Cleaning the audio heads of Bauer T610 Super8 projector

Here’s a short tutorial on how to clean the magnetic heads of the Bauer T610 Stereo Super8 film projector. This tutorial is also largely applicable to the T502.

Step 1: open the projector by taking off the front cover. Simply by pulling it away.

pulling away the cover

Step 2: Turn the control knob to its ultimate left turn position, the ‘maintenance’ position.

control knob to ultimate left turn position

Step 3: remove light bulb and light bulb holder (to create space to work).

Step 4: It’s smart to cover the sliders with a piece of paper so that screws and small parts cannot fall into the ‘mixer’ part of the projector.

piece of white paper covers the sliders

Step 5: unscrew the clamp of the first magnetic head, which is the ‘erasure’ head. Take it out. Be very careful: when unscrewing the clamp make sure the screws don’t fall into your projector! Also there is a thin sheet of metal that stays behind in the holder of the magnetic head. Just leave it in place. If by chance it comes out together with the head, make sure to put it back in.

viewing the heads from above
removed audio clamp
Dirty magnetic eraser head

Step 6: clean the head with a cotton tip and some cleaning alcohol (spiritus or similar). And put it back in place. Careful to not lose screws.

Clean head

Step 7: unscrew the clamp of the second magnetic head, the recording and playback head. Similar to the first head: take it out and clean it. Be mindful of the thin metal sheet that is inside the head holder.

unscrewing the clamp
The playback and recording head, note the left and right track pick up elements.
Cleaned head
Dirt and iron residue removed

Step 8: After having put back in place the cleaned playback/recording head, repeat the procedure for the third and final head, which is the ‘monitoring’ head. This head is used for monitoring the audio for example ‘live’ when recording audio with the recording head. The sound lags some 4 frames behind.

Finishing up: after cleaning the monitoring head put it back in place. Put the bulb holder and bulb back in place, close the cover and voilà: you have a Bauer projector with clean heads, able to record and playback crisp

2 thoughts on “Cleaning the audio heads of Bauer T610 Super8 projector

  1. Hello! I live in the USA and I love the digital super 8 cartridge. How c an I get one?

    Thank you!

    Phillip

    1. Thanks for your kind reaction! At this time there are two (different) prototypes and we have no concrete plans to bring this to market. The fact that one has to mod the Super8 camera to remove the filmgate makes this a solution for modded cameras.

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