CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Nashou66]

Hi Guys, This procedure is very risky since Bellows wont be sold By VDC anymore, hence the reason i wanted to remove a bellow from a otherwise perfect tube and clear Glycol,also i plan to add a red C-element.

I am going to take this bellow to manufactured to see if they can be made, tooling cost will be the largest cost I think but we will see.

Ok, first off you nee syringe and a small long tube to reach the bottom of the LC chamber. I made on from some hobby store parts. I got a syringe for applying Glue,a piece of 12 inch long 3/32 diameter tubing(aluminum) and some heat shrink tubing of different sizes (radio Shack).

Blurry picture of Syringe , tube and heat shrink assembled



On the top of the LC housing you will see two hex screws , remove them slowly as there might be some pressure and it could squirt out, I was lucky no squirt! Put the tube slowly down into the chamber:

Tube in chamber end all the way to bottom



This is the part that takes a long time, if you have a really large syringe it go a bit faster. Slowly draw up till the syringe is filled then empty into a jar for later use if its nice and clear like mine. i had to do this procedure about 30 times.

Almost there !



Once its all out remove the C-element mounting ring.

Ring removed



i was so concentrated on removing the C-element i forgot to take a picture of me removing the bellow from the C-element !! Any how i only have two hands and I needed both to separate the bellow from the C-Element. What you do is you get something that has a sharp pint to get a grip on the edge of the C-element and pry it out of the mounting plate hole. Be careful you don't slip and scratch the Element ! I used the tip of a 1/4 inch paddle drill bit( I know not normal tool but it had a nice sharp tip to dig into the edge of the C-element). slowly work your way around the edge till you get it to move, you dont have to get it out as the bellow is holding it in place since it is probably adhered to the C-element. Once you feel you loosened it all the way around, this will take some force also, but use controlled pressure when freeing it.It took me about 5 rotations little by little till it finally broke free of its grip of the mounting plate hole. now at the top of the tube side of the C-element i pried it out enough to use my soldering scraper from radio shack to separate the bellow from the lens. Be very carefull here as you can puncture the bellow, then your screwed having to send your tube assembly to VDC for replacement . This is hard as you need to keep the lens and bellow out enough from the mounting plate to get to the seam of the bellow and lens. I put a lot of pressure with my thump against the edge of the lens to hold it up enough from the mounting plate to pry the bellow down from the lens. wish I could have taken a pic. I'll add one when I do this again for my other red C I need to add. Once i got it free I opened up enough area to stick my finger into the opening and slide it around between the lens and bellow till it was free!!! Yeee ha!!!!!!! I did it!!!

Free C-element



now pry the bellow from the mounting plate hole being just as carefull, it might be stuck just like the C-element.

Removing Bellow from mounting plate



Run your finger around the mounting plate hole and between the Bellow, the C-element removal explained earlier looked just like this !!



Once you separated the Bellow from the mountin plate remove the screws that hold the mounting plate to the back of the housing assembly.

remove all screws



Mounting plate removed!!



Next remove all the screws from the metal gasket that hold the Bellow to the back of the Housing.

metal gasket and bellow revealed



I used a star socket, the screws came out with just finger pressure for me, not sure if this is how loose they should be?

Rusty Star tool to match rusty screws!



Once all the screws are removed pull off the metal gasket




This part of the bellow is also going to be adhered to the housing, I used my Solder scraper tool again and then my fingers lifting little by little all the way around the bellow. GO SLOW !!!! you don't want to tear it, it took em about 15 minutes to go all the way around.

Use finger to gently pry away bellow


Be carefull near screw holes!!! less material there and easier to tear go SLOW!!!!

Be carefull near screw holes!!




Bellow removed all in one piece!!!


Naked housing



When it comes time to reinstall the bellow you need to clean the edge of the housing as some of the bellow ribs may have stuck to it. Clean the face of your tubes and bellow housing before putting it back together, i have to wait for my red C-element before i can continue.

Athanasios

Just noticed there is an advanced procedure for C-element rmoval!! oh well Mine went one step further
with the bellow removal .

[Arno P]

Perferct Manual, Thanks !

[Mark_A_W]

Ok, why do you guys constantly need bellows if they can be removed intact with a bit of care?

Why can't you reuse them?

Do they typically degrade?


Did you figure out why the glycol gets discoloured? The housing looks hard anodised, the bellows covers everything else....it should be ok for ever....what can't I see in the pictures?

[Nashou66]

If the seal isn't that great I assume air can get in and possibly some micro organism that can cloud the glycol in time. also the screws they use are not stainless and of some other material, when i pushed in the tube to suck out the glycol it pushed some fungus that was clinging to the bottom of the screw down into the chamber.
Its not a bit of care its EXTREME care. this is not as easy as the pics look to separate the bellow. I didn't take pics of the critical part,
removing the C-element, and that is why we need extra Bellows when replacing the C-elements out to colored ones.
If the bellow is damaged it's shot, no way to use it again or repair. There is now Billy Mays super puddy that can fix it
Also they can degrade and become very spongy and burst if too much pressure is built up over time. Mine were weeping/sweating, I am not sure if that is normal or if I had too much pressure but i want to replace them all with new ones and be assured i'll have a nice seal for the next 10 years or so.
These bellows could be over 15 years old, Don't want them to spring a leak while watching a movie, and ask Gino what happens when you get Glycol on your boards.

Athanasios

Athanasios

[Mark_A_W]

It's not fungus, it's corrosion - a chemical reaction. You could try adding some glycerin if they just used glycol.

Stainless screws may not be a good idea with an aluminium housing - that sets up a galvanic pair, corroding the aluminium. You may want to coat aluminium screws, rather than introduce another material like stainless.

Pity they didn't make them properly in the first place...like a NEC No screws contact the coolant, just the black housing and the bellows. Sorry, I just had to.

[stefuel]

I guess I'll have to inject my .02 cents worth, otherwise the price of AmPro stock will increase and I aim to keep the stock down I know I'm a AmPro fan but that doesn't mean I don't keep up with the lessor projectors.
It's common for Marquee bellows to "sweat" under pressure. If you'd just follow Tim's advice and remove the pressure, you'll most likely be OK. If the pressure was normalized, you could poke a hole in it and the fluid would stay in. Have you ever put your finger over the end of a straw and lifted it out of a glass and noticed that the liquid stayed in the straw.
You guy's are making this bellows thing much more difficult than it needs to be.

[Ile]

Your tubes was easy, because c-element was not clued to bellows like those I have removed.

When glued, it's needed to remove bellow from screw end first, that is pretty slow from that small opening between aluminium frames. Then bellow need to be pulled through front plate and finally cut bellow from c-element.

[Nashou66]

[Nashou66]

[stefuel]

[CRT_Ben]

[draganm]

[Nashou66]

You have to remove all those small hex screws on the metal gasket. unless you allready have the tube removed fromthe housing then you can push the C-element out easier.

Athanasios

[stefuel]

[antorsae]

Great post.

I left an air bubble in mine to help with the pressure.

[Nashou66]

[Arno P]

[Nashou66]

they are not glued, but stick over time. same as the other side of the bellow it sticks to the crt housing. its easy to rip if you dont go slow, very slow pulling it away from the metal. And use your finger nothing sharp.

Athanasios

[Arno P]

[rpruen]