Quite frankly, I never knew a cast iron BX-80 existed. Just talked to Aaron, too. He never heard of one, either.

Aaron thinks that the cast aluminum one is pre-WWII(1941), as the war effort would have made aluminum valuable for the war, thus a cast-iron frame would have to be the compromise on that machine. The aluminum one would be 1940 model.

Excellent history of the Brenkerts. Robert Sprague definitely does sound like an interesting character (thanks for the email Bob!). I will add Robert to the list of the projectionists to be contacted (it's growing every day).

Just a quick progress report: I am working on writing grants and editing a 5 minute sample clip of two projectionists who have been interviewed for the project. As soon as I can raise the funds to begin full-time production, I will be contacting many projectionists. In the meantime, please contact me if you have anyone that you think would make an interesting profile/character.

Cheers,
Gabriel Rhodes

p.s. I will notify the forum about the sample clip's completion and I will include a link for you all to take a look at it.

I am not familiar with the PS-24 sound heads, but I have seen a wimpy Century chain-driven R-(whateverthehellitwas) with a 1/6 HP motor handle a BX-40. It had to work its butt off to get that thing going, but once it did, it had no problem keeping it going without overheating. It was in a Marcus Outdoor Theater in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1980.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that on Sunday, 2 September 2001, I ran my first carbon arc booth since the late 1980's. It was equipped with Brenkerts, Peerless Magnarcs, and RCA 9050 sound heads. It had an Eprad Starbelch processor (sounded good, too). I had a nice audience watching the 9 reel movie. (Josh and his father)

Thanks, Josh, for letting me run your booth. Next time I will make sure that I won't come on out of frame in the 3rd reel.

Paul

I am not familiar with the PS-24s. They are older than the 1040s. I have been told that the PS24 is a real pain! The data tag on my 1040 reads both ps24 and 1040 and it is definately a 1040.

I don’t know of any other RCA projector installations in the UK, so the Royalty could well have been the only one the UK. Most RCA soundheads here were fitted with Ross or Simplex projector heads. I believe that RCA also installed Italian FEDI projectors, perhaps someone can confirm this.

The extremely reliable RCA 9031 soundheads have been running in Cranleigh since 1954.
I also have an RCA Hollywood 16mm projector with 5,000’ spools which has done many private shows over 25 years.

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At the Drive-in, we did not use the ballast resistors (someone thought they needed them worse than we did), and the starting torque was so high that we popped shear keys in the BX-60's quite frequently.

Paul

Paul, et al, I took another look at my BX- 40 start up time. It's probably more like a second or so. Since it haven't sheared the fuse in nearly two years of occasional running, I've got to believe all is well. The BX - 40 has to have lower start up inertia than the BX - 80 since there is only one shutter blade. I wouldn't be surprized that the shutter is a big contributor to the overall inertial of the mechanism.

Paul

Another thing that I did to my 1040 was mount the 1050 bracket w/flywheel and brake to it.

I had a conversation w/John Eickhof about the true rpm of these motors. John confirmed that these were 1725 rpm motors. The odd speeds given in the tech books and lack of info on the motor data tags were a marketing ploy so you would be forced to buy through RCA, Simplex, etc.

What I have noticed about the R & M motors is this: on the 1040s, they used sleeve bearings on both ends of the rotor which required lube. On the 1050s, they modified the end castings so that one end of the rotor had a sleeve bearing and the other end a sealed roller bearing. Then on the 9030 and later they used roller bearings on both ends. These were essentially the same motors--just with modified end cap castins/patterns for roller bearings.

If anyone needs to have their motor serviced take it to a small motor shop. They can check the balance of the rotor (thats why they are painted w/layout dye) and do a general servicing/cleaning. It is very easy to damage a motor if you dont know what you are doing--and it can also be easy to chip the winding varnish which can cause the motor to short out--but this is fixable.

There are a million and one different manufacturers of small motors--1725rpm is a standard speed. I need to look and see--just for the heck of it-if any of these new motors will fit on the 1040-9050. Theres bound to be something that should. These motors are quite cheap and might be less expensive to buy new instead of having the old ones serviced--unless you are working on a restoration project?
The only thing with a new motor is also checking into installing a ballast resistor

I think they are basically a Frame 48 (maybe?). A good accurate measurement and comparison would verify that. But the shaft configuration for the flywheel (or lack of) could be the real issue.

If I recall correctly, the 90xx motor is a Frame KS-145, and the 10xx is a Frame 3951. And, yes, the RPM box is blank on the 1050 motor.

In any event, it might be possible for a standard run-of-the mill 1725rpm 1/4hp motor might work on some of them if they can be bolted up and still maintain a proper motor shaft to pinion shaft alignment.

But if a flywheel is used, shaft length could be a major issue, and I think that the KS-145 motor uses a tapered shaft for the flywheel.

Maybe some of the other pro's out here can be more specific as to what actually will and what will not work.

Paul