Where did all the Koachrome processing machines go.

[Marvin]

Just wondered if any ended up in Museums or became scrap metal.

 

[kb3lms]

Lot's of valuable stainless in those machines, I would think. Scrap metal would be your best bet!

 

[AgX]

Whole film plants went the way of scrap metal. Why would just a processing machine be spared from that fate?

By the way, on the Kodachrome enthusiasts site, one K-lab processor was stated to be saved for refurbishing and use a few years ago. Nothing had been heard of that project again.

 

[Marvin]

Wonder if Dwaynes still has theirs since they were the last to process Kodachrome?

 

[railwayman3]

The K=lab on the Kodachrome site was rescued from a scrapyard where it had been standing outside in the weather. There were some photos posted at one time and it looked in a very sorry state. As AgX says, nothing has been heard of the project for maybe a couple of years, despite requests for updates being made on the forum by interested members.
It seems that Dwaynes machine may well have been scrapped (I read somewhere that they'd offered it for preservation without success?)

 

[Ronald Moravec]

Went the way of buggy whips and candles and film scanners. K chrome had its charm. I just wish there was a way to get a decent print from it. I tried masking and inter negs without success. I bet it could be scanned and tamed to look good.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

I bet it could be scanned and tamed to look good.

Kodachrome is difficult to scan well and you can't use ICE IR dust removal.

 

[PKM-25]

The K-Lab was rescued from the scrap yard is in decent shape and now has all the needed accessories to run film minus a chiller which can be had via a third party or fabricated. This includes the manuals, spooler, computer, chemistry racks, etc. some of the tubing might have to be replaced but that is very easy to come by. Kevin has been working away in trying to get things together in preparation of creating the soup wich is a slightly different method than a regular K-14 line.

We talked on the phone tonight for over an hour, this is the best bet to get a Kodachrome line running again, in my opinion...

 

[Tom1956]

You mean to tell me is these few short years there are fewer Kodachrome machines remaining in the world than B-17's?

 

[MattKing]

You mean to tell me is these few short years there are fewer Kodachrome machines remaining in the world than B-17's?

The full size Kodachrome K12 and K14 machines were very large - a single batch of pre-spliced film plus leader plus trailer was usually several miles long.

Not the sort of thing you might find in someone's storage unit.

The K14 "minilabs" were smaller, but not small: http://tinyurl.com/nckd5dz

 

[AgX]

Here you see quite a bit of the full-size machinery:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[lxdude]

Some old Kodak general information on the K-Lab.

www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml

I just don't understand why it was necessary to install the K-Lab in a room draped in blue velvet.

 

[railwayman3]

Some old Kodak general information on the K-Lab.

www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml

I just don't understand why it was necessary to install the K-Lab in a room draped in blue velvet.

In more chauvinistic days there would have also been a glamorous model mixing the solutions, just to prove how simple and easy the process was!!

 

[MattKing]

Some old Kodak general information on the K-Lab.

www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml

I just don't understand why it was necessary to install the K-Lab in a room draped in blue velvet.

Remember, this is the small version of the machinery.

 

[lxdude]

Remember, this is the small version of the machinery.

Right. I guess the big machine required a lot more velvet!

 

[mopar_guy]

Not something you could put in the back of a pick-up truck and haul home to your garage

 

[removed-user-1]

From the late 80's through the mid 90s, my father worked as a service rep for a micrographics film processor manufacturer (not Kodak). One of their accounts closed an office, and the service techs were called out to remove the leased (and very expensive) equipment from the premises. These machines were perhaps several years old at the time. So, they rented a dumpster and pushed, heaved, and threw all the equipment into it, to be sold as scrap. I imagine the Kodachrome processors met this fate, and that the same fate awaits most minilab equipment still in use now.