Appropriate choice of oil for Philips 35mm projector

[Dagmar Puetz]

Hi all, I have to get two Philips FP3 (also known as type EL 8710 or maybe by US brand name Norelco) projectors working.

The exact type labels are:

projector I = Typ Nr. 8710 50

projector II = Typ Nr. 8710 66

The problem is, I couldn‘t detect any circulation of oil in the oil inspection glass. I‘ll check this further, as soon as I get there again but I want to address the issue just in case my first impression proves right.

The type label also specifies which oil should be used for the geneva drive:

projector I = use oil provided with projector

projector II =use Molykote M55 Typ EL 4805

I found that a Molykote M-55 Plus oil is available today but I think it‘s not completely identical with the EL 4805. Also I have an amount of oil type 3672 in stock for the Kinoton FP30 in my living room but I‘m not sure if it‘s suitable for the 8710.

What oil would you recommend for these machines?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I used a synthetic oil in the FP-56's I had.... but that oil is NLA... You could take or send a sample of the actual Phillips oil to a Shell, or Standard Oil lubricant distributor and they should be able to analyze it for you. We did that when I worked at CLACO in Salt Lake City. We took the actual DP-70 oil to a local lubricant supplier and they had a very close substitute for it in 5 gallon cans. But we later switched to the synthetic stuff as we only had to change the oil in 40+ DP-70 once a year. It's a shame Lavezzi oil is not around any more because it also had moly mixed in it.

[Damien Taylor]

Great question, I also have an FP3 with the oil currently drained out and trying to find an appropriate modern replacement.

I tried the oft-recommended Tellus 46 and it leaked out relatively quickly. I'm not sure if the moly additive or original viscosity of the M55 would have prevented this or the seals are just gone.

I will be following this thread with great interest as I would like to get the projector running again.

[Dagmar Puetz]

Thanks for your advice. I‘ll check the amount of oil left in the projectors and try to optain a sample.

I know the name of a local lubricant supplier but I‘m not sure if they offer such kind of analysis.

And of course it‘s also possible that the previous owner used the wrong oil.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Dagmar,

If the supplier can't check it, they may know someone that can...

[Emiel de Jong]

The user manuals say about what oil to use: look on the front plate of the projector. On those plates you then find indeed: use the oil provided with the projector, or, use EL4805 molykote M55. A service manual from 1952 however recommended using EL 3671 oil. EL 3671 oil was thinner than the more common EL 3672 oil. EL 3671 was also recommended for the FP5, FP6, FP7, FP56, FP20 and DP70: however only when room temperature was below 5 degrees Celsius. For all those projectors working in normal room temperatures (5-25 degrees C) EL 3672 was recommended. In the 1952 FP3 service manual only EL 3671 is mentioned. So it seems the idea was it was better for the FP3 to be filled with a slightly thinner oil, in normal working conditions, than those other ones. I hope this info might help to solve the mystery, rather than make it bigger