Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: LP270 Speco's pulling out the film to the floor

This is topic LP270 Speco's pulling out the film to the floor in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by German Marin (Member # 918) on 05-07-2003, 05:49 PM:

I've noticed the Speco platter LP270 (some of old reds and some of new blues) pull out the film to the floor after pass this idle roller.

Before go around the next idle roller the film drop on the floor.
This happen only in the upper desk, I think because the big space between the rollers and the low tension in the payout system.
Have you seen the same behavior in your LP270?
I'm looking for a modification...

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-07-2003, 05:52 PM:

Read the review on the LP280 platter. The problem is documented there. The only good solution is to send the bearing based rollers back to SPECO and tell them you want the standard ones without bearings.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-07-2003, 08:15 PM:

Brad is right. The bearings are TOO good. Just the weight of the film will overcome the friction of the rollers and spill film on the floor. If you have a long run from the platter to the projector, this'll just aggravate the problem.

If you can thread through a few more rollers without too much problem, that'll add a little more drag to the film and prevent the problem. Some of the old CFS platters had the same problem, and it was taken care of by threading through an additional roller and keeper.

Posted by German Marin (Member # 918) on 05-08-2003, 07:52 AM:

Brad, the brain is not removable. The rollers has not ball bearings. I've Compared Speco's brain and Christie's brain (Christie's brain are good!) and I think the problem could be the lack of tension between the brain and the first idle roller in the turret.
Thanks Brad and Paul.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-08-2003, 01:34 PM:

It's got nothing to do with the brain, German. It's the rollers on the tree of the platter themselves. You can't use bearing based rollers there. Just contact SPECO and tell them you want to exchange them for normal rollers without bearings and your problem will go away.