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2026-07-02 ELMO ST-600 2-Track 8mm sound projector


I recently received three items that obviously worked together. It was a sound movie camera, an editor/splicer and a ELMO ST-600 2-Track 8mm sound projector. It is more accurately described as a Super8 Sound projector.


The projector has a flexible plastic dust cover. This is stored separately in the box, here shown installed.


    And finally here we have the projector. It has autothreading with you inserting the film in that upper right olive coloured assembly. The film will chatter along and eventually emerge out past the upper left roller.

The take up reel is 400 foot, the largest that can fit on the machine.











    The white transport switch has direction forward and backwards with a final position that switches on the lamp. Above it there is a VU meter with a red record button. In between there is a switch for silent and sound movies.












    To the right there is a switch for main track (track 1) left, both tracks and to the right track 2. Below is a volume knob.















    In the middle of the machine there is a zoom knob and below it a frame and loop restore lever. 
    On the front there is a trimmer for the film leader. Above that is the zoom lens and above that the slot you shove the leader into so the projector can autothread.















    The back has the speaker, a vent, a place to set the voltage and below that the AC plug. The projector did not include the cord in the box.

    The opposite end from the projector’s lens has the sound controls that didn’t fit on the front. There are two frames-per-second speeds. Super8 used 18 frames a second for silent and sound. Possibly 24-frames was for commercially released films as 24-frames per second was the 16mm frame speed for sound films.











    The bottom of the machine has twin feet about a third of the way in from the back and a single adjustable wheel foot at the front (to the right).


    If you take the cover off the front to get to see how complicated a self-threading projector can be. When you add a swing-open gate and a sound assembly (towards the middle down) there is a lot going on.


    But then you can remove the cover for the projection bulb and expose more.
    I did manage to find an AC-cord that would power the projector up. The lamp lights, but when placed in the run position nothing moves and the shutter doesn’t flash the light on the wall. I looked on the internet and found a video on how to build up your own flywheel rubber surface. Like other projectors I have looked inside this projector has a single motor to power the cooling fan, the shutter, the advance mechanism and possibly the rewind. This is usually achieved by using multiple belts.
In this machine they have a large flywheel to make the sound drum steady.                   Needless to say it takes some real skills to repair a projector this complicated. I found the case is sealed with a rubber gasket that seems glued in place, so I left it alone. 
The belts appear to be available on line.




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