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Author Topic: HELP! Century SA & Simplex SH-1000 Running At Different Speeds! Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 04-04-2006 10:50 AM                     Using the shutter threading knob to move the projector is a poor design point on the Century and should be avoided. Outside of the speed problem which will be eventually solved, how tight do you have the gear mesh from the projector fiber gear to the soundhead gear.....there should be a very slight play on the tooth faces  |  IP: Logged Brett G. Sherris Film Handler Posts: 36 From: Northport, NY 11768 Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-04-2006 10:59 AM                        Richard: Thanks for the note, but I have tried every spacing variation humanly possible for the postioning of the meshing gears. It has no effect whatsoever on the problem at hand. B.  |  IP: Logged John Eickhof Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 588 From: Wendell, ID USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 04-04-2006 11:11 AM                        I'll bet the lower gear set on the Century head is the M series direct drive! ( if the namelate says 'MSA' )Which would have been mounted on a M series R3 soundhead and direct belt drive to the main drive shaft. If the lower fibre gear has teeth angled at approx 80 degrees pitch off center of shaft it is, the standard GR-8 is a approx 22 1/2 dgree angle! Plus count the teeth on the steel gear at the bottom of the vertical shaft and the fibre gear on the main drive shaft ! The steep pitch is why it is hard to turn the mechanism & soundhead by the shutter shaft as the gear ratio is trying to turn the soundhead gears at 3-4 times the speed! Call Konrad and have him furnish you the correct GR-8 / GR-4 gear set.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 04-04-2006 11:12 AM                       I would run a loop through just the sound head. The loop should be exactly down to the perf something that can be divided evenly into 90, as in feet per minute. Count the splice clicks on a stop watch for one minute. A 3 foot loop should come out to 30 clicks. This will tell you if the soundhead gearing is correct and you eliminate one variable.  |  IP: Logged Brett G. Sherris Film Handler Posts: 36 From: Northport, NY 11768 Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-04-2006 11:31 AM                        John: The plate on the front of the Century head has the letters "SA" stamped into it. Here is a picture of my picturehead from the gear side (sorry, the lower cover is still on in this photo). B.  |  IP: Logged John Eickhof Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 588 From: Wendell, ID USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 04-04-2006 11:38 AM                        can you post a picture of the fibre and steel gears that are at the very bottom of the century head without the external fibre gear in the way? I will be able to tell by that for you..take the lower gear cover off and shoot the picture downward from the front corner of the head to see the gear set ...john  |  IP: Logged Brett G. Sherris Film Handler Posts: 36 From: Northport, NY 11768 Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-04-2006 11:49 AM                        John: Here is a picture of the lower third of the Century picturehead from the gear side: B.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 04-04-2006 01:04 PM                        John's suspicion is correct. You have the gears for the "Direct drive" Century. Swap the GR4,8 as Mark suggested and you should be OK. The soundhead is almost certainly OK as well as the flat drive gear since (as stated above) since there is gain/loss BETWEEN components. Louis  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-04-2006 09:50 PM                     quote: Gordon McLeod It is possible that the century projector has the GR8 gear installed for the direct drive version Actually Gord the GR-8 is the standard drive gear and the GR-183 is the gear you're thinking of.... but I agree with Fred that its the projetor main drive pair.... An 1800 rpm gear box would just make both pieces run slow with a 1725 rpm motor but they would still be in the correct relaationship with each other.... HAS to be a wrong main drive set!!! Sorry Konrad but that pretty much spells it out.... EDIT: Just saw the picture after posting the above......definately the wrong gears!!! quote: Richard Fowler Using the shutter threading knob to move the projector is a poor design point on the Century and should be avoided. Absolutely! But the real existance of the knob was to indicate the locked position of the intermittent for threading purposes, assuming the knob is locked down at the correct point. Earlier Century's didn't have an actual knob but an angled revolving indicator that couldn't be grabbed for turning over the machine.... Mark  |  IP: Logged John Eickhof Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 588 From: Wendell, ID USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 04-05-2006 09:33 AM                        Brett I would contact Konrad and have him furnish the 'standard' drive gear set. For some reason the mechanism was converted for use with a M seires Direct Drive soundhead. Once you install the proper gears, all should be fine. However you will have to dis-assemble by removing the the shutter shaft assy, the vertical shaft assy and the main drive in order to correct the problem, If you are not familiar with this proceedure, It may be best to return the head to Konrad and have him do the correction. Or if you have a more local tech have him help you. John [ 04-05-2006, 10:54 AM: Message edited by: John Eickhof ]  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-05-2006 11:34 AM                     I shouldn't post from home where I don't have a projector to look at You obviously do have the correct drive gears between the soundhead and projector, but looking at the picture I was trying to figure out the ratio... the projector drive shaft obviously isn't one turn = one frame (as I thought) since the soundhead is one turn = 4 frames and those gears are obviously not 4:1. Checking a Century I find it is actually one turn = 3 frames, for 480 RPM at 24 fps. Make sure you get the right main shaft gear. It looks like you have the "new" shaft that takes a GR-302 gear. Konrad should know what shaft you have and what gear it needs though. Turning the unit over using the shutter shaft knob isn't recommended anyway, but a 5-Star soundhead is much easier to turn than the SH-1000 so the comparison is poor. It should be lots easier to turn - if you still want to - when you get the correct main/vertical shaft gears. The soundhead motor knob is right at hand and should be what you use.  |  IP: Logged Brett G. Sherris Film Handler Posts: 36 From: Northport, NY 11768 Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-05-2006 01:59 PM                        Everyone: With the expert assistance of Gail at Tri-State Theatre Supply, who kindly spent three+ hours with me on the phone, I changed out the gearing on my Century head, and now everything is working beautifully. Thanks to everyone here who pitched into this thread and lent their time to solving this issue. B.  |  IP: Logged

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