Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Building a compact base for a Century C

This is topic Building a compact base for a Century C in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ethan Singree (Member # 10735) on 04-14-2019, 07:33 PM:

Hello.
I am trying to come up with a compact base on which to mount my Century C & SH-1000. I am thinking of a base sort of like a scaled up furniture dolly. I would have a pivot point at the front and a mechanism at the back that will allow you to angle the unit up or down. I do not have the room or a way to transport a normal heavy cast iron base.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 04-14-2019, 09:00 PM:

Century pedestals weigh approx. 300lbs. They can be completely dis-assembled. The pedestal, head, sound head and magazine will fit into a Toyota Corolla. Pedestal costs $300.00-$400.00 to powder coat. To make it portable, I use the caster machine bases such as those available thru Rockler. These sit very low to the ground with excellent balance/center of gravity.

Posted by Ethan Singree (Member # 10735) on 04-14-2019, 09:25 PM:

Im not sure any standard pedestals will work. Have to keep the height down. Its in a basement with 6.5 ft ceiling. Only place I have to put it.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 04-14-2019, 09:32 PM:

I asked my buddy to shoot a photo of his custom base he made out of the main "tree" of a Christie platter. Hopefully he will post it. Getting ahold of a standard base would be best. Don't worry about your 6'5" ceiling. The top of the projector mounted on a base is well under that. You can get a Kelmar 8000 series reel arm and have it stick out backwards over your lamp and mount your supply reel. You can even get more creative than that and have your reel mounted elsewhere and use rollers to get the film into and out of the projector. Look at some private screening room photos in the pictures section here. Josh Jones comes to mind with his supply reel mounted to an adjacent wall.

Posted by Phillip Grace (Member # 2262) on 04-14-2019, 10:24 PM:

Something in the nature of an automotive engine stand might be a place to start - one with a square base footprint. They have basic means to tilt the attached engine in either direction. You could support the projector with a custom bracket directly under the soundhead or somewhere else near its centre of gravity so it is more or less balanced and wont tip out of control when the tilt lock is released. For stability/safety the whole weight of the thing should be inside the base frame. How is the lamphouse attached? Does it require a lamp table?
Plan B involves making a rigid frame (maybe from the same engine stand)(or perhaps an "A" frame directly under the soundhead) to carry the projector, and providing jack bolts in each corner of the base to adjust the tilt. In this configuration it might be possible to use the original bolt holes which attached the soundhead to the pedestal to mount the machine.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-15-2019, 04:17 PM:

Put your feed reel on the floor!!!!! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 04-16-2019, 09:35 AM:

I recall seeing a booth with a really low ceiling back in the late 1970's
where they screwed the feed reel arm upside down to the ceiling slightly
behind & above the projector. A couple of guide rollers, also attached to
the ceiling, carried the film from the reel, over the lamphouse & into the
projector head.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-17-2019, 12:55 PM:

Consider something like these:

They are very heavy, but the setup takes up very little space. The projectors mount to the bases using the screw holes that would normally be used to mount the take-up arms. The lamphouses attach with a bracket that mounts where the base would normally attach at the back of the soundhead. The take-up mechanism is part of the base. (These were designed for interlock projection with magnetic sound and have three spindles on the bases--for normal use, you only need one.)

The tilt mechanism on these is a bit wonky (adjusting the tilt requires changing the length of the take-up belt, or at least re-positioning the idlers). Also, these will be off-balance with larger lamphouses unless you add legs or some other type of support to the rear of the lamphouse.

These particular bases were made by Kelmar for screening rooms and such and would likely be hard to find today, but someone who is good with metal work could probably put together something similar.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-17-2019, 08:41 PM:

However, the optical height is stilll the same. He wants to run 26" reels... so he'll either have to bolt the reel arm to the ceiling or mount it in the floor.

Mark

Posted by Ethan Singree (Member # 10735) on 04-18-2019, 04:56 PM:

I am not going to run 6000' reels. Cannot fit them in the space.
I built a very strong wooden base that sits on casters. I am going to attach a lamphouse like those pases in Scotts photo.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 04-24-2019, 02:31 PM:

One of the "light" bases - Simplex but I don't know the model - has a cast base and top with a large rectangular middle tube of sheet metal. I have shortened one a lot by cutting the tube shorter. Then shortened the threaded rods that hold it all together. If you find one with the right bullnose for your soundhead it will work nicely, and has a standard adjustable lamphouse shelf.

Posted by Bill Hall (Member # 10520) on 05-31-2019, 08:17 PM:

HI from Owen Sound . I have a booth that is about 6 foot 7 inches in height .I took a Christie platter and actually made two stands to hold a Simplex projector and it worked out very well . I did take a picture of it so will try to add the picture if I can find the place to add that . I found that with a welder and cutoff saw it was a nice project to do .
I tried to upload a picture but was not able to do that task on my computer .Sorry about no photo
Bill