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I have to disagree with you again Brad, and I will defend myself. I think that the motor on the Christie platter adds way too much backtension on a print during breakdown. You risk stretching the film when the motor in engaged.

You end up with a terribly sloppy reel when the motor is engaged, and the print will be damaged during shipping because it isn't smooth (flat).

You don't let the platter spin completly free. I add a little (and I stress little) backtension by holding on to the platter with my hand. Yes you have to be careful, you have to be careful with a lot of things in a booth. Yes, I end up with a perfectly smooth (flat) reel. No, it is not loose, and it will not shift during shipping. No, there are not cinch marks on the print. You will not damage the print if it is done properly.

Obviously you don't agree (strongly), but I know that I have not damaged a print in this manner. I get much better results doing this, than when I tried to leave the motor engaged.

Yes, I horribly disagree with you on this. How many times have you broken down a print in this manner and then rebuilt it up a couple of times? You haven't, have you? 99.9% of the time the booth that breaks down a print never sees it on screen again and has no idea what damage they are doing. I understood you are trying to brake with your hand, but no human is going to exert constantly even tension. Also, I don't know what kind of film stocks you run in your booth, but I've never had a problem with even acetate film breaking on an AW3 during breakdown. If acetate stocks break down perfectly, there is no way that polyester stocks are going to "stretch". I'm sure John Pytlak can back me up on that one, at least in reference to the durability and strength of Kodak stocks.

Your problem is clearly that your rollers are not aligned properly, which will ALWAYS result in a dished or otherwise warped wind. Correct those problems, don't alter the design of the platter. If the rollers are aligned properly, you will get a perfectly flat, smooth and tightly wound roll. The only other problem you may be having is perhaps your operators are forgetting to punch the "makeup" button on the AW3 before they break down. Many people seem confused by that as you don't HAVE to punch that button in to actually break a print down, but if you don't, the backtension WILL be too much.

According to the monkey training manual the easier it is to train one the less intelligent they need to be.

With less intelligent monkeys the opportunities for other forms of monkey business (read - severe print damage) increase considerably.

Also less intelligent monkeys require fewer bananas at feeding (read - pay) time.

Are you engaging the "makeup" button before you try to break down when you are getting such tension? Remember, this button MUST be depressed for breakdown as well as makeup. If you are still getting too much tension, I'd be interested in knowing the vintage of the platters.

Hey Bevan, when are you going to start participating? I know you're reading this. Now would be an excellent time to chime in.

By the way, I've found some Christie takeup rings will collapse slightly during breakdown (yet some others do not...must've been a change in material). If this is happening to you, one of those plastic DTS cases the feature discs come in fits perfectly in the opening to essentially "lock" the center ring during breakdown.

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Never worked with a Speco, so i can't say anything about them.

I'll give you that spring roller does help immensely in respect to "hand braking", but I still have been less than pleased with the results.

Aaron,

Although I will agree with him... around reel 3 it gets difficult... but I think that's more related to the age and condition of the motor on the spindle of the MUT.

But that's just me. I'm going to go mind my desk now.

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