The Fox Freehead has now finally been broken down to its basic parts. The 82 year old grease, rust, aluminum chips, and most of the broken screws have been removed and cleaned. Simple degreaser was not adequate for this project. It took hours with dental picks, wire brushes, acetone, and degreaser to get all of the parts clean. The amazing thing about this Freehead, despite how small it is, is the number of parts that go into it. Even more impressive is that, with a few exceptions, the vast majority of the parts are custom made specifically for this pan tilt head. The next step is to have the sheared off screws EDM machined out of the casting. Then I have to source a modern grease with the same properties as the original 80+ year old greases I just cleaned off the many parts.
![Twentieth Century Fox Cine Simplex Freehead Pan Tilt Head disassembled](https://cinemagear.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/fox-freehead-3-1024x1024.jpg)