Need Help with Old Optical/Contact Printers

Nicholas Lymberis · May 28, 2023

Hi,

We acquired the remnants of a lab that used to run in London, Film & Photo Ltd. We are looking for expertise in helping us restore them to working condition, we have:

3 x Bell & Howell Model C's various formats (unsure what type these are, there is a wetgate machine but unsure whether it's for these or other printers...)
Oxberry 20-OP printer with 35 and 16 mechanisms
Takita Step Reduction printer 16/35
Arri MiniPrint 15/35 optical printer
Various Cameras (acme 16mm, Mitchel TV telerecording camera and others)

Ideally, we want these restored and working but if that's not possible then we'd like to find the relevant parts new homes (there are alot of gates (incl wet), mechanisms etc, lenses etc).

We are based in Suffolk, UK. We are a social enterprise funded by myself.

We've spoken to Kodak UK and they gave some contacts at MMT and BFI but we don't have the funding to deal with the former and haven't heard back from the latter.

Any and all advise/help/guidance/manuals/diagrams etc would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Nick

www.polyfilmlabs.co.uk

Frank Wylie · May 29, 2023

Hopefully the lab didn't throw away all the technical documentation for these printers and/or the spare parts and you have them in your possession.

Do you?

I hope you have a LOT of floor space, power and some mechanically inclined people.

Rather than just shotgun the approach, why not pick out one or two printers that will fit your most pressing needs and save the others until they are needed?

As I have suggested in the past to you, how about contacting this organization near Paris?

https://www.l-abominable.org/en/

They have experienced printer operators, lots of experience with lab operations and should be able to help in some fashion.

Edit: https://www.filmlabs.org/docs/ModelCPartsBreakdown.pdf

Edited May 29, 2023 by Frank Wylie

Nicholas Lymberis · May 29, 2023

Thanks Frank!

We have 200m2 and 3phase and some mechanically minded people - we are just missing manuals lol it's hard to know how and what to fix when everything is relatively in pieces and no there were no documentation manuals or guides.

Whilst it came from a lab, it was stored in a family members garage so had already been culled down etc.

Cheers, Nick

Pablo Cruz Villalba · May 31, 2023

The best people I can think of regarding optical and contact printers are Diana Barrie and Richard Tuohy. I am certain that the latter is member of this webiste. However you can find them here: https://nanolab.com.au/us.php