Film drum processor help

Hi everyone, I'm going to admit upfront that I really know very little about colour negative and slide chemistry and processing, or automatic processors in general, having never used them myself.

I'm trying to help out the University Photo Soc to get them up and running. They've inherited a lot of very nice equipment, but lost a lot of knowledge over the last few years. One item we'd like to get up and running looks like a fully automated drum processor for film, as many of the students seem keen to do colour neg processing. It's got hydraulic inputs labeled for C-41, E-6, and black and white chemistry.

The unit is labeled: Photo-Therm Sidekick Film Processor. I saw a post on photo.net that it's been used in pro labs before, so I have faith it's tough and probably still working. It's a large machine, looks like it'll do at least 8 rolls of 35mm film, maybe more. I found the manual for a similar looking, 4 roll unit online. Since we don't know the last time it was running, do you guys have any suggestions for how to make sure things are working correctly, other than running a few test rolls through it? Anyone with experience with similar machines know of any gotchas we should look out for?

I had an older SK8 Phototherm with the chemical inputs in a straight line. I think the newer models have those inputs in a circular arrangement. The SK4 will do 4 rolls and the SK8 will do 8 - 35 mm rolls.
When I first got mine the slider mechanism that selects the inputs was frozen in place. I called Phototherm in New Jersey and they were very helpful. They sent some silicon lubricant which I used to unstick the mechanism and the machine worked reliably after that. I just had to re-lubricate the mechanism a few times a year. You might want to run the machine using empty reels and plain water a couple of times to see if it goes through its cycles smoothly. I sold mine years ago much to my later regret.

Mike

I don't think PhotoTherm is in business any more.

BainDarret said:

I had an older SK8 Phototherm with the chemical inputs in a straight line. I think the newer models have those inputs in a circular arrangement. The SK4 will do 4 rolls and the SK8 will do 8 - 35 mm rolls.
When I first got mine the slider mechanism that selects the inputs was frozen in place. I called Phototherm in New Jersey and they were very helpful. They sent some silicon lubricant which I used to unstick the mechanism and the machine worked reliably after that. I just had to re-lubricate the mechanism a few times a year. You might want to run the machine using empty reels and plain water a couple of times to see if it goes through its cycles smoothly. I sold mine years ago much to my later regret.

Mike

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Hey BainDarret, thanks for the info, this machine has the inputs arranged in a circle so I guess it's a newer version. after everything is hooked up we'll do some runs with tap water and empty reels, good idea thanks!

Wolfeye said:

I don't think PhotoTherm is in business any more.

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That would be sad. There website is still up so someone is paying the bills for that. Looks like they also have a business making medical lab equipment so I was hoping that would help keep them afloat.

Give Phototherm a call: http://www.phototherm.com/support.html

My understanding is that they were still operating quite recently.