I've only read the posts for today (Indepenance Day 2002) so I don't know what others have said prior...

Despite my reel-to-reel upbringing and preference, I actually am rather good with platters as well and have operated, installed and serviced them for decades.

The ones I'm familiar with are the Christie (AW-1, AW-2 and AW-3 in all it's incarnations)

SPECO LP-270

Strong/Potts with MANY, MANY different types of centerfeeds.

Other brands I've had a more passing aquantence with.

As to which platters I prefer (again based on the ones I've personally used at length) depends based on if it is for me or if it is for a customer.

If it is for me, I'll take an AW-3, SPECO LP-270 or Strong SCDC in about equal preference. They all have many strengths and all have glaring weaknesses.

Out of the crate, the Strong SCDC is the most ready to go...just assemble, plug it in and you are done. Service also tends to go to the Strong SCDC...keep the drive tires on the motors fresh and there is little else to worry about (again, based on my experience)...they have required the least service.

From a longevity standpoint, SPECO so far is my winner. An occasional payout module and a rare motor failure is about all I've had. In abusive situations, pushbutton switch failure. And it is ALWAYS the middle deck (the hardest to change). But mostly, the SPECO requires very little attention. Mark, SPECO now has keeper rollers all over it. Plus Gene and George are wonderful people!

Personally, I don't care for the Microswitch, phase control, Magnatronic, forms of the Strong/Potts platter. While I can certainly set up the platter with very good timing, the timing rarely is long lived since the motor drive tires wear. Furthermore, if none of the booth personel are short, the bottom deck never gets used until two titles are on the same screen...when that happens, wham, the bottom deck is way off from the other two.

I have also had a large number of Potts/Strong centerfeed connectors get destroyed. The booth people seem rather abusive to them. When the connectors get beat up, they start becoming flakey.

The Christie can certainly be made to perform quite well. However, you are subject to the whims of Christie's engineers and their suppliers for the performance of the various replacement parts you WILL consume. The thing isn't fused and a shorted work lamp or socket WILL take your transformer down and your platter with it. I wonder how UL approved this thing. Christie has gone through various motor incarnations, LED colors and styles, motor cards, density discs, roller styles, switch banks and every batch of drive tires are DIFFERENT. Sometimes they're soft, sometimes they are harder, the older ones are small diameter, the newer ones are larger. Every tech has their magic formula for setting the speeds.

One big thing Christie has over the others I've mentioned is three independant decks...if one deck goes does for any reason, the other two will be unaffected. Both SPECO and POTTS/STRONG use a common take up.

So, in conclusion, I'll back up Mark's claim about having to service Christie's more than all others but it is still a worthy piece and in the right hands, it can certainly be a great performer.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

Sean, oh no I agree, every piece of equipment ever made has some defects. However there is always some that have more than others. I did not realize you HAD worked with an AW3. Your post did not say that.

Let's be fair. Things wrong with the AW3, current and past:

• The motor drive belts had a period where they were made of Silly Putty-type material. This is no longer a problem.
  
• For a while Christie was using the evil "green" motors. They are back to Bodine.
  
• Older models of AW3 used short payout arms, short takeup arms and brain stripper rollers that were not beveled enough. This is history.
  
• Older models of AW3 had their payout arm spring too tight (usually 3 turns), which caused polyester film to run around the backside of the brain. (Remember these were made before polyester was common.) Now while this never scratched the film, it just LOOKED bad. You have to remove the decks and axles (if AW3R) to loosen the spring.
  
• The green leds are not quite as stable as the red leds of the past. However, I think that bad batch is long since gone, as the green leds from the last few years are solid.
  
• Christie has this newfangled "auto timing" infared upgrade kit which sucks worse than anything I could write here! It is impossible to get a smooth payout. Do not use these. Using this new "upgrade kit" basically turns the performance of the payout into a microswitch level of quality. Order ONLY the "visible" leds, which Bevan has assured me will continue to be made.
  
• I think their new MUT is godawful, even though I have never used it. It is the one that looks like a dolly. I can't imagine not having a comfortable place for the splicer and having to deal with the horizontal spindles. However, the standard make up table which has proven itself over the years will continue to be made. Some people will argue against this table because you cannot rewind a reel of film on it, I say that's what a rewind bench is for. (The way I see it, any theater that does not have a proper rewind bench with good lighting apparently does not really care about their presentation all THAT much anyway. Plus theaters like this would have never bought an AW3 in the first place. They would have gone with something cheaper.)
  
• The older black rollers could be misthreaded in a fashion that you would scratch the entire movie without realizing it (unless the projectionist was actually paying attention, that is). Christie now uses the new style green rollers.
  
• The new green rollers with the new keeper mount is the best on the market. No other combination is easier to thread and it is damn near impossible for the film to fall off of one of these rollers. In fact, I would say it IS impossible, but I suppose in just the perfect situation it is possible, so I won't say that.
  
• The center rings are designed so that you squeeze it and it in a sense "collapses" to remove the ring for re-threading. This is nice because there are no latches to deal with, however during breakdown if you don't put a CD case or something in that opening it can squeeze together and cause cinch scratches on the first 2000 feet or so of the roll. The new center rings now have a latch that for regular operation stays out of the way, but can be latched for breakdown or moving prints if so desired.
  
• There are complaints that the MUT runs too slow. With the new motor you can almost pull the damn platter over! It now have plenty of power.
  
• Stupid "tinkerers" have problems with AW3s. By "tinkerers" I mean people who have no idea what they are doing, but feel the need to fix what is not broken and screw around with the timing controls. This goes back to the "train the people better" argument. When properly calibrated, the AW3 will run flawlessly.
  

Did I leave anything out? Past that there really isn't anything wrong with the AW3. My comments regarding my possessed Strong Alpha were NOT exaggerated in the least bit. That thing threw prints as if that was what it was built to do. When you get burned on something really bad and no other tech can make it work right either, you tend to hold a bit of a grudge. I will believe there are people who don't have any major problem with the microswitch type of platter not throwing prints. I'll buy that this particular machine was simply possessed, but that doesn't answer why other microswitch units around town still toss prints occasionally (once a month type of thing) and that is also no excuse for all of the other design errors I listed in an earlier page of this thread. When compared to the AW3, this is a no contest situation...unless the person making the purchasing decisions is just being cheap.

I time them slow.

I set the timing more or less as is the "proper" way to do it, then I slow them down a bit.

Set up this way the platters wrap about 3/4 of the way around the centerfeed (sometimes more if the print is over 1.75 hours) before they start to catch up. I have NEVER seen this cause even the slightest bit of film damage. The rollers around the brain assure this.

Perhaps this is why I never have any thrown prints...even without any film retainers of any kind.

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Personally, I don't care for the Microswitch, phase control, Magnatronic, forms of the Strong/Potts platter.

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What is Magnatronic? And are the Weenie Man and I the only ones who like the microswitch version? Why is that? What's wrong with them? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned.

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Furthermore, if none of the booth personel are short, the bottom deck never gets used until two titles are on the same screen...when that happens, wham, the bottom deck is way off from the other two.

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Like so many other issues, this goes back to training. I always use all three platters in rotation. In fact, at my last theater, it was company policy to do so, for that exact reason. (That doesn't mean anyone but me ever did it )

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I have also had a large number of Potts/Strong centerfeed connectors get destroyed. The booth people seem rather abusive to them. When the connectors get beat up, they start becoming flakey.

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The only way I've seen these get destroyed is from the brain getting dropped. I make it a habbit to never leave a brain just sitting on the platter, just like a splicer.

While we're on the subject of Strong platters, I have a question. Do you think it would be a good idea to disengage the motors at night so the tires don't develop flat spots from the weight of the print, or is overnight not long enough to affect them?

As to the connectors on the centerfeeds coming from being dropped...yup got plenty of splicer repairs from those being dropped/thrown-off-the-platter as well!

Steve

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