Sticky Mag Interiors?

[Colton Davie]

The UPS man dropped off my SR2 today and I have been combing through everything. It all seems to be looking good except for one of the two mags. One of the mags is clean and dry as I would expect, but the other has a sticky/gummy feeling on the inside surfaces (of the walls particularly, the pressure plate, guide rollers, etc. seem to be fine). It is almost as if some residue is covering everything, or that the surfaces themselves have become soft.

 

Is this particularly unusual? What do I need to do to fix it?

 

I was told that the camera and mags were rental items before I bought them, and that they were serviced before shipping. Is it not that big of a deal? The film technically shouldn't touch any of these surfaces during normal use, but I'd definitely feel safer with the other mag...

 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

[Dom Jaeger]

Hi Colton,

 

We've had the same problem with some of our older SR2 mags. It seems the rubberised paint that Arri used on the inside of the doors and on the two inner platines starts to break down and get sticky after so many years. I think humidity changes don't help either. The paint was rubberised as a sound barrier.

 

You're right that the film should stay clear of these surfaces normally, but if the film isn't loaded properly and the mag gets tilted the film can rub against that sticky stuff and possibly cause a jam. Or it can pick up residue and carry it through the gate. So you're also right to feel safer with the other mag. Most of the time it would be OK though.

 

I haven't found a solution yet other than having them stripped and repainted, which is an expensive route. You could try leaving it in the sun with the doors open and see if it dries out a bit.

 

The first thing I'd do is contact the seller and see if they'll replace the sticky mag with a good one.

 

If anyone has had success with another solution I'd be interested to hear it myself. Someone recently told me they used a citrus-based cleaning agent (like you use to remove sticky labels) and it worked, but I haven't tried that yet, and would be surprised if it was a long term solution.

[Colton Davie]

Dom, thanks for the info. Very helpful. I've contacted the seller and should be hearing back on Monday. However, in the meantime, the mag has seemed to "dry out" a bit since I've had it inside with the air conditioner for the past few days. Maybe being in the back of a hot UPS truck exacerbated the problem a bit; the humid, 100° Alabama weather can be pretty intense! Under more bearable conditions, t seems like it may not be too terrible of a problem, but I'd rather be sure before shooting something really important.