I have just received my Wolverine....I have been closely following your very informative videos on your experiences and overcoming problems. One thing I now face is how to proceed with a collection of family cine from 1950 through to the 1960's in both 8mm and Super8. It all looks reasonably straightforward. However, I wondered what your general cleaning and maintenance process was both on the machine and the film prior to digitising if you wouldn't mind sharing?
On my machine I use compressed air and a cleaning cloth. For the films, depending on how long it's been since they were last projected, I'd run the reels back and forth first to free up any tension and discover any broken splices. You can do this on the Wolverine by using the rewind feature to load the film onto an empty reel and repeat the process to wind it back. Or if you have a regular movie projector you can use that. I also bought leader film and splicing tape (available at Amazon). Another recommendation is purchasing a 5 inch Super8 reel (unless you already have one), to prevent constant swapping (& potential loss) of the reel hub adapters.
Thanks for that....all seems sensible practice. I just wondered whether I'm going to need specialist cleaning fluid on some of the older reels. Mind you, visually they all look OK. I suppose a rewind will show any hidden problems. I already have a compressed air can.
I blast the heck out of the film path with canned air. Old splices can jam and break but if you have a Kodak Presstape splicer it's pretty easy to repair the splice and restart scanning. It has been my experience that that the Moviemaker will usually stop if there's a jam. Film is a touchy thing to handle so it's not always easy: here's a couple of my videos about pitfalls: ruclips.net/video/fYQiHkMMf64/видео.html ruclips.net/video/juZZmGpCb1E/видео.html
Good idea! A cooling fan and vents were my first thoughts when watching your other video about the melting belt. I'm thinking about modding my Film2Digital as well. How is the modification working out?
Well that tells you that you were on the right path. I have noticed my SD card was warm after scanning some movies. I plan on adding a fan and vent holes to my machine as well.
The heat on the SD card and circuit board components 4mm or so from the hot motor became my big concern when I did my second round of heat tests I tested the SD card area before it cooled off. Before then I'd always wondered how an SD card got so hot - I couldn't recall one that even got warm in other devices. My film work bench has been full of 16mm equipment but I need to clean it off to make room for the Wolvernine and do a final test with the fan and see if that 130 degree temp has dropped.
I can confirm that there is now a set of vent slots in 4 positions on the back casing. Whether they are enough to cool things down is another question as they don't seem that big.
Kudos to Wolverine: someone posted this in my thread about this at 8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=011395;p=2 "I just opened up the back of my new Wolverine in order to measure the belt & order spares as well as mount a 40mm cooling fan. Wolverine engineering has been paying attention --- the new model has no belt -- a small gear motor has replaced the belt drive. There is a little cooling fan mounted on the circuit board and vent holes on the rear cover. With nothing more to do, I closed it back up."
I have just received my Wolverine....I have been closely following your very informative videos on your experiences and overcoming problems. One thing I now face is how to proceed with a collection of family cine from 1950 through to the 1960's in both 8mm and Super8. It all looks reasonably straightforward.
However, I wondered what your general cleaning and maintenance process was both on the machine and the film prior to digitising if you wouldn't mind sharing?
On my machine I use compressed air and a cleaning cloth. For the films, depending on how long it's been since they were last projected, I'd run the reels back and forth first to free up any tension and discover any broken splices. You can do this on the Wolverine by using the rewind feature to load the film onto an empty reel and repeat the process to wind it back. Or if you have a regular movie projector you can use that. I also bought leader film and splicing tape (available at Amazon). Another recommendation is purchasing a 5 inch Super8 reel (unless you already have one), to prevent constant swapping (& potential loss) of the reel hub adapters.
Thanks for that....all seems sensible practice. I just wondered whether I'm going to need specialist cleaning fluid on some of the older reels. Mind you, visually they all look OK. I suppose a rewind will show any hidden problems. I already have a compressed air can.
I blast the heck out of the film path with canned air. Old splices can jam and break but if you have a Kodak Presstape splicer it's pretty easy to repair the splice and restart scanning. It has been my experience that that the Moviemaker will usually stop if there's a jam. Film is a touchy thing to handle so it's not always easy: here's a couple of my videos about pitfalls:
ruclips.net/video/fYQiHkMMf64/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/juZZmGpCb1E/видео.html
Thanks for the pointers. I've just successfully converted a straightforward Super8 on a 3 inch reel (my first!). Onwards and upwards then....
Good idea! A cooling fan and vents were my first thoughts when watching your other video about the melting belt. I'm thinking about modding my Film2Digital as well. How is the modification working out?
I just got an email from someone with a new Wolverine and they say it now comes with several vent holes on the back cover.
Well that tells you that you were on the right path. I have noticed my SD card was warm after scanning some movies. I plan on adding a fan and vent holes to my machine as well.
The heat on the SD card and circuit board components 4mm or so from the hot motor became my big concern when I did my second round of heat tests I tested the SD card area before it cooled off. Before then I'd always wondered how an SD card got so hot - I couldn't recall one that even got warm in other devices. My film work bench has been full of 16mm equipment but I need to clean it off to make room for the Wolvernine and do a final test with the fan and see if that 130 degree temp has dropped.
Looking forward to the results.
I can confirm that there is now a set of vent slots in 4 positions on the back casing. Whether they are enough to cool things down is another question as they don't seem that big.
Kudos to Wolverine: someone posted this in my thread about this at 8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=011395;p=2
"I just opened up the back of my new Wolverine in order to measure the belt & order spares as well as mount a 40mm cooling fan. Wolverine engineering has been paying attention --- the new model has no belt -- a small gear motor has replaced the belt drive. There is a little cooling fan mounted on the circuit board and vent holes on the rear cover. With nothing more to do, I closed it back up."