've heard of people using 3000ft S8 reels with these!



Shipping one of these to Sweden, would only be a fraction of the overall cost to buy a set of these btw Mats.

There you go Stuart, Andrew beat me to it , obviously they only have the 8mm adapters. Matts, to be honest if I just shipped the arms (and accessories) and not the board (it is only a piece of contiboard) that would bring the weight down, they are not that heavy (the arms are hollow), no more so than a super 8mm feature film, PM me if you are interested, Del.

Thanks guys!

Agreed Del, but the positioning on the arm brackets, spacing and indeed the size of the board, is very precise for these to sit well and remain perfectly aligned with our machines film slots and with our machines sat on them centrally.

If it were me getting one, I'd want the base as well, and left as is.

Another consideration, the screws do not come out easy along with brackets. I think they may have been put in using Loctite or Araldite.
If you do manage to get the countersunk screws out, you would find the angle brackets are stuck rigidly to the base and would probably leave behind a bollocking mess by trying to remove them from the board.

Best left as is imo, for what difference the cost would be to transport with or without.

They are a very well made and thought out unit when left as is.

I did my other set mate, took me about an hour, new base, larger than the original, more space and perfectly lined up, works a treat, however if whoever wants these wants the original board then I'm happy :-)

Were the brackets stuck to the board Del?

double sided tape mate, strong but not that strong, in fact the other set has already been removed for ease of storage, all screws and brackets are kept safe, I intend to get a snazzy board for mine further down the line

Thank you, for the information, Del and Andrew. My 16mm projectors already have 2300 ft capasity, so this set wouldn´t help me. 4000ft minimum is what I need for 16mm features. The majority of my features are on 16 and 35 mm.

Here you go Mats, this gives you an idea, the spool on the rear arm is a 2400' spool, as you can see there is plenty of room for a larger spool if required.

The arms seems to be long enough. A 6000ft reel measures 60cm/24 inches. I don´t have 400ft reels, but I think they are about 50cm/20 inches diameter. Maybe I could bolt the arms in the ceiling to get that capacity. Would the motor manage the weight of a full 16mm reel of that size?

Hi Mats, that's the $64000 question, maybe others could answer that one.

As a guess, I would say a safe limit of use on these for 16mm projectors would be a spool of no more than 18 inch diameter whatever that equates to in feet.

16mm film is very heavy i'm guessing as in double the weight of Super 8mm!

By the time you are looking to fit 6000ft 16mm reels on one of these, you would be placing the relatively small motor/ gearbox under enormous strain especially if rewinding.

If you are mainly a 16mm large reel user Mats, you need to be looking more towards the machine like Gwyn shown us all around a week ago.
This is a perfect LPU for Super 8mm film though and probably a really good one for just over an hours worth of 16mm.

If its double sided tape on the one I have, it's bloody good stuff Del!! It's solidly stuck down on the one I have and I left it that.
I was wanting the ability to switch the brackets around for different machines but I realized afterwards, I needn't have to do this.. doh!

Mats,have a look at my post,I would humbly suggest that this LPU although excellent for super 8 is just not man enough for 16mm.The weight alone for a 16mm feature would damage the motor and I doubt it is man enough to actually take up the film.
I stand to be corrected but the weight alone of a large metal spool needs a good motor like mine.Have a look at my post📽📽

I think I agree with Gwyn on this Mats, on reflection even if the motor did do the job, the amount of work involved would burn the motor out pretty quickly I would say. It's better to have something that would pull a truck when only pulling a car, than trying to pull a truck when only strong enough to pull a car (if that makes sense).

It was originally designed for dual gauge use between 8mm and 16mm use but I agree that for 16mm use, it would have its limitations so far as weight and spool sizes are concerned. I think it would be ok for just over an hour's worth, but beyond that, you'd want one similar to what Gwyn illustrates here.

Looking at Del's photo I think the LPU would most likely do a 2300 spool but anything more would put the motor under pressure and looking again I'm sure it would not take the large reels I have with 40000 foot plus of film,they weigh a "ton" when fully loaded.
The motor on my fumeo take up arms also feels like you are lifting weights when you bolt them on,I have posted pictures of them some while back and they easily cope with the large reels but they are nothing like Del's pics.📽