1. A projectionist working for your company but from another city calls and needs some tools, maybe a, oh I don't know, a mutimeter and wire stripper from your booth. Do you or do you not loan to him?

2. A projectionist who is your buddy but DOES NOT work for your company needs those tools. Do you or do you not loan to him.

3. A trusted co-worker, or maybe even the theater manager needs those tools for a job at home. Do you or do you not loan to him?

The reason I ask is because many of the tools in the booth are showing up missing when I need them, and mysteriously reappearing in the box office, downstairs tool box, or (my personal favorite), front seat of the manager's car. This wouldn't be a problem save for the cute, 20-year-old sign hanging on a booth cabinet reading "NO TOOL LOAN-OUT". I know for a fact that sanding blocks have been taken by workers and not returned, any name brand Craftsman tool has a short stay in the booth, and drill bits (for those damn redesigned New Line Cinema reels) are gone. Tonight I saw the manager take equipment home to fix a home stereo system two other greeceballs f--ked up in the first place! The simple answer is to lock up these tools, but when you have other operators and members of management breaking the rules, locks are useless anyway. Just me sounding off, reply if you wish.
 

Personally, I feel that ALL tools should be locked up and the only people who should have a key is the projectionists...not even the techs or the managers. (Company service techs have their own tools and shouldn't have to be borrowing the theater's, for they usually end up as a permanent addition to the tech's toolbelt. Also, managers will ALWAYS take the tools downstairs to fix items and they NEVER find their way back.) All is fine and dandy with being nice and loaning out the booth tools, but when that belt breaks and all you need is a screwdriver and an allen wrench to get back on screen BUT THEY ARE MISSING, that is just not acceptable.

My ideal policy (which no manager has ever agreed to) is that if a non-projectionist needs to use a tool, or if a tool is to be used outside of the booth, that the person taking the tool must surrender their driver's license which is placed in the tool box, only to be given back upon safe return of the borrowed tool(s).

Nothing like trying to make a crucial repair to find out the tool you need to do it with is gone!

Keep the tool box locked, inventoried, and chained to the booth.

(We all know this won't work. But spot checks of tool box inventories will, as long as you can pin somebody if a tool comes up missing. If a tool turns up missing, the person responsible for that tool box buys the missing tool - out of his or her pocket.)

Furthurmore, if a show is lost because of a tool needed for repair is loaned to someone, it would seem to me that it could be grounds for divorce from the theater.

Kind of harsh? You bet!

I always brought my own tool case. In that case, I had everything from a bristol wrench sets to Ballentyne gate gauges, including snap ring tools, soldering equipment, and basic test equipment. The same stuff the theater techs carry in their back pocket. Nobody touched them without suffering my wrath! Not even the theater owner. He knew better. )

It should be up to the theater chain managers or owners to insure that each booth is equipped with the necessary basic tools to perform minor repairs.

However, time is very critical when you have to get that machine running again. One doesn't have time to go chasing after the person who borrowed the tool and went to Jack-In-A-Box before he/she brought the tool back.

My policy was no tools were to leave the booth. If someone borrowed a tool and I found out later that it was gone, I got very arrogant, especially if I didn't bring my tool case. (which didn't happen too often.) When I left the theater at night, my tool case was firmly in my paws.
 

The only exception would be very expensive items that could be shared among theatres (e.g., screen luminance meter, test films, spectrum analyzer). In most cases, these things are not needed instantly to get things up and running again in an emergency failure.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

I did the same things with my tools. I just brought them all in to the theatre and said, these are now the theatre's tools. Every now and then, when I can't find something, I institute a tool roundup. If I desire tools for personal use or to use in another theatre, I will just buy them again.

I know a technician who worked for UA doing foreign installations. When he went to Argentina, he discovered that they couldn't get, find or afford the tools he had. So he left them what they needed and replaced them when he returned. He went through three tool kits that year. No he didn't pass out R2 units. Now that he is self employed, he is a little less generous.

If I find that the concession stand needs a screwdriver, or needle nose plyers on a regular basis, I just give them those and go buy new ones.
 

In the old days, it wasn't unusual for theatres to help one another out. It was good to get along. Stock yes, carbon yes, but tools... NO!

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Better Projection Pays!
 

Ok, I will now step off my soapbox now and stop ranting...thanx, I needed that.

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Now that I'm an engineer I get REALLY irked when I'm in a booth somewhere and someone asks, can I quickly borrow.....? NO, is the short reply, that gear, whilst provided by my employer, well, mine! I can't work without it, and I've built up my kit to suit the machines I work on, some of the stuff in their I made or had made, some of it is old and obscure and simply irreplaceable. As we say here, never a lender or borrower be.
 

Please write on a 3" x 5" index card the following information.

Theatre name. Security code for alarm.
Safe Combination
Note where you hide tools (send key for room)
What kind of tools your hiding

Note on back of card when theatre opens and closes.

If you have guard dogs, what do they like to eat?

Thanks, for your patience.