This is topic Friday 13th Xenon Explosion in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-17-2008, 03:58 PM:
 
Just becuase I'm not superstsious apparantly doesn't mean I'm immune from having bad luck on Friday the 13th.

I should have known I was in for trouble when the first thing I did when I arrived at work Friday was to try and clean one of the projection port windows by spraying it with WD-40, which I'd mistaken for a can of Windex in the dimly lit booth.
It took a lot of elbow grease and half a roll of paper towels to get it all off.

But the best (or worst) was yet to come- - during the 2nd show of the day I had a Xenon lamp explosion. Worse yet- - it took out the mirror too.

It looked like this:


Since we did not have a spare reflector on hand and it was going to take a couple of days to get a new one, we wound up pulling a small ORC lamphouse from another location and installing it in that theater.

The regular lamphouse is a Knisley with a 2000watt lamp.
I think the little ORC we're using has an 1800watt lamp.

It was a real pain removing the regular lamphouse and installing the ORC. We also had to do a lot of re-wiring and re-configure our our automation interface so that it would start the ORC automatically.
I have a couple of days off this week and the booth was going to have to be operated by the regular theater staff while I'm gone so we wanted the change to be transparant to them since you know how much bitchin' & whining non-projection people give you if you tell them they have to remember to push an extra button or throw and extra switch.
(and if they remember to do it at all, despite notes and detailed intsructions posted everywhere)

Here's the finished temporary installation, with the
ORC in place and our regular lamphouse on the floor.


I think the light on screen looks like crap, since I have a point of reference knowing what the light SHOULD look like, but it's only for a few days until we get our replacement mirror and can put everything back, and I think 99% of the customers don't really see any difference.
In fact, once you're in the auditorium and your eyes get accustomed to light level- - it's not TOO horrible. But it's still not right and I can't wait to get everything back the way it should be.
 

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Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 06-17-2008, 04:12 PM:
 
Wow, that's a cute little lamphouse. It's a little baby. Looks almost portable.
 

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Posted by Phil Housh (Member # 1721) on 06-17-2008, 04:15 PM:
 
Jim,

At least you have an emergency spare!
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-17-2008, 04:51 PM:
 
Jim, that thing exploded without any provocation or without any advanced warning....unstable or wandering arc, uneven envelope blackening, anode pitting, etc.? Other than Friday 13th, or course.

Hey, I am not superstitious either, but last Friday the lighting guys hung spanking new articulated moving lighting instruments which worked for about 10 minutes – just long enough for everyone to ooh and aah about how cool they looked zooming patters all over the stage and the outdoor seating area at the touch of a joystick. Then all of a sudden, everyone near the control console heard this little zap sound and that was it -- the articulated lights weren't articulating any more. The DMX controller freaked out and committed suicide. Friday the 13th....I'm just saying.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-17-2008, 05:20 PM:
 
Friday the 13th started with my day job's delivery driver calling me at 1:30 in the morning - he had forgotten his key so I had to go let him into the store.

The day ended with the theatre's 3-month-old Manitowoc ice machine suddenly deciding to stop making ice. Warranty repair is pending. (Well at least it didn't happen on opening weekend of Wall-E or something.)
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-17-2008, 06:10 PM:
 

quote: Mike Blakesley

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The day ended with the theatre's 3-month-old Manitowoc ice machine suddenly deciding to stop making ice.

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quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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As far as I know they never rebuilt the factory and they are now made in Taiwan or China.

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Whenever someone sez something like that I can't resist googling it. According to my 5 minutes of online research, Manitowoc has a 360,000 sq. ft. plant in Manitowoc WI and most if not all their commercial ice making stuff sold in the US is made there. Manitowoc resellers claim USA as the country of origin for both parts and assembly on various Manitowoc ice makers.

The Internet would not lie to me.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-17-2008, 11:26 PM:
 
Actually thats good news Dave! I haven't been there in close to a decade and a half myself but its good to hear that something is 100% still made in the USA. If thats actually good or bad for their reliability may be another issue completely.

Mark
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 06-18-2008, 01:04 AM:
 
There was a Friday the 13th?
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 06-18-2008, 04:07 AM:
 
It seems like the Mann Fox Four here in Lubbock was using those little Orcons in 1974. I think they were 900 watts. Mann replaced these in the early 80s with 2000 watt pedestal lamps - the brand I cannot recall.
I have a hunch the pedestal as pictured was not painted that color of blue when it left the factory...whenever it left the factory...
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-18-2008, 08:16 AM:
 
The front bulb support should be mounted to allow the air holes in the bulb fitting to ventilate. The air louvers on the bottom of the lamphouse should have unobstructed airflow. A check of the nylon or aluminum bulb support in the reflector should be checked for proper seating. The rear blower should be checked , oiled and cleaned on a regular basis....then you should only have to worry about a bad bulb.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-18-2008, 01:59 PM:
 

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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Manitowoc ice makers are not what they used to be...

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Nothing is, I don't think. Over the past year or so I've had the following electrical/electronic items quit on me:

The aforementioned ice machine (3 months old)
A Lionel train engine (2 yrs old)
Our QSC booth monitor (2 yrs old)
A computer monitor (3 yrs old)
A computer processor (1 yr old)
A hard drive (6 months old)
Almost every flourescent light fixture in our store (1 - 3 yrs after installation)
An outdoor neon sign, also at the store (2 months old)

Given this, I wish everyone luck with the digital cinema equipment.

By the way our ice maker says "Made in U.S.A." on it.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-18-2008, 02:12 PM:
 
Mike,

You my want to consoder power conditioning equipment for your building... I can't think of a single customer that has had that many problems over a ten year period!

Mark
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 06-18-2008, 02:15 PM:
 

quote: Charles Greenlee

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...that's a cute little lamphouse...

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Jim, if that's an ORC M1000B, the top cover is installed backwards. (That seems to be a common mistake.)

The exhaust vent should be towards the back...check the manual.
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 06-18-2008, 03:25 PM:
 
Wow! Great catch Phil!
 

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Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 06-18-2008, 03:38 PM:
 
I considered going to see The Incredible Hulk on Friday 13th, but thought better of it. Not that I'm superstitious, it's just that I decided to do something else that day...

Knowing the local cinema though, they'd probably have had brain wraps, faulty dimmers and white noise bursts!

Nothing bad has ever happened to me on Friday 13th (at least, not with cinemas) and I hope it never does
 

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Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 06-18-2008, 06:41 PM:
 
Also, if this is the model I think it is, the muffin fan in the cover is often installed to blow air in instead of out.
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-18-2008, 08:25 PM:
 
COO12 fan inside is for the rear of the bulb and reflector....a little wimpy but with the proper exhaust it only had to worry about the bulb seal temperature
 

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Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 06-18-2008, 08:57 PM:
 

quote: Mike Blakesley

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The day ended with the theatre's 3-month-old Manitowoc ice machine suddenly deciding to stop making ice. Warranty repair is pending. (Well at least it didn't happen on opening weekend of Wall-E or something.)

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Our Manitowoc has been in service for 6 years with the only problem being the plastic ice curtain (shield) hinges keep breaking from the force of the ice falling into the bin. This wouldn't be such a big deal except that it contains the magnet that activates the ice maker when it closes. And users being ushers, don't say anything about the ice machine being almost empty until it is.
 

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Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 06-19-2008, 01:46 AM:
 
My Fri the 13th was uneventful..mainly because I didn't go to work!!

Can't really recall having any Fri the 13th bad days, but had a few other days not so lucky. (Aug 22nd 2007, and Oct. 23 1999.) First date was my blood clot thing, and Oct. was when my dad died. I was at work running "THX1138" that night when he passed.
 

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Posted by Jonathan Bodge (Member # 4072) on 06-19-2008, 06:53 PM:
 
Hmmm, lots o'WD-40, near the bulb, spray mist, oily, bulb explosion...hmmm
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-20-2008, 08:29 AM:
 

quote: Jonathan Bodge

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Hmmm, lots o'WD-40, near the bulb, spray mist, oily, bulb explosion...hmmm

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