Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cinemeccanica Dual Tower Wiring

This is topic Cinemeccanica Dual Tower Wiring in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 12-29-2009, 04:13 PM:

I've searched the Manuals section but don't find it.
Does anyone have the wiring diagrams for the Cinemeccanica Dual 13,000K transport towers?

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 12-30-2009, 04:32 PM:

I've got the wiring figured out but I really need the manual for adjustment instructions. Does anyone have a manual that I could copy? It's a DGB 4 X 4 tower.

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 12-30-2009, 07:45 PM:

Opps....my bad. It's listed as a Xetron/Cinemeccanica Transport in the Manuals section. I totally missed it in my search. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-02-2010, 10:17 AM:

Don't run any "good" film on that thing Don! They are not easy on film... If you need to run really large reels get a double mut.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-02-2010, 10:56 AM:

Good advice from Mark. I sold a lot of Swords before the era of cheap platters. They may be ugly (and a bit tempermental) but they are really gentle on film.

btw: I still sell an occasional recycled Sword (dbl-mut with a projector attached) to art museums, performing arts centers who have a need for a COMPACT film device. My portable, rental rig is based on a Sword, since only one projector is needed and no platter must be carried. Louis

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 01-04-2010, 03:16 AM:

We've been running Able and Charlie prints in our Cinerama theatre on those towers since 1993 without too many problems. As long as you keep an eye on friction adjustments then they're fairly reliable. We are of course only usualy running one show a month [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-04-2010, 08:12 AM:

The Odeon Leister Square ran one ror many years.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 01-04-2010, 11:11 AM:

Yah... another one of those "I like Century, you like Simplex" threads.

I know towers were/are popular in places. If you like 'em, fine... but having had one, I agree about their handling of film.

If Somebody had taken over the Sword from Eprad, I'd still be running them. That, and the 'Double-Mut' were my favorite transports.

Greg M. built his own transport for his screening room. It looks like a tower, but has the mechanics of a Sword. Some very good workmanship there.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-04-2010, 11:12 PM:

It isn't really a Century or Simplex is my favorite sort of thing here... The biggest problem is if you rewind on them... you eventually get small cinch marks on the film after a number of rewinds. There is no constant back tension on the take up end of things when rewinding on the tower. If you use a seperate rewind bench capable of handling this large of reel then fine. The Double Muts and Swords were servo (and very simple) in all modes of operation and provided constant tension. The Double-Mut was originally designed and intended to be used for Cinerama. Perhaps the only place that actually utilized them for that purpose was during the 3-strip screenings at the New Neon...

Mark