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Author Topic: Adjusting Neumade cutting blades John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-27-2004 05:28 PM                     Tips for getting the tape-cutting blade alignment right: don't adjust it with both screws all the way loose. Instead, first loosen both screws. Then, tighten one to medium tightness. Tighten the other so it just prevents casual wiggling. Then, carefully tap near the second screw such that the blade pivots around the first screw. When you've got that set, tighten the second screw and loosen the first (partially) and repeat the process. It is much easier to make this kind of adjustment with pivotting and tapping then it is to either do it blind or to get it right and hope it doesn't slip with the screws completely loose. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-27-2004 05:31 PM                     Dear Ken: I feel that your heart is in the right place but I feel obligated to caution you -- don't get a reputation for being a tinkerer. Please don't be offended: My heart is in the right place. Sincerely, Manny.  |  IP: Logged Dan Lyons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 698 From: Seal Beach, CA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 02-28-2004 06:01 AM                     btw, careful with those evil blade holder screws. If you over tighten them they snap clean off, leaving you the chore of getting out the nub stuck in the hole. Fortunately, you can go spend under a dollar at Home Depot and get a bag full of screws you can use that don't bust in half. Danny  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-28-2004 09:30 AM                     Getting those out is easy. Just remove the above-mentioned blade holder and use a pair of Vise Grips or needle nose pliers to back the screw out. Then bury a screwdriver in the eye socket of the idiot who screwed the thing up in the first place! This is the thing that used to piss me of the most. Repairing splicers that other people took apart... Even after I have told them on no uncertain terms: "DO NOT take these splicers apart, DAMMITT!!" Still, I'd be fixing splicers time after time after time. I would go around to each theater and collect up all the broken splicers and all their parts. Then, in my spare time, I'd fix them up at home and send them back to the theaters. At one time I had EIGHT splicers and over $1,000 worth of random parts sitting on my living room floor! I'd fix them as fast as those idiots could take them apart! Finally I started putting Loc-Tite on all the screw threads and dabbing red nail polish on the heads. Like magic, splicers stopped falling apart by themselves!  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 02-29-2004 02:52 PM                     I am not a tinkerer. I have taken appart splicers before and put them back together with out any problems. This only reason I took this one appart to clean it was because it was *so* dirty.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-29-2004 03:31 PM                     I didn't say you were a tinkerer. (Perhaps you should read that post again.) I don't doubt you when you say the splicer was dirty and not behaving well. I also believe you when you say that you have taken splicers apart before. You began this thread by asking how to make an adjustment to the cutting blade. This tells me that you didn't know how to go about doing that. Nothing wrong with not knowing and nothing wrong with asking. Even so, my experience in this game has proven to me that a lot of this stuff is all about technique and there are all kinds of tips 'n' tricks that you don't find written down anywhere and, when you do, they don't always make sense right away. In short, there's nothing like watching someone do these things and having them explain to you what they're doing and what to watch out for. I offered a general two-part caution to: 1. Make sure you are authorized to do the work; and 2. Make sure that you could actually perform the task properly. Like so many other booth techniques, learning to fix splicers requires guidance and experience. I sensed from your initial post that you lacked both. Hence, those first words of caution. The fact that your splicer had developed a new (and more serious) problem right after you "fixed" it proved my initial hunch that you would probably run into greater trouble with this task. Overstepping one's authority, skill level or skill set is characteristic of a tinkerer. Another characteristic is that they tend to cause more problems than they actually solve. Hence, my second words of caution. (Perhaps you should read that post again.) [ 02-29-2004, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: Manny Knowles ]  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 02-29-2004 11:46 PM                     I think that most people would take offense to being called a "tinkerer" because when you do that it is automatically implying that that person is a total retard. I wouldnt give someone multiple warnings about being a tinkerer if I didn't think that. I dont know Ken but I would get to know him better before I made that assumption. IT sounds to me that Ken has a splicer that is making a low quality splice and he is trying to improve it. I thought that is what this website is about, trying to help others in the movie industry to help keep prints in perfect condition. Another theater might get Kens print with his unacceptable splice and instead of peeling the tape they will cut off two frames and re-splice, then the next theater gets that print and doesnt like the gap and chops off two more frames to make it overlap and so on. I'm sure there are also a large number of unqualified people reading threads on FT and doing things that they are not authorized to do. So it really doesnt matter WHO asked the question, the information is still there for all to see. I do not suggest that anyone do anything that they are not authorized to do either. However, I think calling them a tinkerer and not trying to help them is pretty insulting. If you dont want to give your knowledge away then dont, but please dont treat people like they are stupid. I know that was not your intention Manny, but that is the way that it has come off to me in the past, by other members as well.  |  IP: Logged Stan Gunn Expert Film Handler Posts: 176 From: Clematis, in the hills near Melbourne Australia Registered: Aug 2000 posted 03-01-2004 02:58 AM                        The best way out of the whole mess as I see it, is to replace all your splicers with CIR splicers. Then all your problems would vanish,in over 25 years of useing these great units and only requireing a bit of a clean every six months or so,no little screws to break, simple tape cutter with simple adjustment, simple film cutter, setup adjustment for shrunken film. What more could you want?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-01-2004 04:54 AM                     CIR Geez, the real solution here is to hire real projectionists.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-01-2004 12:47 PM                     Chris -- I suggest you also go back and re-read those posts. I have not called anyone a tinkerer. What I said was to AVOID getting the REPUTATION of being one. I cannot be held responsible for anyone's specific interpretation of the word but suffice it to say that being labeled a "tinkerer" would indeed be a bad thing in this context. Still, I haven't (yet) called anybody a tinkerer.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 03-01-2004 05:02 PM                     I know what you meant Manny, I was simply suggesting that some people will take it that way. Personally I would just prefer that someone not say anything if they arent trying to help me with the situation at hand.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-01-2004 06:05 PM                     Since when did words of caution become unhelpful?  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-01-2004 06:27 PM                  Why are yous all getting your panties all tied up in a knot? I'm a tinkler and I'm damn proud of it! I tinkle a few times a day whenever the need arises. What? What's that you say? Tinkerer? Oh, Ummmm... nevermind. >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Matt Zeiner Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Windsor, CT USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 03-01-2004 06:40 PM                     All the best techs I know are tinkerers.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-01-2004 06:55 PM                     Interesting observation. I'm sorry to hear that. As one might imagine, some of the worst techs I have known have been tinkerers. The best techs I know have years of relevant training and solid experience behind them.  |  IP: Logged

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