Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: MIT Platter/Mut system

This is topic MIT Platter/Mut system in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 07-07-2007, 05:42 AM:

Ok, our brand new theater went with MIshiT platters and muts. I've never used this brand before here. When I went to break down my first print I found out that we had to disengage the motor to break the print down. Well this brought up a "wonderful" problem. There is no resistance on the platter so it free spins. Which makes breaking down a print a pain in the ass.

So my question is this, have any of you had this problem? And if so what have you done to solve this problem other then using your hand to put resistance on the platter. I would appreciate any help.

Thank you in advance.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-07-2007, 06:11 AM:

Try this

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 07-08-2007, 01:04 AM:

Brad's brake seems like a good idea, I might try it, though I always disengage my platters when doing breakdowns, which for Christies and Specos means wedging something against the motor to disengage it. I prefer free-spinning platters, and slow them down by leaning into them with my pants (use your hand and risk a nice friction burn, ouch).

When it's a Thursday night and I have four or more prints to pack up, I wanna go FAST!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-08-2007, 01:27 AM:

What I did with the Strong platters was to let them free spin... FAST. Just get a clean rag and hold it in your free hand. When you get close to the splice, grab the rim of the platter with the rag to give it some resistance and slow down the MUT at the same time. If you are good, the splice should be two revolutions or less from your MUT.

Now get out the masking tape, attach the leader and you're good to go! Repeat. [Wink]

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 07-08-2007, 06:31 AM:

Thats what I've been doing Joe. Its a pain in the ass.

Thanks for that Brad, that is exactly what we need. I just have to show it to our maintenance department first before I can do that, so hopefully there cool with it. Because when I asked them about it on thursday they were like, nope nothing we can do about it. Just going to have to deal with it. So heres to hoping. Thanks again.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-08-2007, 06:36 AM:

Free spinning platters on breakdown leads to tiny cinch scratches in the print. Sure YOU may not see the damage on your screen (brightness is everything), but it IS there and it gets worse every time the print is broken down like that. Think of it sort of like taking a loosely wound trailer and pulling on the end to tighten it up. [thumbsdown]

Christie and SPECO platters should never have their motors propped away from the decks. That isn't going to make them spin any faster. It will just put light damage on the print. The MUT motor is going to spin at whatever it's capable speed is.

Then there are those fucktards that use masking tape to break down with!!! (This practice is generally found at theaters with MUTs designed by other fucktards that don't provide a suitable place for placing the splicer. [Mad]

)

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 07-08-2007, 06:46 AM:

The MIT mut is pos, there is no room to place a splicer, so you have to set the splicer on the top of the real, get your film on it, place you tape then hold it in your hand to cut the tape. MIT has got to be the worst platter system I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

Not to metion that over the past week ever platter has seized up at least once if not more. The copper coating or what ever they put on the bearing is flaking off and causing bures in it, seizing up the platters.

Been a fun opening week.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-08-2007, 05:14 PM:

Wasn't this part of the equipment that was supposed to have been designed with input from members of Film-Tech? Was the free-wheeling point even discussed?

Just curious.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-08-2007, 05:34 PM:

quote: Brad Miller
Then there are those fucktards that use masking tape to break down with!!! (This practice is generally found at theaters with MUTs designed by other fucktards that don't provide a suitable place for placing the splicer.

I never understood this excuse for not re-attaching leaders properly until I had the "pleasure" of running an evil 5-deck Xetron platter with horizontal MUT at a festival recently. As far as I can tell, this is pretty much the same thing as the Strong microswitch platter. And, yes, there is absolutely no place on the MUT to put a splicer when breaking down prints. My solution was to rest the splicer on an unused platter deck, but that was inconvenient and a waste of time. Even the evil Super Platter MUT (and the old-style SPECO MUT) has enough space to hold a splicer...why can't Strong/Xetron get this right? It seems that whoever designed this machine has never actually used it in a real life situation.

The platter itself was actually OK in operation, but the MUT design was so bad as to be reason enough not to buy one of those platters. If I were going to buy a platter, I'd only consider the Christie and maybe the SPECO with redesigned MUT.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 07-08-2007, 05:59 PM:

Strong does have an optional splicer fold down table to fit the MUT. I had a friend that was not in love with the SPECO mut and built his own table using SPECO mut parts.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 07-08-2007, 07:12 PM:

The Strong/Potts mut can easily be modified to accept a small wooden table on the undriven spindle support. This way, on ship out, there is a place for the splicer. (On ship in there is no problem since the metal table has enough room for the splicer)Louis