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The only thing that annoys me is those little thumbscrews on the gate seem to like to jump off, roll a couple miles around the booth, then get lost under a piece of equipment. One time I had one drop through the hole in the floor where the DC leads come up from the rectifier! (see the closeup in the Byrd pictures in the gallery!)

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By the way, before anyone tries removing a blower, you should NOT remove the one that sits on top of the negative end of the lamp blowing down. I'm speaking of the one mounted at the front, top that blows air upward into the stack. The lamp blower can be cushioned to prevent shaking as is explained in "Christie P35GP tips" on the front page of this site.

Granted, brand new and in perfect condition, these blowers don't cause problems...but once they collect a bit of dust and get just a hair off balance, the shaking will begin. Also, these blowers are an "accessory" and are not shipped with all Christie consoles, so perhaps David is not receiving these blowers in the first place.

I have one Christie P35GPS projector that I spent an entire night cleaning out all of the gears, pulleys, and just about everything else, including each individual notch in each gear. I installed new belts (always replace all of the belts at the same time) and put a little Panef belt dressing on them. To this day the projector runs extremely smooth and the Dolby Digital error rate is down to the low teens! (Actually reads about 3 to 4, which is perfectly fine). Picture is remarkable when the labs print them correctly. Belts have not begun to shed yet (it's been about 3 months or so).

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Anyway, no it's not the 2383 flutter. I know exactly what you're talking about, but I only experience that if I run a print without FilmGuard. One pass through FilmGuard and that flutter's a thing of the past. I'm talking about actual vibration from the lamphouse. It is easily felt on the projector and turret. Generally it has a pulsing to it that is unmistakable. Be happy it hasn't happened to you yet. Hopefully Christie will find a fix to that problem, as it is the only real flaw in the SLC console.

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I can generally get both the 35 and 70mm pictures as steady or steadier than any other projector. The 35mm optical head is also one of the best designs. The mag head is only of its only weak points...both stabilizers are the same size and will cause some flutter. Also making the mag head a 10-track presumes the 6-track and 4-track sections will wear out at the same time...I don't know anyone that has had these since the 4-track days that doesn't have spent 6-track sections with good 4-track sections. Oh and despite claims to the contrary, the AA2 is supported by Kinoton and wearables are available...the difference is that you almost NEVER need any parts for it except tension bands and sprockets.

The current generation Kinoton 16, 35 and 70mm projectors and allied equipment will pretty much embarass other projectors in the quality of picture department (and basement readers too...generally they get penthouse performance)

The Century projector is a cement mixer, they always run but hardly the best of design. Mechanically they are flawed in that the vertical shaft must be precisely aligned at 3 points and Century never had the machining to pull it off. Fortunately, the gearing is crude so the slop isn't so bad (again it is a cement mixer). The weak points on the machine (gear side)the main drive, intermittent drive and shutter drive. The driving gears have a bad gear ratio to their driven gears. (Ever notice that the sprocket gears almost never go bad?)The grease application system is also kinda wanting since it depends on regular attention and inherently wants to sling the grease off. Having the main drive gear hidden doesn't help things much.

Are they easy to fix? Sure! A screw driver and a adjustable wrench can do a whole bunch on the machine. The problem is, you often have to. Sure there are a lot of 40-50 year Centurys still out there doing the job day in and day out but none of those oldies are still running on their original gears (save maybe their sprocket gears)

On the film side things are much better. They generally never really got their projector head to line up very well with their soundheads (mag or optical)though. The trap is a heat sucker with no heat shielding. The lens alignment is also rather crude and on the single lens units the option is to have the lens receiver rock or not be able to focus due to its upper lens guide. On the plus side, being able to rock the lens allows for perfect centering when going between formats if the projectors are off center to the screen.

Overall though, the Century does put out a good picture that can be decently steady. It's shutter design (bow-tie) isn't as light efficient as others. To counter this Century has the double-dissolving shutter option that will get you a measurable (and viewable improvement) though it induces a hot-spot and is one more thing to wear out. When double-shutter GR-207 gears start to wear, the light will look like it is flickering though is it the bounce of the two shutters in relation to each other.

I have found the JJ's 35mm gate design to put out steadier pictures than the SA's gate design.

Simplex (XL/35) is, in my opinion, the best of the American projectors. The mechanical design is excellent thoughout. Like Century, there are XLs from the 1949 (first year of production, I believe) still going but unlike Century, a well oiled one is often running on its original gears (or at least the bulk of them are original). The larger sprockets are gentle on the film. The laterial guide roller is a bit flawed in that the heat treating process often induces a warp that can show up as a VERY slow weave on screen as it rotates about. Having to bend the gate tang about to get good intermittent shoe alignment is a bit crude too. Stong has "fixed" that now ny having the intermittent shoe now adjustable.

Like the projector, the Simplex 4-star soundhead can generally be made to run for ever (the gear box one) though there is often debates on the best oil to be used in it (hint, thicker than SAE 30). The loose loop design is better than Century's tight loop design but Simplex blew it when they put a contact part smack dab in the middle of the picture area and on the emulsion side! The current "5-Star" soundhead suffers from the same affliction and has the trendy belt drive problems that other soundheads have.

Take a 4-star soundhead and switch the pinch roller and impedance drum over to the AA2 style and you would have a great soundhead that would last forever.

Both Century and Simplex having projector heads that are still in production since the late 40s/early 50s that are essentually unchanged says alot about them and that cleary a lot of people like both.

Steve

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"Old Projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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I have to give the worst I've worked with to the Simplex E-7 - although it has it's redeeming qualities - particularly it's durability.

We're running two 1936 E-7's and they're still going strong. They don't have the most stable picture, and use a LOT of oil, but they still work every show!

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