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Mirror replacement Martin 518


Ed Kaz

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Beware odd sources or DIY. Most moving mirrors are thinner than you expect and the motors miss steps if the mirrors are too massive.

The original mirrors are very thin, maybe even <1mm. We used to contract to Martin back in mid 90's and when the supply of mirrors temporarily dried up they had some made locally which were much thicker but still very thin by domestic mirror standards. Every single unit we repaired came back as quick as you could say jack rabbit complaining of going out of sync.

 

We used a silicon based adhesive which set hard but for the life of me I have no idea what product it was, many glues (especially things like evo stick/bostik) can't cope with the oil vapour in the air from the smoke fluid.

Don't forget the mirror is front silvered.

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I have a contact who has 11 working 518 units plus a spare/donor unit - I can put you in touch if that's of any assistance?

 

If he is willing to sell me a mirror...Sure. Thanks

 

Cheers,

Sam

 

 

 

 

Very thin front surface mirrors are available cut to precise dimensions from http://www.scientificmirrors.co.uk/ They have sorted me out mirrors for various scans successfully, I can highly recommend them

 

Good to know! I might need some mirrors for some highend powerscans 250MR's. Thanks

 

 

 

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I have a contact who has 11 working 518 units plus a spare/donor unit - I can put you in touch if that's of any assistance?

 

If he is willing to sell me a mirror...Sure. Thanks

 

Cheers,

Sam

 

 

 

 

Very thin front surface mirrors are available cut to precise dimensions from http://www.scientificmirrors.co.uk/ They have sorted me out mirrors for various scans successfully, I can highly recommend them

 

Good to know! I might need some mirrors for some highend powerscans 250MR's. Thanks

 

 

 

Hi Sam, Can you write your reply AFTER the [/qu0te] please (Shown here with a 0 instead of a o to not cause a problem).

 

So as you are writing it will look like this:

 

 

[qu0te name=James Remo' timestamp='1635322026' post='591477]

Very thin front surface mirrors are available cut to precise dimensions from http://www.scientificmirrors.co.uk/ They have sorted me out mirrors for various scans successfully, I can highly recommend them

[/qu0te]

Good to know! I might need some mirrors for some highend powerscans 250MR's. Thanks

 

 

 

That way we can see more easily what your response is and to what. Thanks. Sunray.

Edited by sunray
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As far as I can tell the OP is in PA USA (Pennsylvania)

 

The last things I saw for making DIY replacement mover mirrors were small mirror tiles from a bathroom shop.

Don't go there... the Martin lights, and I suspect others too, WILL NOT COPE with the weight.

 

 

Caveat: my experience stopped in 1996... things may have changed since.

Edited by sunray
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Without a professional supplier of the official spare part, there are some risks and challenges. Measure a piece of the broken mirror for thickness, that's the thickness you need, then you need a professional mirror supplier with that thickness in stock, and a good guess at the proper size.

 

If the mirror is too big or too thick it will likely miss steps and go out of sync with other lanterns and the rest of the show.

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Without a professional supplier of the official spare part, there are some risks and challenges. Measure a piece of the broken mirror for thickness, that's the thickness you need, then you need a professional mirror supplier with that thickness in stock, and a good guess at the proper size.

 

If the mirror is too big or too thick it will likely miss steps and go out of sync with other lanterns and the rest of the show.

This is all correct as the drive algorithms for the mirror motors are designed to take into account the weight of the mirror.As James Remo posted above you will not get such a mirror from a normal mirror glass supplier - you need to go to an optical glass specialist such as a laser optics supplier or a dichroic glass supplier. "First surface mirror" and "Dichroic mirror" are good search terms when looking for a supplier.

 

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My early waggly mirror disco lights had 2mm thick rear surface mirror, and I did replace some mirrors with 2mm mirror tile from B&Q. They matched for size and weight so they skipped steps on a par with the rest.

 

First you need to measure the thickness of the mirror then you need a profile of the shape of the mirror, these must match. Front surface mirror is nice and it's beam is sharper, but if unavailable rear surface mirror works.

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