Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Aperture plates no longer work as before

This is topic Aperture plates no longer work as before in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 07-19-2011, 05:08 PM:

Refurbished Simplex xl was put in place May 2010. Had to send it off last month for the following repairs: replaced intermittent sprocket, pad shoes, drive gear, screws for fly wheel, cover gasket. All assemblies were removed from the projector, cleaned, realigned gear train, inspected oil pump and reassembled.

Now: my aperture plates do not fit as they did before. The soundtrack lines (sorry if that is not the proper term) show on screen. They do not for my 3d presentations as the left side of the port window blocks them. My plates worked fine before the projector was shipped off to be repaired as they were cut my the service tech who installed the projector and did the recent repairs.

What happened?

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-19-2011, 05:53 PM:

Three possibilities:

1) The plates aren't all the way in. You have to jiggle them a little bit until they latch in place.

2) The plates have been swapped between projectors, either by somebody at your theater or somebody who worked on them put the wrong ones in when they sent them back.

3) Somebody has been filing the plates.

Solution:

IF #1: Remove, reinsert and jiggle the plates until they go in the right way. (They'll only fit in one way.)

IF #2: Find the right plates and put them where they belong. (Hint: If one set of plates is wrong, there's likely to be another projector that has wrong plates, too.) Swap them around until they are right. Next time, take a permanent marker and write which projector they belong to right on the plate.

IF #3: Replace the plates with new ones and file them to fit. Toss the old ones or put them where nobody will find them and try to put them back into the projector, thus avoiding a "Situation #2."
Finally, find out who filed your aperture plates and BASH HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH A BASEBALL BAT! [Mad]

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 07-19-2011, 07:19 PM:

#1) Done that. Does not fix the problem.

#2) The plates were already labeled plus I tried every plate in my theater (4 rooms plus some still laying around). None of them work.

#3) My wife is the only other person who knows anything to get her in trouble in the booth and she does not go up there very often. So I do not think this is what happened.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-19-2011, 08:22 PM:

With the third option, there are a lot of people who will do stupid things and lie about it, afterward.

No, I'm not saying that you or your wife are lying or doing anything wrong. I'm just saying that you have to be on guard for things like that.

When I was a service tech for Cinemark, I had a theater that continually had problems with aperture plates getting filed out. I replaced the plates and filed them PERFECTLY. I'm not very good at filing plates. It's an art form and it takes a lot of practice to get them perfect but these plates were probably the best I ever did. They looked really good.

Two weeks later, I got called back to that same theater because the picture was "going off the screen" again. When I got there, I took one look at my handy work and it was clear that somebody had filed them. A monkey could have done a better job with a machete! I called the theater manager over and confronted him about it. He claimed that there was nobody at the theater would could have done it. "In fact," he said, "we don't even have an aperture file in this theater."

I walked over to the work bench, looked in the pencil cup and found an aperture file with little gold specs of dust all over it. I held it up to the manager and, without even saying a word, put that file in my tool case. I replaced the plate but it wasn't nearly as good as the one I did last time. I was too pissed off to do a really good job.

On the way out the door, I turned in my report and told the manager that I would put a baseball bat upside the head of the next son of a bitch that even LOOKED at an aperture plate funny!

Never had another problem with that theater again.

Again, I'm not saying you did it. I'm not saying she did it, nor do I know that anybody did anything wrong. I'm just saying that there are people who will mess around with things they shouldn't and lie to your face. You just need to look at problems like this more carefully when there is a chance that somebody has tinkered where they ought not to.

Other possibilities:

4) Trap/gate alignment to the intermittent sprocket.

5) Lens/turret alignment to the film plane.

If the projector was working perfectly in respect to the aperture and it has recently been worked on, the technician who make the repairs SHOULD HAVE done these alignments before he released the machine for service.

If this is the case, he should come back to repair the projector and you should not have to pay for the service call.

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 07-19-2011, 09:31 PM:

Mike mentioned that the intermittent sprocket was replaced. Given that there is a small amount of lateral play with the sprocket and the star shaft, I'd suspect that the sprocket might just be set too far inboard, allowing the soundtrack to travel within the aperture.

I'd suggest loosening the intermittent sprocket fastening screw and moving the sprocket outboard, applying outboard pressure when tigthening the screw. If not, I'd suspect the trap wasn't seated fully, or check with the company who refurbished the projector to see if they made any adjustment to the studio guides.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 07-19-2011, 10:45 PM:

It could be that the plates were cut to an already mis-aligned gate/intermittent and the company that did the refurb brought it all back in to alignment. I know that when I acquired the alignment tools to do our 2 1060's I had to cut new plates.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 07-20-2011, 10:54 AM:

The company who worked on the projector and installed it in the first place has offered to look at free of charge and I have to pay for shipping. Bad time of the year being so busy. Has to be shipped as the technician is many hours away. The 3d has the least problem with flat being the biggest problem. Will probably ship it off after school goes back and business drops off.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 07-20-2011, 12:24 PM:

Side point. I've never heard of shipping off a projector for service. Since a qualified individual would have to disconnect it and then reconnect and realign it when it is reinstalled, why not just have it serviced in the field?

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-20-2011, 12:49 PM:

You need to find another service tech.

I once drove 18 hours to respond to an emergency at theater only to plug in a piece of equipment, turn and walk out the door then drive another 18 back to where I was.

(It was the same theater where the aperture filing incident occurred.)

This is why they call us "Field Service Technicians" and not "Mail-it-in Technicians."

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 07-20-2011, 01:24 PM:

No problem making the return call. It is, however, costly with 16 hours of road time. louis

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-21-2011, 03:59 AM:

File new plates and be done with it.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 07-24-2011, 12:55 PM:

Are you sure this was not always happening, but the soundtrack previously would be on the masking and not obvious? The projector head was removed and re-installed. I suspect it is not positioned exactly the same. While refiling correct plates is the ideal, in a pinch try nudging the projector over so the soundtrack is on the masking.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-24-2011, 05:50 PM:

When you say you can see more on the left side than you should, do you also see the plate turn up on the right and have to move it or is it simply too much being shown both sides?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-25-2011, 12:47 AM:

Get the unit bolted back on the sound head assembly (which brand of SH unit, per chance..) and aligned correctly?