[Frameworks] 16mm Splicer

[todd eacrett]

The blades and punches can be sharpened, and they mostly likely will 
need it if you buy a used splicer. Disassemble it and take the blades 
and punches to a place that sharpens saws and industrial cutters. But 
explain to them what and how it cuts. The punches need to be ground 
from the inside of the little V to maintain the outer profile. The 
blades should be ground from the outside, with minimal bevel on the 
inside faces. 

Clean the rest with acetone to remove the tape gunk. 

The actual film plate in the base of the splicer is the other half of 
the cutting surface, but it wears less than the blades and punches if 
everything is properly aligned. If the edges of the plate and/or the 
perf holes are excessively worn, you'll never get a clean splice. 

The blades are spring steel, slightly curved to align with pressure to 
the base plate. Dullness is more of an issue there than alignment. As 
the baseplate wears to less than 16mm, the blades just take a wee bit 
of film off with the tape. If the perf holes in the plate are 
oversized, you can't make the punches bigger. Just pick the hanging 
chads off with tweezers. 

I have one of the double sided 16mm splicers I will probably never 
use... If anyone needs it, make me an interesting offer. 

Cheers,

Todd Eacrett
Victoria, BC, Canada

On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 19:31:40 -0400, David Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com> wrote:
There are actually different kinds of guillotine (Catozzo-type) 
splicers, one designed mainly for making workprint splices (one sided), 
and another designed for making projector splices (two-sided): though 
you can use either for the other with reduced convenience. The 
two-sided model cuts the tape with a flap to the bottom that you just 
fold over to cover the other side. To make a one-side splice with it, 
you have to trim off the flap. To make a two-sided splice with the 
one-side splicer, you have to turn the film over and around and repeeat 
the process on the other side -- it was easier with double perf, but 
hah, those were the days. 
>
> The problems with guillotine splicers: • the blades that cut across 
> the width of the splicing tape get dull and misaligned, but it's 
> pretty easy to do it manually with an xacto knife
> • the punches that put sprocket holes in the tape often leave 
> little pieces hanging, and they're a pain in the butt to trim
>
> The problem with Rivas splicers:
> • You have to be deft enough to get the holes in the tape lined up 
> with sprocket holes, and the tape and film edges straight. Almost all 
> the Rivas splices I've seen in rental prints are crooked. 
>
>
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