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I followed the threading guidelines in the Tips section and am going to sand down some of the platters tomorrow, but what else can I do to crank out decent performance from the P35GPS's?

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Horribly unsteady picture
Very loud operation
Pad roller handles just popping off and throwing the roller out of alignment. Right now I just replace the roller.
Not very sharp focus. Not sure if thats christies fault. We have all schneider lenses, may I have bad eyes.
And the lower constant speed assembly (or the motor itself?) moves much more freely and quietly on some of the projectors than others. Is that just belts or an oddity?

Loud operation. Check your loop sizes. This is generally the problem. See the "threading 101" under "tips".

Pad roller handles...many people I know put a drop of SuperGlue on them. The super quick and dirty fix is to cut yourself a tiny piece of masking tape and put it on the shaft, then replace the handle. (Tape won't even wrap around the shaft fully.) Sounds cheap, but it works and it works damn well.

Schneider makes excellent lenses. I had a horrible problem with focusing until I removed the exhaust fans in the lamphouse that exhausted the air directly to the outside. Of course in my situation there was enough air flow that they were not needed, so I cannot definitely tell you to do this. (The fans were out of balance and were literally shaking the entire console enough to blur the image.) Check with your engineer first before doing that. Not all lamphouses even come outfitted with them. Another possibility would be to put a cushion on the bulb blowers, as that also increased projected resolution. Pictures of this are in the "tips" section.

Assembly turning freely...generally this is the belts being tighter or looser. However, there is a tiny washer on the shaft with the enormous allan head screw that I see commonly getting lost. You "should" be able to crank that down tightly without seizing up the assembly. I see machines running all the time where someone took it apart to change belts, lost the part and then just decided to not tighten it down quite all the way, but enough for it to cause significant drag when turning the motor over by hand.

The projector should not mess with an SRD penthouse reader.

I'll check again, but I'm pretty sure they all have blowers in the lamp houses. I'll talk to engeneering tomorrow about modifying them.

I follow your threading process almost exactly, except I havent had enough time to practice and gain speed on threading up. The noise is probably coming from the "ultra" mittent since I hear it when the motor is running without film. Someone asked if anyone had cracked one open. I figured I'd re-ask since 1.5 years has passed since.

Using FilmGuard will steady the vertical shaking. Even just wiping the edges of the print with it will improve the registration. There is no physical adjustment on the projector to combat that.

On the horizontal steadiness, Christie sells a little alignment tool which is worth gold for stopping the horizontal "weaving". I don't remember what the part number is, but get one!

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The first is the fact that the outer cam bearing is not in the lube at all. And this bearing is subjected to a pretty harsh environment and load....all the belt gunk, humidity and condensation buildup that can possibly happen in a booth seems to accumulate in this bearing. Moving the outer cam bearing into the lube is a very simple thing to do. The shaft seal would then reside on the outside of the bearing as it does in a Pro 35 movement.

2. No lube is present in the outer star brearing either and this would be difficult to do. Unfortunately this outer bearing only has a crappy fibre shield on it and this allows lots of film dust to enter the bearing. Installing a beearing with a felt seal would easily extend this bearings life by 100 and not really add any unnecessary load on the movement. A rubber seal would be even better here but may add too much extra load on the cam pin.
Several good things have happened to the Ultramittent in the past couple of years though. First, the star is now webbed to make it stronger(as in the X-L) Both inner ball bearings have been replaced with bronze(or oilite) bushings eliminating this troublesome problem area. Its interesting that Motiograph did the same thing with the AA movement after they realized that ball bearings for the inner positions wouldn't cut it. These bushings should help extend life somewhat but there is still that troublesome outer cam bearing that WILL fail eventually, especially in high humidity, or dusty locations.

The cam pin(and cam and star dinemsions minus shafts) in the Ultramittent are the same in the Simplex X-L. This makes replacing the cam pin an easy thing to do if the movement is noisy during pull down. The only thing to be careful of here is to check the slots in the star as they may also be worn if the bad pin was let run too long. Worn slots may simply chew up the new pin in a short time period.
If anyone needs assistance with Ultramittents please feel free to contact us.
Mark @ GTS www.getgts.com
mark@getgts.com
801-485-5012 Phone

I did a lot of lubricating and cleaning on everything else that rolls, and the sound seems to have cut down.
Mark: Is there a way to clean and oil the parts you mentioned being outside of the sealed oil system? And if so, where can I find a diagram of their location?

Brad: What is you're exhaust system like to not need the blower inside?

Change over conversion: I performed all these conversions at my old theater. They work fairly well but need occasional adjustment. These adjustments are a "feel" that I have a hard time explaining--'tis easier to show. --New douser blades that are supposed to resist warpage are now out, but I do not have any experience with these. But in any case, warped douser blades will have an adverse effect on the changeover system!

Heavier steel Jackshaft and Shuttershaft pullies are now out. They do not wear as quickly as the old light aluminum ones do. However, keeping the pullys clean, proper alignment and belt tension are critical for proper operation. Also keeping the belt and pulleys clean and freshly lubed with a few drops of belt dressing is also very important! Swapping the pulleys can be a bear because Christie Lock-Tighted the set screws! Jackshaft must be removed from projector when swapping pulleys because of clearance problems.

There is a new style of Jackshaft assembly out--I have no experience with it.

The projector drive motor now has a hinged bracket. I have no experience with it.

Has Christie solved the problems of gate hardware loosening up? They love Lock-Tight! I prefer proper self locking hardware, lock washers, safety wire, cotter keys, etc!

Christie also has a "brain-wrap" failsafe attached to the AW-3. How is it working?

There are now quasi "beefed up" center rings. How are they? The brand new platters I recently saw did not have the two different diameter center rings to allow for trailer changes.

The AW-3 also has some "improved" electronics. I have no experience with it-how is it?

Still no arc viewing port on the SLC consoles. Also, access pannels are still screwed on (I heard that they were going to hinge them all).

Same old current tap switch on the power supply that many people have reported having problems with. Just remember to adjust tap switch with power off so that you do not melt-n-weld the contacts!

This is all--for now!