CPE2 Drive Shaft, Tank and Roller alignment

Hello, I've picked up a CPE2 from ebay and visually its in great condition, heats water fine and the motor works but its a bit like an old house, not everything is aligning. The magnet end of the shaft has a slight wobble which I have observed on some youtube videos but the worrying issue is with the set of rollers to support the tank the tank is a little too high and slightly too far back. This combined with the magnet wobble means the tank is rising quite a bit and without more chemicals I'd end up with uneven development.

To me it almost needs the housing of the controls and drive shaft to be raised slightly. Has anyone had this issue?

Thanks

There are rollers for the small diameter tanks (the 1500) and lower rollers for the larger diameter tank (2500). Are your rollers mismatched with your tank?

Welcome aboard @sdharris and congrats on purchasing your CPE2. I have one, too, and like yours, it wobbles. I've never experienced any ill effects because of it.

As @Don_ih indicates above, the roller implement has two variants; in its bare version, it's intended to accommodate the 2500 series tanks, and there's an extension that makes it fit for the 1500 series tanks. Furthermore, the implement can be pulled loose and refitted anywhere along the longitudinal rail it clamps onto.




PS: the magnet head that the tank clicks onto can be removed from the drive shaft; you may be able to reduce the wobble a bit by refitting it in a better-centered fashion. There's a locking screw in the center of the magnet that you can simply loosen and then take off/recenter the head on the shaft.

Hello, thanks for the information. I have the roller set 95183 which allows for 3 settings from what I can tell, I assume that is the correct one?

I've got it set for the 1520 and while the picture is slightly exaggerated (I've removed the magnet to check it was sealed in there properly) you can see the issue, when clamped tight with the magnet the motor is working hard pushing against the rollers so the tank rises and already its popped one of the fasteners that holds the control and motor to the rest of the tank. I'll have to fix that with some little bolts but within fixing the alignment I will either break the motor or bend the tank.





If I have the right tank, the right rollers etc do I just put up with the extreme wobble and put more chemicals in there? I used a shade over 300ml and got a bit of uneven development down one quarter of the roll.

koraks said:

Welcome aboard @sdharris and congrats on purchasing your CPE2. I have one, too, and like yours, it wobbles. I've never experienced any ill effects because of it.

As @Don_ih indicates above, the roller implement has two variants; in its bare version, it's intended to accommodate the 2500 series tanks, and there's an extension that makes it fit for the 1500 series tanks. Furthermore, the implement can be pulled loose and refitted anywhere along the longitudinal rail it clamps onto.
View attachment 403609
View attachment 403610
View attachment 403611

PS: the magnet head that the tank clicks onto can be removed from the drive shaft; you may be able to reduce the wobble a bit by refitting it in a better-centered fashion. There's a locking screw in the center of the magnet that you can simply loosen and then take off/recenter the head on the shaft.
View attachment 403614

Click to expand...

p.s. what did you use to fix the magnet, I've read people use sealant, will that hold?

I can't really comment on the bracket other than that I don't use it for the 1520 tank and I think I've actually lost the little extension wings that make the rollers sit higher to accommodate the 1520. When I use the machine with a 1510 or 1520 I just mount the tank onto the magnet and that'll hold firmly enough to get the job done. Probably doesn't help with the wobble, but since I don't experience that as a problem anyway, I never bothered to look into this any further.

If the wobble is extreme, I'd do as I suggested in my PS above and re-center the magnet onto the drive shaft to reduce the wobble. If that doesn't help, open op the machine and inspect the way the motor is mounted and fix any misalignment problems there. In my book it's fine if the tank wobbles very slightly, but it should by no means be extreme. I'd fix that instead of trying to work around it.

Btw, even with an extreme wobble I can't quite explain why you'd get uneven development. The tank rotates, so in the end, each part of the film(s) in there should be exposed to developer for about the same time, assuming the machine is mounted level and the drive shaft/motor is mounted level within the machine. Given your mention of an extreme wobble, I wonder if perhaps the motor is not mounted properly within the machine, so I'd start by having a look inside.

To fix the magnet, I think I used white silicone, but it could have been general purpose construction glue as well. Epoxy would work great here as well, and even acrylate may hold. I tend to use whatever I have on hand and that'll work, and if it doesn't, try a different approach. IDK, don't overthink it; this is a pretty straightforward mechanical piece of kit; it's not rocket science.

make a general shot from the side, it's not very clear yet. the tank should be in a horizontal position, if it is not so, then there is a mistake somewhere.

The idea to raise the control panel at the front edge, and by doing so shifting the motor and shaft back and slightly higher worked. In the process I replaced the mounting points with a simple screw and nut bolts. Used 4 washers for optimum height.



Barely any wobble on the unitank now, both rollers in contact with the tank and because its no longer pushing down against the roller on one side of the rotation and rising up on the other the motor sounds a lot happier.

Also fixed the magnet in with some silcone.

Thanks for your help, at the very least you confirmed the parts were right, I guess either the reservoir is slightly out of shape over time or something else has happened with time.

Yeah, makes perfect sense. Good job eliminating the wobble on yours!
On mine, the red plastic insert that holds the jars has warped, so a 2500 series tank rubs against it as it rotates. You can see some bits of copper wire in one of my photos that actually are intended to compress that insert a little so that the tank can rotate more freely. It's another illustration that a few decades in, these machines sometimes require a gentle nudge here and there to keep trucking along. I've also replaced the resettable fuse on the motor on mine with a jumper wire. I still intend to do a proper fix, but have been putting that off for about a decade now.