Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SPECO platters

This is topic SPECO platters in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Aaron Mehonic on 05-30-1999, 02:41 AM:

My employers recently added two new auditoriums making our multiplex now
nine screens. They have bought rebuilt Simplex X-L projector heads, Simplex
5-Star sound heads, and brand new Kniesly Kni-Tron Lamphouses (great
choices in my opinion!). However, the one thing that bothers me and another
projectionist the most is the choice of two SPECO Platters for these screens. I
find they run more smoothly than Neumade Platters, and yes, they do eliminate
any worry of brain wraps, but if a large bulge of film caused by static is too close
to the brain at start-up, its hell trying to get it to feed out as well as stay on.
Furthermore, I think the make up tables are terrible in design. An old manager
who has moved on to another company thinks we're crazy for feeling this way.
What are your opinions? Thanks.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-30-1999, 02:41 AM:

I don't like SPECO platters. But they sure are about 10 to 20 times better than
the Neumades! In my opinion, SPECOs look cheap just sitting there. Many of the
ones I've seen are really ugly, as if colored by a child or something. I have seen
and heard many horror stories about older SPECOs damaging film.

In my opinion (and others may disagree), there are only two worthwhile platters
on the market. The Christie AW3 and the Strong Alpha phase control. The
Christie is a good platter, but in order to get it to work even acceptably, you must
be willing to tweak the hell out of it. They are extremely finicky and if you are even
a hair off (or less) on the settings, it won't perform as it should. You must also
take apart the platter and re-adjust the springs to get it to work worth a damn.
Out of the box, though, they are useless.

The Strong Alpha is a good platter as well, but it is extremely noisy and it has "fan
blades" underneath each disc that can create a whirlwind when tearing down a
print. This doesn't affect the film that is running, because the platter is so slow to
respond to any kind of payout movement that it just keeps spinning merrily along.
The film drags at startup on these platters, but the brain has rollers around it so it
does not scratch the film. Also, the platters are very film-friendly. I have seen film
loaded from a 6000' reel onto the platter with the roller of the make-up table
nearly an inch lower than the spinning disc itself, and of course the film was
rubbing the ege of the spinning deck. Since the platter is made out of whatever
material it is made out of, the print was not at all scratched. Also, even if you use
film clamps a lot, it is very hard to put a noticable scratch in the Strong. But these
platters will make horrible, loud rattling noises straight out of the box, since the
discs are so light. I have never seen a print be thrown from one of these, and I
don't know if it could be done without human interference.

Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:42 AM:

Christie AW3s are clearly the best!

Two points, one is Joe is right...straight out of the shipping box these things are
useless. You will not find any good support for these machines from anyone at
Christie. The last theater I opened had a Christie rep and he personally set them
up...they were slinging prints all over the place!

Second, I understand Christie is now starting to make a different type of payout
control on their latest version of platters. This I do not understand. Why fix
perfection? I have faith it will not be as good. Thus, I am not sure if I will
recommend any of the "new" AW3 units until I have had a chance to work with
them.

As to Strongs, I hate them. They are the only platter that must be within about 5
feet of the projector or the weight of the film itself will cause the feed to over-feed
and drag the film onto the floor during operation! What crap. I also don't like the
extra small rollers. Too much tension. And their elevator...why not make it a little
taller so it doesn't slam to the top throwing all the rollers out of alignment? Check
out their center ring. Could they possibly make it any smaller? The startup speed
is way too fast because of this. And finally, there is no provision for adjusting the
final takeup roller onto the platter. As they come from the factory they are TOO
CLOSE and about half of them put those annoying platter scratches on film. This
is a really bad design, which in all fairness "could" be made to be a decent design.

SPECO platters are my second choice a far as proper handling of film. They are
not without their own problems, though. First, the new removable brain is a great
idea, but what a pain to thread! Also there is too little tension on payout with the
removables. Their center rings are easily bent during print moving. They really
must work on that. The later elevator takeup design (with 3 rollers on top instead
of two) was my idea to a fellow at Cinemark, and he took the credit for it.
Unfortunately, he did not explain the EXACT modification to SPECO when he
took my idea. Their execution of the modifications was lousy. Now the new
rollers like to "sing" like a tuning fork during the show and it is more difficult to
thread around them since all three are now side by side. The SPECOS also have
the fan blades under the platter like Joe mentioned, so beware of breaking down
on any but the bottom platter while running a show.

Just go out and find you a pre-1999 Christie AW3 and make the modifications
explained in "platter tweeking" on this site.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-30-1999, 02:42 AM:

Point 1-- Christie's new design of the payout, from what I have been told, is just
the inclusion of a metal grounded center roller in the brain. Also they somehow
include a feedsafe device. But this does not seem to affect the threading. Who
was the Christie rep who set up the platters at the theatre you were talking about?
When Christie was at my theatre, they couldn't even thread their own
projectors/platters correctly! The film would have been majorly damaged if I
hadn't corrected it!

Point 2-- As I mentioned before, I have seen film loaded onto a Strong with the
roller nearly and inch or so below the deck. No scratches. And we had several
platters (all STRONG alpha phase control) that were at least 10 feet from the
projector because we had to slide a Hughes/JVC video projector in there almost
everyday. The film never touched the floor. The film also never slides off of the
rollers like a Christie does when the movie drops. You must have worked with
some crappy versions that had been knocked around during the shipping process
or something!

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 05-30-1999, 02:43 AM:

I don't like the SPECO platters either, especially the older ones with the
non-removable centerfeeds---the ones that sit about a half inch lower than the
deck.
Sure the Christie AW-3 is ok, but requires tweaking to get it working well.
In my opinion, the STRONG/POTTS Alpha series platter is the best and most
reliable. True it is a bit on the noisy side, but they run well and treat the film ok. I
haven't had much static electricity problems with the Strongs either. The PHASE
CONTROL centerfeed runs well, but if one goes bad, Strong wants you to throw
that $250. part in the trash and buy a new one. They will not release any
schematics or repair parts for the Phase Control board. I have drawn my own
schematic for it. There are only 3 parts that I have been seeing fail on the board.
The S4015L isolated tab SCR will short causing platter motor to go full ON with
no control. The LM334Z adjustable current source will cause slow motor speed
or weak motor torque. The 10 ampere pico fuse will blow causing a totally dead
condition. Also, if you remove the phase control from the control plate, be sure to
reconnect the red and blue wires to the proper terminals or it won't work! The
parts I mentioned don't cost much at all and are worth buying for spares to repair
these boards should something happen on a busy weekend.

Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:43 AM:

Send the schematic over and I will post it for all Strong owners out there.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-23-1999, 01:03 PM:

SPECO = S****Y PIECE of ELECTRIC CRAP-OLA!

Christie AW-3 is king in my book. A lot of people tell me that the Potts Alphas are junk but I like them pretty well. (Better than the SPECOs by a mile!)

------------------
K.Y.S.O.T.I.
Randy

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 09-13-2000, 02:31 PM:

The Strong Platter is the best platter out there I worked on 3 Strongs at my last theatre (2 3 decks and 1 5 deck) Now I am working with 7 Christie AW3's (5 3 decks and 25 decks) and I hate them the only problem I saw with the strong was human error and it was a little funny one night this new kid who "Had Experience" was asked to lace-up a movie everything was fine but he could not get the payout platter to spin (he was using his finger to push the actuator arm) he was about to cancel the show when I explained to him that the roller assembly that controls the takeup speed was at the top of its travel therefore will not let the payout platter spin ( A GOOD FEATURE )

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 09-14-2000, 11:38 AM:

I guess I am not very picky when it comes to platter design, but I haven't found one that I really hated.

I like the arm under the platter for the rewind platter better than the yo-yo design however, but they both work. The arm design seems to rewind a tighter print, and I like that.

The only thing that really bothers me with any of the platter systems are their MUT's. I absolutely HATE the SPECO table, and I really dislike the Chritie MUT. The best MUT design would go to Strong in my book. The tension spring is a great feature. I don't like MUT's that mount the reels on the side. I find it easier to use a MUT that mounts reel on its top. And frankly the Christie MUT is slower than molases in January (not every location has platter reels). You can go platter a print or tear it down a lot faster than the Christie goes and still not damage the film.

I have experience with SPECO, Strong (older and newer), Christie and Neumade (XeTron) platter systems. There are advantages and disadvantages to each system.

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 09-14-2000, 04:35 PM:

I've worked with Strong, Christie, and SPECO platters, and by far the best platter I've worked with was the Christie AW-3, although they are pretty finicky on how they are setup, but once they are tuned properly they are the smoothest operating platters out there IMHO. Strong's and SPECO's are pretty nice that they are pretty much Plug 'N Play, although there isn't as much room to tweak if need be - the adjustments are pretty crude.