I bought a small carload of 8mm projectors from a professional Santa at a garage sale - 6 of them for $20 I could have had more but I couldn’t justify the hoarding. Yup, he was as amazing as you would expect and even gave me one erotic film from the 70s. Which sounds fun until you watch it and you realize you’re watching a tasteless erotic film with mixed company on your 40th birthday slightly drunk…and it’s horrifying. Like for real horrifying.
I tried to have a (much different) 8mm film watching party but came into some troubles. Being the idea bulldog I am I’m unwilling to give up on this concept of off the wall movie viewings. It seems I blew out the bulb on the fancy one - well at least it looks like flames and smoke are happening so I’m assuming it’s a bulb or a teeny tiny doorway to hell. I would like to learn how to poke around, maintain, lube up, replace belts, fancy up, splice film, dice film, and in other words know what the heck I’m doing. I’ve watched a few YouTubes but they seem unable to answer my questions. My first question is how do I even begin to understand what the heck is going on and how to break into this thing. I’m sure it’s not complicated.
Anyone out in the ether have some experience maintaining beasts of old and would be willing to teach me a bit? I would buy you lunch and invite you to movie watching parties (without the bad film).
I’ll be at makerspace tonight hitting it with a hammer and openly crying.