Need help with old slide projector.

[kitty]

Hi all! Recently a friend gave me this old slide projector and i thought you could give me a little help. It is a Bell and Howell Slide Cube model 981Q. Here is a few pictures of it. From the outside , it looks like a wooden box. (Excuse my messy desk)

 

[kitty]

Right here there's a slide cube that you put the slides in, it doesn't have it

 

[kitty]

And it doesn't have a lamp!!!! On the next photo, this is the car headlight that I use. It works, BUT it doesn't work well on very dark pictures and it takes forever to adjust it to get no dark spots on the screen. On the first picture, the sticker says USE CBA LAMP ONLY. I don't know what that kind of lamp is. The "H" on the second picture is for the high beam lamp, because the low beam one burnt out

 

[bwoods]

replacement bulbs

Hello Faye,

Congrats of finding a B&H Cube projector. I remember well when they came out. It was Bell and Howell's response to Kodak's popular Carousel Projectors (of which I am a collector.)

Almost all projectors (move and slide) use bulbs with a 3 letter designation. Yours is a common bulb, and very bright one. I have attached a link to a seller on Ebay. That's where I usually buy my replacement bulbs.

One precaution, when you insert the bulb, use gloves or make sure your hands have just been washed very thoroughly. Body oils from the skin will create a "hot spot" and hasten the destruction of the bulb, as they run very hot when the projector is running. That's why they have a built-in blower. After you turn the lamp off when you are done with projector, allow the blower to continue until the air is cool, then turn it off if your pojector has a separate setting for the blower only.

Replacement cubes are a little harder to find than are the bulbs. Check around at thrift stores. I volunteer at one of the Habitat for Humanity ReStores and occasinally we will get one of these projectors and/or cubes. If we get any cubes in the near future, I will purchase and send to them you.

Bear

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quartzline-Projection-Lamp-GE-General-Electric-CBA-120V-500W-Lot-Of-2-/141384899272?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20eb325ac8

 

[paulg]

1000bulbs.com

For film-type projector lamps I have used www.1000bulbs.com with success.

 

[kitty]

Quick question...

If the slide was in there too long, would it melt? Thanks
(Due to the heat of the bulb) Also is there one of that type but less wattage?

 

[bwoods]

I have never known a slide projector to melt a slide as long as the fan was working. Film projectors, yes, I have seen 8mm film melt before my eyes when the mechanism jammed. I think a lot depends on the brand and design. In this case, I believe the fan was on the same motor that ran the film transport and when the motor stopped so did the cooling.

But slide projectors are made to have the slides stay in a stationary position for indefinite lengths of time for lectures, etc. So no, you will never endure a melt-down.

I am sure you could somewhere find a conversion chart and find a lower wattage bulb with the same pin configuration. But I don't think I would worry about it, you will just reduce your picture brightness and the B&H was designed to work with a 500 bulb, so its cooling capabilities are up to the task. Bell and Howell is a quality company. They wouldn't have sold many projectors if they destroyed slides. _

 

[philr]

Barry, you collect Kodak projectors? I'd like to see pictures of these! I used to work at the audiovisual department of a college and I really enjoy seeing the various designs. For my part, I never personally owned a Kodak. I got a Sawyers 747AQZ with that came with the family pictures but the Kodak projectors are certainly better designed! One problem I recall with the Kodak projectors was a gear that would break and the carousel didn't advance. But their operation is much more precise than the GAF. It's also easier to view a single slide on a Kodak. We did have a huge quantity of Kodak 80 and 140 trays (we mostly used the 80) and also had many stack loaders. These are now obsolete with the computers, multimedia projectors and teachers that make their own PowerPoint presentations but I really enjoyed taking pictures of various documents that the teachers brought me with the Leica Reprovit so they could make their slideshows in class!

 

[kb0nes]

I have one of these older B&H Slidecube projectors also. Our family always seemed to shoot slides and years ago my father chose this format projector. As I recall it each cube could hold 40 slides and one could fit 16 cubes in a box the size of a Kodak Carosel box. My dad was always frugal and the idea of ~8 times the storage density won out. All in all the Kodak was the superior projector though being more reliable, quieter and holding 80 or later 140 slides per load. The Kodak would never flash a white screen either! There was a reason that all the pro AV shows used Kodaks.

My projector uses one of the reflector bulbs, and ELH as I recall. Your model must be older. Mine has a gray smoked plastic cover not the wood grain one yours has. Could you list your model and serial number from yours?

With their high wattage lamps there projectors do make scads of heat. I have never seen a slide get damaged by heat though. Generally a slide projector will employ a cold mirror that reflects the heat out of the optical path while the visible light passes through the slide. Movie protectors are different since it is normally assumed that each frame will only be displayed for a fraction of a second.

So do you have any of the cubes for this beast? Last I looked they are available on eBay.

Phil

 

[kitty]

Kb0nes:

Model: 981Q
Serial: I THINK it is,0071168 I saw that # on the opening flap/ door where the lamp is.

 

[twintubdexter]

I never thought of anyone collecting slide projectors but why not? People collect everything else. I would like to see photos of collections too but of course if they're all packed away it may be a chore. As a young person I loved 35mm photography and taking slides. They were so much cheaper than photos to have processed too. Slide projectors remind me of those fun times like vacations and parties. Back then I had a TOTL Sawyers projector with auto focusing and a pull-out remote. Now I have a Carousel tucked away. Slide projectors smell good when they are operating. I have no idea why.

I'm sure if you keep looking on ebay you'll find those B&H slide cubes. Hunting is always fun.

 

[philr]

I also loved when we made slide shows in family and the smell from the projector! Mine is also a TOL Sawyers with auto-focus (but honestly, the manual focus models with motorized controls on the remote are better!), the date display for the slides and the zoom lens that has it's own storage case. But Kodak projectors are much better! The Bell & Howell projectors like the one Faye got look great too!

 

[davetranter]

Projector lamp

Has anyone considered a LED conversion???? Colour temperature matching may be difficult, but these new 10, 15, and 30W single chip LEDs (as used for security light fittings) are INSANELY bright!!!!

You would just need the actual chip, a small (ish) heatsink, and the existing forced-air cooling, to make a cool running very long lamp-life projector. Oh, yes... An new power supply may be needed for the LED chip, depending on type.

All best

Dave T

 

[kitty]

DaveTranter:

I have also seen 100 watt LEDs and they have a luminous flux of approx 9000 lumens, but you'd need a heatsink so big it wouldn't fit in that tiny enclosure. But I'd probably give the other one a shot. And I'd probably make another enclosure for it so the air would go over the heat sink directly. Maybe an experimental design.

 

[tolivac]

On film forums I have seen folks there try to replace projection lamps with LEDS-problems--LED can't be properly focused-puts out the wrong color light,not bright enough "point" source that a projector needs.And the LED ends up being less efficient than the orig lamp.We will need to wait for LED technology to further improve and maybe light companies can provide LED lamp replacements for projection lamps.For large projectors-cinemas-lasers are going to be used.

 

[kb0nes]

An LED conversion would be interesting, although there are a few issues. I have been playing with high power LED's and COB (Chip On Board) arrays for more then 10 years now and the technology is developing rapidly. Recently I bought an 8000 lumen 90+ CRI LED module for use in a photographic soft box. One of the cool things for my application is that it is dimmable with almost zero color temperature shift.

In an old slide projector the challenge would be to design a solid state light source that would work in concert with the existing condenser optics to yield an evenly illuminated field. Given the confines of the existing lamp house design this could be no small feat.

We are already seeing LED illumination being used in some of the smaller DLP video projectors. The big advantages are LONG life, very minimal color adjustment needed over time, high energy efficiency and vastly reduced need for cooling. Of course this lends itself to making the projector itself much smaller then if a incandescent lamp were used.

I have no doubt that cinema projectors will one day have LED illumination. Bear in mind that current big screen units are in the 10,000-40,000 lumen range! They are messing with LASER illumination currently to attempt to get more brightness for 3D movies which tend to be dim due to the losses in the polarizing filters. Eventually the LASERs will be replaced with power LED's as they will be much more cost effective with greater development. Of course the acronym "LASER" would create a useful marketing buzz word, of course everyone knows a LASER projector is better. Kinda like how Chrysler has uses the word Hemi...

 

[tolivac]

Currently Cinema Digital projectors still use the high pressure xenon gas lamps that film projectors used.The laser lamps will replace the xenon bulbs.The lasers will produce less heat and no bulb explosions.An interesting fact-LEDS do decline in light output and efficency as other light sources do-just takes longer.So ALL electric light sources decline in output and color as they age.The laser projection lamps-not a lot of info on them.Would like to learn more about them.And another problem for cinema projection is 3D-you have to compensate for light loss thru the polarizers in the projector and the glasses worn by veiwers.Often the lamp power has to be doubled when projecting 3D.And-is the new cinema digital projectors the light engine-projection heads last only so long before pixles burn up from the heat-dark or light spots on the screen.That is a burned pixel-the picture head has to be replaced in that case.Its happening.DLP head have to absorb a lot of heat in dark scenes.If you look inside a digital cinema projector-the light engine is mounted on a large fan or blower cooled heatsink.The xenon bulb is just like a minature "sun" the poor projection head is almost like the "ant under a maginifying glass" on a hot sunny day.Xenon bulbs are also used for solar and sun aging simulators!I have a high power LED flashlight-the LED is like 25W and generates 2200 lumens.The heat is very low-the head of the light does get quite warm after its been on for several minutes.LED tech is evolving.It neat to see what comes up.On YouTube there is a Lego projector for 8MM film that uses a small LED flashlight as its projection bulb.Does work quite well on a small close,screen.

 

[firedome]

slide projectors...

can still be gotten cheap. It might even be cheaper to buy a complete unit than to find a bulb and slide trays...when I was given 20 Kodak Carousel trays of the old family slides ca. late 1940s to '70s a couple years ago, but no projector, we found on CL a mint and hardly ever used Kodak 850H Auto Focus projector with the remote in it's original leather case for something like $40.

 

[ovrphil]

Faye - I love that wooden box projector and I hope you get some bulbs and slide cubes for it from eBay, Craigslist, thrift stores and maybe there's even a Yahoo group for old vintage projectors?

Compared to my Kodak Carousel 600 and Dukane Pro 120 Sound/Slide Projector(like one shown), yours is way more vintage cool and warm, due to the wood case.

Good luck!