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HOW TO RE-BUILD A PROJECTOR
(and end up with a superior machine)

Mike Trickett

My interest in 9.5 mm started as a young However, the film list from Home
lad, when I came across a catalogue from Cinemas showed a much wider range of
the now defunct Home Cinemas in films than even Kodak offered at that
Melbourne – they were the Victorian time, so, although knowing little about 9.5
distributors of Pathé home movie mm and Pathé, my interest had been
products. sparked.

Until this time, my interested had been in It was to be some years later, when I
(Standard) 8 mm, and at that time, there joined the Photographic Collectors
were three 8 mm film libraries operating Society (PCS) (now Australian
here in Geelong. The biggest and best was Photographic Collectors’ Society) and
the Kodascope Library run by Kodak. met a man by the name of John Minnis,
his wealth of knowledge on all things
At this time, Kodak had film libraries in photographic, including 9.5 mm
each state capital and the Geelong store equipment and films encouraged me to
was able to draw on these for supplies. start collecting 9.5 mm items.

Over the years, I
managed to buy a
number of cameras
and projectors at the
PCS auctions, many
of which came from
John’s collection.
When John died, his
wife asked if I would
like to clean out his
film shed. Of course
I couldn’t get there
fast enough! One van
load of stuff later and
back at home, I
started to sort out
what I had.
The finished machine:
B&H spool arms remain
in their original color, a
new control panel has
been fitted to replace the
missing one.

32 REEL DEALS June 2021