Wurlitzer 150 Rolls - MK4 Roll Scanner

The MK4 roll scanner ordinarily accepts only rolls of 11 1/4" width, with conventional 88n spool ends. Thus it would appear that scanning rolls narrower than 11 1/4" might be perceived to be not possible. What follows is a photo spread illustrating an optional approach that seems to work quite well. In this case, I was presented with a large collection of Wurlitzer 150 band organ rolls for scanning. The donor sought only erolls, but one never knows if the eventual CIS files might one day be used for new recuts. It therefore seems prudents to find a way to scan these rolls on a MK4 scaner.

The process starts with making it possible to load the W150 roll as if it is an 88n rolls. To do this, I had to begin with making it possible to respool the rolls from their 8" x 2" cores, onto empty 88n cores. The following pics illustrates a way of using commonly available items to fabricate a carrier for the W150 rolls, then respooling the roll, then scanning the roll, then reversing the process to put the roll back onto its 2" core.


A couple of common 2" bathtub rubber stoppers serve to capture the roll.
A pair of common 88n spool ends serve to interface with my quick and dirty roll repair rig.


Another view showing why one of the bathtub stoppers needs to be notched.


Process starts with loading the roll onto my roll repair rig.
Note the use of CD coasters as flanges.


Halfway there.


Respooling onto an 88n core underway.


Respooling completed.


Portions of the A3 CIS taped over to minimize the amount of data to be captured.


Scanning underway. I choose to scan a single tune at a time,
stopping between each tune to cinch up the take-up spool.


Scanning nearly completed. Note that the take-up spool paper pack remains neat and clean,
tracking perfectly without the benefit of flanges.


Screen display during a tune scan. The red area is an absence of data. The green is the presence of data.


Roll rewound at completion of scanning all 6 tunes. The slimmer 88n core reduced the overall diameter of the complete roll,
still providing sufficient clearance for at least another full inch of paper diameter, perhaps with an original 10-tune roll.
Rewinding had to be done somewhat slowly, with a couple of stops to re-align the paper pack.
The roll was then removed, returned to the roll repair rig for a reversal of the process.
Remember to rewind on original core from underneath.

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