1) The rubber around the edges of the drive "tire" might not be gripping the film well enough, thereby not moving the mechanism fast enough (or not at all)

My solution for this has been to take a Q-Tip® and apply a little FilmGuard® to the rubber. It "regenerates" the rubber enough to make it grip again. Also, you should check your film path to make sure things are right. If all that fails, you can get replacements to put around the edge of the drive tire.

2) The rubber inserts in the center of the take-up spindles might not be gripping tight enough. They work by compression: The tighter you tighten the screws, the more they get squashed and the tighter they grab the take-up spool. If there's something wrong there, even though the thing is running properly the media won't get pulled along as it should.

You could take a look inside and see if there's something amiss there but you'll find out that there really IS nothing inside the things besides a couple-three drive sprockets and some jack chains. I'd say that since the thing is taking up the media at all the problem doesn't lie there.

If both media spools are taking up evenly then I'd go for option #1. If both spools aren't taking up the same (or nearly the same) amount of media then I'd go for option #2.

If you are using FilmGuard in your booth there should already be small amounts of it getting on the rubber. That ought to be enough to keep the rubber in good shape. If you need a little more you can use just a touch of FilmGuard on a Q-Tip and rub it on the rubber.

If your rubber rings are getting really yucky you might have to replace them. (Sometimes they dry out and crack.)

Are you using Christie platters with the center brain back-tension spring in place? If so, the higher feed tension will make the takeup roll wind tighter and pull less media per foot of film.

The main large drive wheel could be the culprit. This is generally caused by a dropping of the cleaner itself, which bends the shaft just enough so that it does not spin freely. Occasionally it just needs lubrication. Whatever is the cause, that should spin freely.

Those little rubber inserts in the takeup shafts are notorious for hardening up and not gripping the takeup core after a certain amount of usage. The good news here is they are dirt cheap to buy and every dealer I know of stocks them. When you have loaded your new roll of media onto the cleaner and tightened down the takeup thumbscrew, try and spin the takeup core by hand. If it does not slip, you are fine. If there is some slippage, you can "buy time" with those old rubber inserts by sandwiching an appropriate sized washer in between the thumbscrew and top plastic shaft. Such a washer (sometimes it take 2 or 3) must not have an outside diameter larger than the inside diameter of a core. This is the ideal temporary fix, but finding washers of that size is hard to come by. A less than ideal fix (but which works just as well) is to place a large washer at the bottom of the entire takeup assembly (on the narrow non-removable shaft). This washer must have a center hole just larger than the shaft to work properly and you must be careful to tape the media to the takeup core straight, since the modified takeup shaft will not place the core in direct alignment with the supply roll. (I know this is confusing, but I'll try and take some pictures in the next couple of weeks and post here.)

Another possibility is on the older units that are chain driven as opposed to the newer gear driven ones. Sometimes the chain drive pulley slips on the shafts and all that is needed is a retightening of the allen set screw.

Finally, your speed problem may be nothing more than the type of media used. Different media is made in different thicknesses and a thinner media will wind slower than a thicker media. Remember also that the media pulls faster and faster as the roll runs through, since the takeup shaft turns at a constant tension while the outer diameter of the takeup roll increases with every turn. For this reason, a 90 minute film may look like hardly any media was pulled, but a 2 hour film may look like a substantial amount of media was pulled.

The only time I've had trouble with it was when I was out hunting. We had used it to do an "emergency cleaning" of my shotgun. (I was duck hunting and I dropped the shotgun in the water.)

Well, it started to get cold later on and the WD-40 started to gum up. It got so bad the gun was unusable. (It was a Rem. Mod. 1100)

For example, if the circumference were exactly 12 inches (one foot), then film moving at 90 feet per minute should drive the roller at 90 revolutions per minute (90 RPM) if there is no slippage. As noted by others, if there is significant slippage, be sure the mechanism isn't binding or the film tension isn't wrong.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion