I'm repairing this old postwar accessory I picked up recently. I've replaced the drive string and spring and found the best position for the string to achieve best movement of the traveler along the gantry. I cleaned all the moving parts and lubricated where there are moving axles, pins, etc. to lower the load on the vibrating motor. I also rethreaded the string to get rid of any twists.
It was working pretty good (actually speedy when lowering the weight) with just some spots where the 16mm film with the string attachment has to do a 180 turn being a little more drag.
So now I try to actually operate it with the culverts. As it picks up the culvert with the magnet , it does not go straight up, but more on an angle. Must not be enough weight on the counterbalance, even though it looked like a lot to me. So I added some weight and it goes up as intended since the counterweight keeps the traveler in place.
However, now with this additional weight, the vibrating motor is struggling to pull up the weight and traverse across the gantry. it needs manual help along the way.
It really seems like quite a load for this vibrating motor mechanism to handle. When I manually move the gears I'm amazed at the torque required and that the vibrating motor can handle it at all.
Any ideas out there to fix this, or anyone have one that actually works that can point to whether its the vibrating motor or the drag of the mechanism that's the issue?
Thanks,
Bob
