Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Splicemaster Ultrasonic Splicer

This is topic Splicemaster Ultrasonic Splicer in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 06-15-2014, 03:15 PM:

Anyone know if this was a decent ultrasonic splicer? Looks Kinda cheap but then I need it to splice together a bunch of 16mm home movies post 1970's on Polyester. I'm trying to avoid using tape, I've found tape splices don't hold up well over the years.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-15-2014, 04:34 PM:

Never heard of it, but if you use quality splicing tape it will hold up indefinitely.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 06-15-2014, 06:18 PM:

I do have a roll of 'Nue Tape' from making up 35mm prints but it's thin and hard to deal with by hand. It's also 35mm width so I have to cut it for 16. The prints I made up were at a revival house and we'd get prints in that had several tape splices on each head and tail from previous showings where everyone would cut off a new frame. What I found was the older tape splices had stretched enough that the splice became flimsy. I'll probably end up using tape but I'll look for something thicker that's easier to work with by hand.

Posted by Gary A. Hoselton (Member # 3447) on 06-20-2014, 11:35 PM:

Edward, cheap tape may stretch and even creep. More often, the gaps are due to film shrinkage which is common with much older acetate film. The 16mm splicer expects a perf pitch of 0.300" when shearing, and shrunken film has slightly shorter pitch so, when butting film ends before applying tape, there is a gap between film ends. I deal with this with my Ciro tape splicers by biasing the cutter blade outboard slightly when cutting shrunken film, so as to cut slightly long. Then get tight butt to apply tape to. Takes a little practice, but result is worth it.