Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Looking to refinish lamphouse reflectors

This is topic Looking to refinish lamphouse reflectors in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-20-2003, 03:26 PM:

I am looking for a good company that refinishes lamphouse reflectors, relatively cheaply.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 03-20-2003, 03:44 PM:

UltraFlat is the only place outside of the equipment manufaturers themselves that perform this service (I believe many of the manufacturers send their reflectors here as well)...

-Aaron

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-20-2003, 04:16 PM:

Very good Thank you. for the quick reply. [Smile]

Posted by Philippe Laude (Member # 79) on 03-21-2003, 03:10 AM:

Hello.
Does anybody know some company in Europe that refinishes lamphouse reflectors like ULTRAFLAT does?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-21-2003, 08:37 AM:

Ultraflat does indeed do a nice job but it saves you almost nothing if your dealer is giving you a decent discount on new parts as he should be..... Another negative is that if your reflector is dichroic then Ultraflat will charge you alot more to replace the dicro coating after the reflector itself has been redone. Few, if any, lamphouses that have dicro coated reflectors are set up to be able to use the extra heat interference filter that you would install to keep the infrared and UV light off the film and projector. I have yet to have a reflector re-done by them because of the slim economics, but that option is always there for older lamphouses whose reflectors are obsolete, or are not dichro coated.
Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-21-2003, 08:45 AM:

We have a lot of older equipment that we run with.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-21-2003, 09:56 AM:

Most labs use a hot reflector with a heat filter and I don't know of any lamphouse that is an issue with

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-23-2003, 09:49 AM:

Gord,
There are many lamphouses that use non-dichro mirrors which Ultraflat can certainly take care of fomr an economic standpoint, and many of those are in older units whose mirrors are NLA from the manufacturer.

I agree on the lab issue as its easier to get a pair of heat filters to give U the same color temperature on screen than it is getting matched dicro mirrors.....as long as both heat mirrors are at the exact same angle color temp will match. Ultraflat makes excellent heat filters nd I've used them on several LF systems where the LF equipment manufacturer wanted way too much $$ for them.

People just need to be aware of the need for a heat filter at say 2kw and up, and the cost of getting and installing that it adds to the restored mirror. Or the even greater added cost of having new dicro coating put back on after having reflectors done by Ultraflat. Except for the obsolete stuff, I still have not found them to be economically feesable for restoring curently available mirrors. Get a price from them sometime on say a Super Lum-Ex, or Super 80 Mirror restored, and with Dicro coating. You could easily buy two new mirrors from Strong for what Ultraflat gets.
Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-23-2003, 12:11 PM:

One problem with some of the newer dichro reflectors is that they have bad coatings. I had a lot of grief with the ones that came out of the PE ORC facilitie optiform

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-23-2003, 12:49 PM:

Gordon,
Perkin Elmer electroform and Optiform are separate reflector manufacturers. I have been at the P & E plant and among other things they produce are the Maglight flashlight reflectors which is produced on a form with scores of tiny reflector bumps.
I have usd UltraFlat on older ORC reflectors with good result. The worst metal reflector I have seen are produced in France where you can see "rings" on the reflector surface; I replaced one with a P & E reflector and had a dramatic increase in illumination.
Richard Fowler
Kinoton America Inc.

Posted by Ken McFall (Member # 845) on 03-23-2003, 02:22 PM:

Hi Philippe,

I recently send a metal mirror of an early 6500 cinemcannica lamphouse to Calmat/Lenco lighting who arranged for it to be resurfaced.

These mirrors are no longer available so I had to use a spare mirror from another lamphouse, that I was waiting to install. The results were very good indeed. For about three hundred pounds I was able to give a perfectly servicable lamphouse a new lease of life.

Contact George Taylor at www.calmat.co.uk who may be able to give you a more local contact or arrange for the work for you.

Regards.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-23-2003, 03:58 PM:

I have had lots of ORC reflectors and Xetron one redone at ultraflat and always happy