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Topic: strong platters

Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 11-06-2002 04:30 PM

Wes said, regarding the AW-1 platter.........
"The only thing I worry about are that the other three motors have severly worn commutators and will soon fail."

Are we talking about the same platter? Mine is a three deck, and only has 3 motors. With my unit, the make-up table must remain plugged into the column the entire time, as the MUT provides the electrical power for the entire thing. The MUT is a really ugly molded fiberglass thing, with a horizontal rewind-plate (look's alot like a turntable).

Unless yours is a five-deck... I can figure out where your 4th motor would be?

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

Stardust Drive-In Theatre
Watertown, Tennessee

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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 11-06-2002 09:46 PM

It is a FOUR deck AW-2 ! I'm sorry. I just wasn't paying attention when I posted earlier

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Larry Shaw
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 238
From: Boston, MA, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 11-13-2002 04:44 PM

Brad,

New production of the Kinoton platter will have adjustable angle rollers top and bottom.

A Kelmar cleaner bracket is being considered, but as these can easily be mounted atop the projector it is not a priority.

The idea of a latch at the inlet to the IR sensor is mysterious. I don't know what you mean by a "outward center drop". Please explain, as I've never heard of this request, or any other platter with such a feature. That said, creating such a thing would be really easy on our design.

------------------
Larry Shaw
Kinoton America
[Exclusive North American Distributor of Kinoton GmbH]
8 Goodenough Street
Boston, MA 02135-1903
Tel: 617-562-0003 x104 Fax: 617-787-4253
E-Mail: larry@kinotonamerica.com
Website:http://www.kinotonamerica.com

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 11-13-2002 04:51 PM

quote:
"New production of the Kinoton platter will have adjustable angle rollers top and bottom."

EXCELLENT!!!

I'll take a picture of an outward drop and send to you. Implementing a latch would indeed be effortless and would make changing trailers on a Kinoton just as easy as on a Christie.

On the film cleaner, I suppose I could always purchase an extra roller and shaft for each platter and mount it in myself to permit the use of a platter mounted film cleaner, but it sure would be nice if Kinoton would do it during manufacture. Not all booths have that much spare room atop the projector and not all of us running them are tall enough to make a projector mounted cleaner anything but aggravating. (If you do implement the two mounting holes, please do put them in the same location as the Christie platter. )

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-13-2002 06:42 PM

Another good reason to have a platter mounted film cleaner is because some techs like to install the film cleaner bracket BELOW the SDDS or other digital units on top of the projector. That means there is no way to run digital sound AND the film cleaner at the same time. Even if you have a cleaner for each projector, run it every show and have the digital offsets set to compensate, there is still a chance that the cleaner will be removed for a show for changing out of the media pads or some other reason. And the sound would be way out of sync if that happened. Plus the cleaners on the platter are just easier to deal with, in my opinion.

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Phil Radosevich
Film Handler

Posts: 22
From: Centerville, IA, USA
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 11-14-2002 08:38 AM

Just woundering Who makes Balco platters and are they any good

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 11-14-2002 08:53 AM

Balco platters are the same as Strong/Potts platters---they came from the same manufacturing plant: Design & Manufacturing. The main difference is Balco (as originally equipped) had a "brake cable" activated variac box. There is a retrofit kit that converts it to the current "Alpha" style variac.

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Pat Moore
Master Film Handler

Posts: 363

Registered: Mar 2000

posted 11-14-2002 09:25 AM

Ken's pretty much right on, if I may add a bit. Strong International / Ballantyne of Omaha owns Design Manufacturing, which now makes both the Strong Platters and the Potts. The Strong version has evolved a bit more with the AP and SCDC versions. Ballantyne's relationship goes back into the late 70's or early 80's when Design made the original Balco Platter (with the cable-type variac control)for the company.

Diversification is important nowadays. Design also does quite a bit of specialty machining and manufacturing for other companies up in their area, from floor wax machines to government contracted parts.

Pat

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Daryl Lund
Film Handler

Posts: 88
From: Chehalis,WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 11-21-2002 01:04 AM

You can not beat those Dodge points!!!!

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 11-22-2002 06:09 PM

quote:
from Daryl:
You can not beat those Dodge points!!!!

I've got them on my old ORC's... still running, though the end is in sight.

Did other brands use points???

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Pat Moore
Master Film Handler

Posts: 363

Registered: Mar 2000

posted 11-22-2002 07:09 PM

Film Systems and Rentec's Super Platters used points for a while, I think, before going to a microswitch.

Pat

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David Kilderry
Master Film Handler

Posts: 355
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 11-26-2002 06:20 AM

Kinoton platters for me, hands down. Others are competent, CNR 335, LP 270, AW3, some very ordinary ORC, Eprad.

The original Philips platter won an Oscar and now the Kinoton range (who took over manufacture from Philips) is very little changed, because it was right the first time. Simple, tough, yet built with precision and a make-up table that sits solid, is made of steel and winds film with confidence.

David

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 06-13-2004 02:04 AM

It has been 564 days since the last post.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 06-13-2004 02:04 AM

I had a microswitch fail today in an A-3. Big deal. They will fail. However, I think they fail for several basic reasons:

1. There is no shunt resistor across the microswitch contacts like the old CFS platters had. The old CFS platters used a Radio Shack microswith, and the switches lasted for years - as long as the resistors didn't burn out.

2. Insufficient inattention to insignificant minor details, like raising the elevator before turning off the platter mode switches, especially the pay-out. If the pay-out arm happens to be sitting in the "on" position like you might see in a severly off-level platter, kiss that switch good buy in a very short time especially if there is no ballast resistor like CFS used.

3. There is no bypass capacitor around the switch contacts. OK - what does that do? It supresses the arc on the switch when it opens. If the capacitive reactance is equal to inductive reactance of the motor, under normal conditions it will not arc, or if it did the arcing would me very slight. Nothing is perfect.

It is like a condenser in an old car distributor. It tunes the system to a series resonant circuit, and the circuit is then resistive - not inductive or capacitive. In the present microswitch setup like the A-3 has, the circuit is inductive.

Another comparison is if the buffer capacitors were shot in your old vacuum tube car radio, that radio will go through vibrators like crap through a goose. That's also why you may have seen some premature breaker point failures in automotive igintion systems. The condenser flaked out and ruined the points.

OK - if there is a arc-off build up on the points (or in this case the micro switch contacts), the build up will occur on one point, and a depression will occur on the other. Now which one is responsibe for what? That's what I forgot.

But I do know....if the circuit is inductive, the build up and depression will be on the opposite contact of the points than it would if the circuit is capacitive. Initially, what contact the build-up is depends on the polarity applied to the contacts. As most of you know, the platter drive motors of the A-3 run on unfiltered DC.

So, if Capacitive Reactance is equal to Inductive Reactance, the circuit will appear resistive and the points will last much longer than running them without some kind of arc suppression.

I smashed that microswitch with a hammer to inspect the points. here is what I saw:

This microswitch has seen an inductive load too often.

Notice the build-up on the contact circled in red. The surface of the contact circled in green does not show this type of build-up.

If the two wires were switched, the build-up would have been on the bottom contact instead of the top.

Some fixes are:

1. RTFM before you attempt to run your machine.
2. Put a ballast resistor across the contacts. The size (if I recall correctly) is 2 ohms 10-watt wire wound. That'll really increase the life of your micros. There is plenty of room to stuff a barrier strip and a resistor in the platter arm.
3. Experminent with various sizes of capacitors and an alligator clip or something to see what spark is minimal under normal conditions. BUT BE CAREFUL....THAT VOLTAGE WITH REFERENCE TO GROUND CAN GET UPWARDS TO 80 VOLTS OR BETTER, AND THAT IS SUFFICIENT TO KNOCK YOU ON YOUR BUTT!!!!

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 06-13-2004 03:13 AM

I'm still at a total loss as to why so many people on this forum dislike the phase controls. I can't question their competency because many of them are well respected. That being said, I six platters equiped with phase control boxes. They've been running great for four years running now, no (or very little) drifting. All that I can think of is that my phase controls are the retrofit kits and perhaps the bad experiences some have had were with platters that came with the phase controls installed; perhaps there was a bad batch or perhaps something in the manufacturing process was shoddy.

In any event I have six platter with micros and six with phase controls and I prefer the phase controls hands down.

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