Grafmatics won't advance

[John Dorio]

Having taken 5 Grafmatics with me on a trip, I shot a first run with Tri X on sc enic landscapes with some difficulty. Pulling out the ringed holder with the tab pressed in is the usual procedure after shooting a frame and this causes the ne xt number to appear on the counter. Well the next frame wouldn't load after push ing it in on some of my grafmatics. Could this be caused by using "old" and outd ated Tri X? I usually shoot APX100 with no difficulty. Before loading the second run of film, I dry tested my holders and found no problems with the frame advan ce. But after reloading the holders, again I had film advance problems. Can anyo ne explain what could be wrong here?

[Tony Brent]

I have found that the felt light traps just under the open end, and one further down inside the box have come loose on some of mine. I had to disassemble the holder (not that bad a project -- just remember where things went and don't loose the screws.) I re-glued the original felt with a contact cement.

The traps would interfere with the slide mechanism when I tried to close the magazine.

If you had the septums loaded in the tray with the open ends at the wrong side of the holder, they will sometimes jam and bend. Check the instructions at:

http://www.graflex.org/speed-graphic/grafmatic/