Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dismantling Westrex 5035 Tower

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Posted by Steve R Pike (Member # 6238) on 06-14-2019, 03:37 PM:

Hi All

After nearly seven years of non use our 35mm system (FP25D and Westrex tower) are being dismantled and going to a new home … my home … my garage! I hate seeing it sat in our projection room with no power, and not running so I have obtained permission from my managers to take it off their hands and give it a home where it will be used and not scrapped.

So, I have disconnected the tower and projector from the power. The FP25D looks relatively easy to dismantle (with a second pair of hands!), however the Westrex tower has got me a little stumped.

From the outside it's just a metal case with four motors and a control box - but it seems to be heavy as heck!

I suspect that the swivel board that it is on is bolted to the tower frame is weighted so that it provides stability during operation.

Anyway - has anyone got any tips on how to easily dismantle this beast? Has anyone ever done it? And successfully rebuilt elsewhere?

I would be grateful for any advice [Smile]

Thanks in advance [Smile]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-14-2019, 04:30 PM:

Back in the late 1980s, a student film society I was involved in was donated one. I remember the incident well, because it proved to be so difficult to dismantle that we attempted to transport it in one piece. Thankfully, there was an elevator (sorry, lift - been in America too long) from the ground to the booth level - and that Westrex tower buggered (FUBARed) it! The "overweight alert" light came on, and the lift refused to do any elevating. In the end, it took four or five of us to haul it up the stairs, which is not an experience I have any wish to repeat.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-14-2019, 06:52 PM:

quote:
that Westrex tower buggered (FUBARed) it!

I was once faced with having to move a large, crated, piece of
equipment up about 1.5 floors (the lobby floor had a very high ceiling)
and it would have been very difficult & time consuming un-crate and
disassemble it and get it up a winding, tricky stairway. The fact that
this thing also had an obscure center of gravity was also not going
to make carrying it up a stairway any easier either.

It took a bit of planning and coordination with the building engineers,
but we went in very late one night and the building guys were able to
move the elevator up to the 3rd floor, then open the elevator doors
on the lobby & first floors, and our original plan was simply to rig up
the big shipping crate and manually "heave-ho" it up the shaft using
a block & tackle and a strong buncha moonlighting stagehands.

But when we looked up at the bottom of the elevator, it already had
a big hook-thingy on it, so we simply rigged the crate up to that, and
then the guy with the elevator key simply rode the car up far enough
in the shaft for us to get the crate to the floor we wanted & push it
out onto the landing. Worked very smooth and wound up being much
cheaper (& probabably faster) than the original plan which involved
having to hire a crane to lift it up the side of the building & through
some windows which would have had to have been removed. (This
also would have required obtaining several permits from The City)

I should also point out that the people who rigged the crate to the
bottom of the elevator were professional riggers, and the guy with
the elevator keys had some sort of maintenance certification run
the car with the doors open, etc. We knew our plan was unorthodox,
but we didn't want to totally overlook safety for sake of expediency.

(And so, in this case, the elevator WAS actually a "lift", since it
LIFTED our crate up the shaft!)

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 06-15-2019, 06:05 AM:

When I installed ours, way back, we unscrewed the four plates with the motors (making notes of the colours on the wires), unscrewed the rest of the "blank plates" from the sides too; removed the control panel, which is four screws too. I seem to recall the top cover plates just lifts off and then the (still heavy) frame lifted off the floor plate and spindle. The main frame of the unit was still rather large and a real sod to move, but two of us got it up the stairs and then rebuilt.

Posted by Jonathan Wood (Member # 4614) on 06-21-2019, 08:53 AM:

Hi Steve,

There’s not ‘that much’ to them. As previously mentioned it’s essentially 4 motor plates (if you have the double sided version,) a wiring loom and a control panel screwed to a box. Mine was originally double sided but it was converted to single sided mainly to bring down the weight . make careful notes of the wiring loom and you should be fine if you need to dismantle. If your using it at home you could consider removing the motors on one side and rehousing the remaining two in a light weight frame . Isn’t the FP25 the one that sat on the long play base though ?
Jon

Posted by Steve R Pike (Member # 6238) on 06-22-2019, 05:34 PM:

Hi all

Thanks for your replies. I've successfully dismantled the tower and ready to move it to it's new home. The fp25d does have its own 'tower' but for some reason that element didn't always work.

Tower sat ready to be moved: