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Fujimoto CP-51 Advice

NortheastPhotographic

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Hello,
I am about to purchase a Fujimoto CP51 processor for our darkroom. It looks to be in great shape save some of the rollers in the BLIX rack that appear to have swelled.

You can see the effect here:
What are the chances that this can be repaired, or the rollers replaced with some kind of aftermarket part? Obviously Fujimoto is no-more and new parts are not available, but I thought I'd check with the hive-mind to see if there are solutions out there for a problem like this?

Sadly our Colex "Collette" is too badly damaged to be worth repairing. It will become a parts unit for our C41 Colex. I've been seeking a "tabletop" RA4 processor for years otherwise...
 

foc

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If you have swelled rollers, they will have to be replayed as they can cause slippage in the drive.
The drive teeth cog that is hopping off the drive roller will cause the teeth to wear. Putting pressure on the rack/roller is not the way to go as it can lead to wear on other cogs in the assembly.

How to get replacement rollers could be a problem. Did you try ebay or minilab supplies for spare parts?
The rollers may be a fairly standard type (they look very similar to Frontier rollers) or failing that could the faulty rollers be reconditioned?
 

btaylor

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Damaged rollers is a concern for my tabletop processor as well. I seem to recall there was a discussion here on Photrio and someone found a company that rebuilds rollers for the printing industry. It wasn't cheap, but if that's what you need to have a functional machine it should be worth it. I also wonder if a machinist might be able to chuck a roller into a lathe and cut it down?

Best of luck
 
OP
OP

NortheastPhotographic

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Great advice. I mean it's just RA4 paper. I honestly wonder if I could trim it manually back. I had to do that in our old Noritsu V30. It didn't seem to make a lick of difference except that I had fewer issues after relieving the swell.

Alternatively I wonder if I could *hold my beer* take a defunct PVC roller from my defunct 20" Colex Collette and fit it in...that would be a true cockamamie scheme but worth investigating. PVC is the ultimate IMHO.

Short of that, I'll start looking for proper replacements.
 

koraks

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btaylor said:
I seem to recall there was a discussion here on Photrio and someone found a company that rebuilds rollers for the printing industry.
Click to expand...

I've done some rooting around last year for an old RCP20 with budding roller issues (but still functioning properly). For the tiny rollers in that machine, I was quoted €60 to refurbish each individual roller. I left it at that, but for a bigger machine like this Fujimoto here and a commercial operation (?), something like this might make sense. Especially if it's just one or two rollers that are affected.

Another possibility is attempting to DIY refurbish them. Again, speaking of the much smaller RCP20, there's a guy on a Dutch forum who pressed the rubber off of the roller, removed the rust from the metal rod and pushed the rubber back on. I'm not sure if this is feasible at all with the much longer rollers of this Fujimoto, but it might be worth a shot.
 
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mshchem

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NortheastPhotographic said:
But....what? Why the cryptic posts.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to be cryptic. Seems like you are very handy with equipment. The rollers can be repaired if you can afford it. You might check into printing, like letterpress and the sort. I bought some beautiful rebuilt neoprene rollers for a little letterpress I own. I would suspect that if one is bad you might have several that need work.
I found a little Durst RCP20 machine, still setup for EP2, I regeared it and it works great. I don't know if it had ever been used before I bought it. I treat it better than a prom queen. This little guy is all analog. Single speed, adjustable temperature.

The Fujimoto, Beseler etc machines are very cool but no parts or service. And there's the digital computer stuff, I wouldn't know what to do with that
 
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OP

NortheastPhotographic

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Oh yeah, well unrepairable electronics are the waters was all swim in these days sadly. I'm gonna give it a shot!
 
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mshchem

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NortheastPhotographic said:
Oh yeah, well unrepairable electronics are the waters was all swim in these days sadly. I'm gonna give it a shot!
Click to expand...

Probably will give you good service, the video is very encouraging! Try filling it with water and let it sit for a day, might work itself out. Good luck, glad to see someone as crazy (almost) as me!
 
  • nicointheclouds
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MattKing

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@ninfole and @nicointheclouds (and @jeffhodsdon as well):
Sale negotiations and exchanges of emails should not be taking place in an open forum. I will be deleting your earlier discussions shortly. Post again in the thread if that deletion happens before you have email contact.
And offers for sale and Wanted to Buy requests belong only in the Classifieds, which are open only to paid subscribers.
Neither of you have enough posts to be able to access the Private Conversation utility, at least with respect to initiating a Conversation, but I'll draw this situation to the intention of Sean, the site's owner and administrator - particularly given that nicointheclouds is a long term member.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Sean

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Access updated
 

MingMingPhoto

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NortheastPhotographic said:
My first time seeing that, thank you!
Click to expand...

hey there. I'm looking into buying a cp51 - did you ever end up reaching out to this company?
if so were they able to help oyu out?

in general have you been able to get your processor working well? how so?

are there any other issues you've found with the processor that I should look out for before purchasing?
 
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