Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Apartmentizing a Brenkert BX-80 Projector

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-19-2003, 03:20 PM:

[Robert Sprague, (Historian and Formerly With the Brenkert Light Projection Company) sent me the following letter and photos which I post because he cannot connect to Film-tech, having neither telephone line nor computer cable in his new, tiny apartment in Senior housing in the center of Petoskey, Michigan:]

I've finished constructing (base, wiring, etc., my "Mini-Brenkert" Apartment Projector, several photos enclosed. But please excuse the extreme distortion due to elevation of camera and its severe wide-angle lens! (It was one of those cardboard throw-away cameras.) But you'll get the idea of what I did!!!
Components are:

Brenkert BX-80 Head
Brenkert C-7 Incandescent "Spot Lamp" Lamphouse (Smallest model Lamp "B" ever made, c. 1922)
RCA Mini-1090B Soundhead with Non-RCA Flywheel
18" Chicago Cinema Upper Magazine
16" Simplex Lower Magazine (countersunk to fit into base)
Base designed and built my ME

Eventually I'll have to modify the lamp to take a quartz halogen bulb as proper bulbs no longer avail.
I await an amplifier and speaker (from Paul Pottash,) otherwise the projector & soundhead are wired and working. On the backside of the base I have a DC exciter power supply. A footplate on casters of base looks weird in these distorted pics, as it's triangular!
Best wishes to all Film-tech guys and gals, especially Brenkert fans!
Robert Sprague, IATSE Local 521

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 04-20-2003, 04:20 AM:

That's one good looking machine. Hopefully he'll be able to get more pics, and closeups, that can be sent to the Picture Warehouse.
That baby lamphouse it pretty cute too. [Big Grin]

Danny

Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 04-20-2003, 07:09 AM:

Gerard, Robert has done a great job! I have been assisiting him with sound hook-up info and a DC supply for his exciter lamp. Sure wish he had email capability, but it's fun corresponding with him via snail-mail, nonetheless.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 04-20-2003, 11:49 AM:

Boy, what a beautiful layout and design for a small apartment! [Cool]

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-29-2003, 05:05 PM:

Robert Sprague thanks the above posters for their comments, and desperately seeks some small parts which I have posted for him on the Equipment forum under the thread "WTB: BX-80 Parts for Apartment Projector." If you have spare Brenkert parts, please check it out.

I've summarized the never-ending Film-tech discussions about the best oil to lubricate Brenkerts, and Robert replies:

"The 'oil' I use in my Brenkert is 'Mobil 1' 5W-30 Synthetic Oil: It is great and leaves a sheen on all parts for 'starting-up,' yet is very light and does not 'gum up' and does NOT bother the beautiful maroon finish inside the gear compartment. It is EXPENSIVE for a motor oil ($5 per quart at Wall-mart) but CHEAPER than what dealers sell as 'Brenkert Oil.'
NEWS: No one today makes an oil just like the original Brenkert Projector Oil! "

Robert Sprague, Lifetime Charter Member,
American Society of Master Projectionists
(Founded by Karl Brenkert and Ernie Forbes in Detroit 1949)

...............................................................
Gerard

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-29-2003, 05:24 PM:

I wouldnt recommend using that oil in the brenkert machines as it is really too thick. I use ISO 10 spindle oil, available for around 5 buck a gallon.

Josh

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2003, 06:10 PM:

The ISO 10 Josh speaks of is supposedly a direct replacement for the orginal Brenkert Oil. In the days of Brenkert, I think it was either Mobil, Conoco or Shell Oil company that made it. It has been a while, but there was a thread that discussed Brenkert Oil. After several investigations, I found out that ISO 10 was what supposedly was used.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-29-2003, 06:22 PM:

Actually the Mobil 1 is a very good oil to use in a Brenkert as long as you stay with the lighter oil. A synthetic oil is far more desirable over any other oil sold for projection use. I can definately speak from experience on this one. Present day Simplex oil is nothing more than pure Mineral oil at 5W.
Mark @ CLACO
P.S. I run Mobil 1, 10 W 50 in my car and recently it most likely saved it from seizing up when my head gasket blew!! This is according to the machine shop that rebuilt it. Had it had regular old oil it woulda been burnt really bad.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2003, 07:50 PM:

Don't run that stuff in your Hog, though. It'll burn up the crankpin bearings.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-29-2003, 08:30 PM:

Am running Golden Spectro Synthetic in my HOG, have been since I owned it. Still runs like new.
Mark

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2003, 08:47 PM:

What the hell is Golden Spectro Synthetic? What weight?

I had good luck running a mixture of Hog Oil and Skunk Piss (STP) in mine.... [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-29-2003, 10:55 PM:

Golden Spectro is siold by many Harley dealers. Its a very high quality designed for motorcycles type oil. I'll have to go out to the garage and see for sure what weight it is, but I wasnt to say 10/50. Its not cheap stuff but nothing good is cheap. I buy it in the half gallon container for convenience.
Check out http://www.spectro-oils.com/
Mark

Posted by Jim Spohn (Member # 1547) on 04-30-2003, 02:43 PM:

Someone once suggested that industrial sewing machine oil is great in Simplex projectors, can anyone confirm?...Jim

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 04-30-2003, 09:50 PM:

Damn good looking machine, kicks my Super Simplex in the ass...I service a theatre that has BX-60 & BX-80, been using transmission fluid for the last 8-yrs...no problems !!

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-30-2003, 10:02 PM:

Don, I ran mine on aircraft hydraulic fluid. No problems whatsoever.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-30-2003, 10:06 PM:

Don, I ran my BX-80 which was made to look like a BX-100 on aircraft hydraulic fluid. No problems whatsoever. However, that machine only ran about 3 hours a day 4 days a week. That was before I got a bucket of ISO 10. I gave that machine to Josh, and he is running ISO 10 in it now, and it is still a beautiful running machine as far as I know. I have not heard Josh bitching about it. [Smile]

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 05-01-2003, 08:34 AM:

I guess eventually SOMEONE has to ask if Filmguard would work. Sounds like just about anything else would! [Razz]

A drive-in owner friend of mine ran his old Wenzel heads on 30 weight from the local gas station for nearly 40 years... and the heads weren't new when they were installed. He still runs his Century heads on the stuff... two of them since 1942.

I'm sure this will cause a few "clucks of distaste" from most who frequent these hallowed halls... but considering how long he's been doing it, you'd have a hard time convincing him that he'd have been better off with factory-approved oil.

Oh... only one rebuild from the 5 heads involved. The others are all originals, though running fairly light duty.

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 05-01-2003, 10:21 AM:

I just notice something in the pictures that I got a chuckle out of...anyone notice the towels on the floor ??? This we all can relate to that has Brenkerts & Simplex....I have a question for Paul or anyone in fact...I have service Brenkert machines for the past 23 yrs. with little or no service to them...The Brenkert machines is almost a no die machine & was or let say still is a damn good machine...question is: Why did they go out of business ?? This is a question that I always wanted to know...

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 05-01-2003, 10:48 AM:

Don: Wasn't it a consequence of their parent company's (RCA's) decision to exit the commercial cinema business? Things were tough enough in the industry at that time that nobody else wanted to pick up a projector mgr.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-01-2003, 12:30 PM:

Don, I have heard several stories about why Brenkert discontinued production. Jeff has a valid theory. They were running into some very stiff competition with Simplex and Century.

My opinion...There were some very fine machines that never gained the popularity they rightfully deserved. Wensel and some models of Motiograph might have been in the same boat with Brenkert.

Brenkert and Motiograph projectors could take one helluva beating by the old "black stick" arc lamps much better than many others. Drive-in theatres loved them.

[ 05-01-2003, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Paul G. Thompson ]

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 05-01-2003, 01:48 PM:

Speaking of Golden Spectro I have ran the stuff in all the bikes I have owned (5 or so) and have never had an engine or transmission blow. Spectro is formulated as a non-foaming oil as the spectro rep told me when i was working at a motorcycle dealership b/c most bikes lubricate the transmission and lower end of the engine with the same oil. Auto oil is made to only lubricate the lower end of an engine. Not sure if harleys have separate engines and transmissions though as I have never worked on one.

Posted by Philippe Laude (Member # 79) on 05-02-2003, 08:31 AM:

I second Mark and would recommend synthetic oil rather than mineral one.