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I would not use VKF sprockets unless you know the mag film has not had any shrinkage. I have mag and some films I have will not line up properly on VKF sprockets. Others prints will. I am in the process of replacing my sprockets with new C/S ones. We ran all types of sprocket holes on C/S sprockets for years in the theatres with no problems. I would rather use the VKF's but not at the risk of damaging the film. There should be some old Dolby CP-100's around with MPU-1 with them for a reasional price in your neck of the woods. They work very nice in a home. Best of luck in your project.
Dick

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Well, I got up there yesterday, It's about a five hour journey each way, so I didn't have long there, but I did get one machine working, at least in 3 channel.

Had a lot of problems, firstly the roof of the box is rather low, and getting the heads in the right position, without the top of the spool box hitting the roof was not easy; I had made up some adapter plates, but they needed some metal removed from ne side of them, befofe they would fit on the projectors. No chance of finding a milling machine anywhere nearby, even the nearest village is about 5 km away, so I had a couple of hours work with a file.

A friend of the family is an electrician, and they had him run some steel conduit from where the penthouses would be to the sound rack, with a flexible section to connect to the machines, and a cord run through for pulling the cable. Nice job, cables pulled through for both machines, and couduit connected to the one penthouse I had taken up in about ten minutes. These penthouses are amasingly large and heavy, there is no way I could have carried both, and the pre-amp unit, on the same day.

MPU and power supply installed in rack, no problems, cables connected, no problems, demagnetise everything, this is going too well. Lace up a loop, and can get sound, plus hum, on L,C and S, hum only on R. Getting rid of hum takes about an hour, but still no right output. It turns out to be a faulty 'B' channel on a pre-amp card, and others are at home, so cannot fix this until the next visit. I swap the two cards over, so we can at least get the three main channels up.

There was one reel of old mag-opt print there for me to run, I'm not sure what it was, looked like one of the '50s epics, but I didn't recognise it. Picture was just slightly faded, but not too bad, I ran the half width optical track. You don't realise how much optical tracks have improved since the '50s until you hear them together, I had taken a trailer with SR on it so I could hear what the new sound system was like. Switching between the two was quite remarkable. Now for the moment of truth, switch to the mag.

I never heard a great deal of mag on 35, much more on 70, but the memories came back, it really does sound quite different to optical, and was exactly as I remember it in the '60s and early '70s. I must have done something right. It was bit hissy, but I never found a small amount of hiss too much of a problem, mains hum and distortion is far worse for me. After a bit of tweaking decide it sounds better with the hf turned down a shade on the pre-amps.

There were some friends of the family in the house at the time, so we put on a quick show, three cartoons, two in mono, one in Perspecta, the trailer in SR, a pity we didn't have any Dobly A available, and finished up with the odd reel of mag. One problem I hadn't thought of was lack of non-magnetic spools, I could only find two, but I know where I can get hold of some more. I took a CS sprocket with me, to replace the unsuitable top one on the second machine, but didn't have time to fit it yesterday.

I still need to modify the other adapter plate, fit the penthouse and sprocket on the second machine, install the other pre-amp cards and the Cat 93, I think I may have found one, but am waiting for a reply to an e-mail. A pair of 2.55 aperture plates will be needed, the second machine needs connecting up, as does the change over, but that will have to wait until the next time I can get up there.

Now for the big problem, and it's nothing to do with the sound. When I went into the box, one of the lamphouses had been removed, and replaced by a Kodak Carousel slide projector. It turns out that during a show at Christmas, they have only used the machines once since then, one of the rectifiers had caught fire, nothing serious, it was soon put out. These rectifiers are horrible things, very small, about the size of two shoe boxes, but noisy, hot, and have far more ripple than is good for a xenon, so their demise is not a matter for great regret. The problem is what to replace them with. The existing xenon setup is not good, the small 500W lamps do not align correctly, whatever you do, screen illumination is low or eneven, or both. The Carousel, with a lens focusing the light into the gate, gives a picture almost as bright, and more even, but the colour is poor. Just getting a new rectifier does not really solve the problem, getting two smaller xenons will cost money, and they are thinking about installing halogen lamps instead. That would be a pity, but might at least be a short term solution, so they can at least put on a reasonable show; changing over beteen a xenon and the halogen in the Carousel looks really bad.

They only run film a few times each year, most of the time they use Laserdisc or DVD, installed in a cabinet in the auditorium, with a small LCD projector, and using the same amplifier/speaker system as for film. The only expensive thing they have bought which is for film only is the processor, which they tell me they got for a very good price as it had some serious fualts, which they managed to get fixed for free. Anyway, they don't want to spend large amounts, or anything if they can help it, on new lamps at the moment. Another problem is that they want to keep the machines looking 'right', and something like the small Orcon lamphouses with built-in power supplies would look odd on these machines. Also, they have only single phase power available. There is three phase in their farm buildings, but putting in a cable from there, several hundred metres away, would be very expensive. Maybe 400W halogens in the existing lamphouses would be the best answer in the short term.

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Baby Orcons don't look odd behind 1950's Westars, I've got loads like that on service. If you can get a couple of healthy Orcon 1000B then you're home and dry. Nice and small, single phase and the light is really good if the unit is in good order and working properly. Beware mirrors are not cheap, and the main transformer is, or was available, but is serious money. If they didn't like the colour you could always refinish the outer case to match the Westars, well closely math, it's bound to have faded and have 50 years of soot, oil and much ingrauined in by now.

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You do have a lot of the Orcons up there, don't you, I remember when we did the Cumbria visit, they were almost everywhere we went. I think they do look odd, they look too small, and they cetainly don't look '50s. It's a pity they wouldn't look right, as they would be ideal, otherwise. I must have a picture of one of them somewhere, I could show it to them, and see what they think, but I dont think they will like it. I have seen them used is several places where they didn't work very well, but the main problem seems to be that people use them on screens which are too big for them. This is a slightly bigger screen than I thought, it's just slightly under four metres, with the masking right out for scope, so they would be fine for that.

There's no soot or oil, I even have to be careful not to leave a fingerprint anywhere it would show, they actually give me a cloth to wipe anything I've touched! When they were given the machines they were in good condition, but they had them completely restored, and they look as if they are from a makers showroom. the original sound rack is there as well, and can stil be used, but the new one sounds better.

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Excuse my bluntness, but for people who don't want to spend a penny on equipment, maybe they shouldn't be quite so picky about the aesthetics of the "look" of the equipment.

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I don't think I should comment on that!

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Godo point Frank, and it can't look any worse than a carousel slide projector sat on the lamphous beam!

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True, but at least the Carousel was only put there for one show. I did use it yesterday, but that wasn't their intention when they put it there. Neither it, nor the old xenons really give acceptable results. That is the reason that they have only put on one show since the fire.

They are going to have to get something, because those machines ai'nt going to be showing aynthing the way they are now, which is a pity, because it's a nice set-up. I wonder if it would be possible to mount one of the smallest Orcons inside the existing lamphouses, so they would still look the same. They normallly don't show film during the Summer, but do about one show a month during the rest of the year. Summer will soon be over, so they will have to decide soon what they are going to do about it.

To be honest, they can be quite difficult to deal with. They are a quite reclusive couple, they live miles from anywhere, and have no telephone at home. The nearest public telephone is at least two miles away. The only way to communicate with them is by letter, or a 300 odd mile journey to get there. The nearest station is a long way away, trains are infrequent, and there is no bus from the station to anywhere within miles of where they live. They were not keen on me asking for advice on this forum, they made me promise not to reveal where it is, and they have never let me take any photographs of their set-up, which is a pity, it's a very nice looking place.

I will have to go back sometime to finish setting up the mag equipmeent. It will probably be at the end of next month, I don't think I will have time before then, I will see if they have done anything next time I am there.

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Steve

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Anyway, I think we have a solution, at least a temporary one. They didn't like the sound of the Orcons; they do like the sound of the Magnarcs, and they have a pair, which I'd forgotten about until somebody suggested using them. When they were given the Westars they were also given various spools, rewinders etc, the AEIs then in use, plus the original Magnarcs, which had been removed sometime previously, and are in their large storeroom, long disused, but should be useable.

When I go back to finish the magnetic installation, they will put me up overnight, and the next day we will try to get the Magnarcs working.

Any advice on re-instating long disused lamps, apart from cleaning and oiling? I do remember that one of the mirrors has a crack in it, will this cause any great problem? What they don't have of course are the rectifiers.

I have a pair of B&H 609s, which I need to move from where they are now, so I am looking for storage space. They have lots of storage space, so the idea is that they will store the 609s and I will try to get the Magnarcs to run from the 609 rectifiers. These things are designed to output 30 Amperes, and burn 5.5 and 6.5 carbons. These are much smaller the ones normally used in the Magnarcs, but I could make up holders for them, it ought to work, the only problem then would be getting them to feed at he right rate, that might take a bit of fiddling to get right. A 30 Ampere arc should be fine on a 4 metre screen. I have enough of these carbons to last for years to come at a few shows per year. I also have some larger ones, which were intended for Magnarcs, but I don't know how they would react to burning at a reduced current.

I get my 609s stored, they get their Westars back in use, and if they want to they could even set up one of the 609s, there is room, so they could run 16mm. They bring down one of the farm trucks to pick up the gear, and me, but other than the price of the deisel, it doesn't cost them anything.

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