From: Todd Eacrett (email suppressed)
Date: Thu May 28 2009 - 15:52:25 PDT
Hi Pablo,
I had a similar problem on a no.w.here looper and Eiki NTO. The film had perfs that were sort of stretched or bent out at the edges. These edges would snag on the perfs of the next loop of film as it exited the looper, causing it to pull tight and lose the necessary slack at the centre of the looper. Once the slack was gone from the centre of the loop on the platter it would lose the upper loop on the projector just as you describe. (Mylar film, so as the loop tightened up the claw just bent/stretched the perfs even more.)
Did you try the fresh film on the looper and projector or just the projector? A fresh print solved the problem for me, but the print with the bent perf edges simply would not work in the looper. It also helped to start with more slack at the centre of the looper; no.w.here shows it loading with a pen cap under the loop to create slack but I found a wine cork or even something larger worked better.
Our looper and NTO just finished running for four months straight, 40+ hours per week. Prints were cleaned weekly and swapped out five times. You might want to change the drive belt on a regular basis. When it breaks you'll lose the frame in the gate.
Cheers,
Todd Eacrett
Victoria, BC
----- Original Message -----
From: Pablo de Ocampo <email suppressed>
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:18 pm
Subject: 16mm upper loop problem on an SSL-O
> hello folks.
>
> Having no luck trouble shooting a film path problem I am having on
> an Eiki
> SSL-O and wanted to see if anyone has any ideas.
>
> The projector is currently running a loop with a top mounted looping
> mechanism of unknown origin (german), though it is similar in
> design the the
> ones nowhere lab in london produces.
>
> It seems like the upper loop is having problems forming properly, or
> maintaining proper tension. As the film is coming off the first
> sprocketedroller, it�s getting caught up, like the film is sticking
> to the sprocket
> roller and this snag is causing the upper loop to go crazy.
>
> My theory is that the sprocket holes of the film have worn in such
> a way
> that they are snagging on the sprocket wheel. You can actually feel
> smalltears or stretches in the sprocket holes on the film. It could
> also be a
> slight alignment issue for the projector, but I took in a roll of
> fresh film
> today and it had no troubles at all running through the machine.
>
> Is there something else on the projector that could be causing this?
> Alignment of the rollers around the first sprocket wheel?
>
> Thanks in advance for any idears here.
>
> -p
> }- - - -- - - - - - {
>
> Pablo de Ocampo
> Artistic Director
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