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Author Topic: Christie AW-3 Drive Roller Warning Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2004 03:52 PM                     This may have been mentioned here before but due to a recent problem with them I'm posting the following...... Anyone ordering drive rollers from Christie for the AW-3 beware of the latest incarnation of them. They are white in color and they are not concentric at all. Out of round would be more like it.....as though they missed the O.D. grinding stage when they were in production. We'll be sticking with the Wolk rollers at least till Christie gets this problem straightened out. Another thing I noted that I have run into for the first time is that the tan Christie rollers are turning to goo where they are pressed(or molded) to the alumnium hub. I had to replace an entire multiplex worth of the tan ones due to the goo problem...... Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-31-2004 03:54 PM                     By "tan" do you mean "almost orange"? If so, yeah those were made out of silly putty and ALL have failed. I have had zero problems with the light tan/off white ones.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2004 04:04 PM                     I installed 12 of the off white ones yesterday that were shipped from Christie the day before and the latest batch is beyond awful. Vibration is so bad on makeup that one can only go to about 50% of M.U. speed without things shaking violently. Vibration at film startup is also much worse than normal. AW-3's never vibrate like this!! We have another batch comming into the shop next week and we'll check those for concentricity and get back here with the figures but for now I reccomend to stay away from them. We are able to do an O.D. grind on them in our shop so we can make them good but for those that can't . Its obvious they were straight out of the mold. BTW: I've never had a concentricity problem with the tan/orange rollers. The tan/orange ones at this theatre in Elko were 8 years old and not in bad shape except for the goo by the hub which would eventually cause the roller to release from the hub all together. Haven't seen any others get gooey like this and the air in Elko is very clean compared to here in SLC. Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-31-2004 10:04 PM                     What?!? Those off white ones are absolute shit, too! Not only are they lobsided as Mark mentioned, but they also turn to complete goo. We had a bunch of the brown ones and were beginning to replace the worst ones with these new white ones. After about a month, they turned to mush, and left all of the "silly putty" on the edge of the platter deck. This was happening on 3 of the 12 platter decks these were installed on. We eventually re-re-replaced those with the best of the old ones we saved as spares. Getting that gunk off of the platter was quite a job, too, since it didn't want to come off, just smear. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-31-2004 10:13 PM                     Does Christie stamp the manufacture date on the rollers? All of mine used to have month/date markings...or are those the Wolk ones? If man. date info is available for the current bad batch of rollers, it might be worth posting here.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 08-01-2004 12:59 AM                     quote: We had a bunch of the brown ones and were beginning to replace the worst ones with these new white ones. After about a month, they turned to mush, and left all of the "silly putty" on the edge of the platter deck....Getting that gunk off of the platter was quite a job, too, since it didn't want to come off, just smear. That's exactly what happened at my theater, and one major reason why I did not choose Christie platters for my dream booth . I take it from this discussion there are other manufacturers of these rollers? Contact info, anyone?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-01-2004 07:38 AM                     No reason not to use Christie platters as the Wolk rollers are totally trouble free and best of all they are round! We have some in the field that are two years old now. There was something stamped on them but I couldn't make it out...... Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Bevan Wright Expert Film Handler Posts: 176 From: Fountain Valley, CA, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 08-01-2004 08:47 AM                        MiT's drive wheels and motor control cards are compatible. Pictures and part numbers are on our products/accessories & spares page. Although completely compatible, improvements have been made including - Motor Cards: - Removing surface mount components (more serviceable) - upgraded MOVs, caps and heatsinks Drive Wheels: - Natural rubber - improved hub bonding surface and agent - date stamped for traceability [ 08-01-2004, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: Bevan Wright ]  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-01-2004 09:52 AM                     Thanks Bevan, I will have Vince order samples first thing Monday so we can check em out. Perhaps yours are a better alternative. Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-01-2004 11:12 AM                     Bevan, Yeah, thanks for the info! I assume all the other parts such as rollers are compatible with the Christies as well? Our complex is going to need to order about 85 new rollers to replace those horrible black ones. Oh yeah -- why does everything on a Christie shed? The drive rollers, the black film rollers, platter deck surface.... =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Bevan Wright Expert Film Handler Posts: 176 From: Fountain Valley, CA, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 08-01-2004 11:18 AM                        Our rollers will replace the black ones but you would also have to change the shafts... I'll upload a picture tomorrow and you will see why.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-01-2004 12:36 PM                     We haven't had any problems with the Wolk Rollers either. There have been as many or more defective Christie drive wheels as good ones...enough is enough. Steve  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 08-01-2004 01:06 PM                     Bevan.... Why mess with plastic rollers at all? With the small quantity you are producing, does a injection mold even pay for itself? Would machined aluminum produce a better quality product, and be cheaper in the long run?  |  IP: Logged Bevan Wright Expert Film Handler Posts: 176 From: Fountain Valley, CA, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 08-03-2004 09:10 AM                        Here is a picture of our roller, keeper and shaft. Will, machining - even at a couple thousand a month, would be far more expensive. Plus if it was machined out of aluminum you would still need some sort of bearing. In our design, the bronze bearing holds the two halves of the roller together, allowing us to use a two piece mold and produce keepers and rollers at the same time. Here is a picture of the other compatible parts. Part Numbers: C000002-001 Drive Wheel C000003-001 Film retainer pad A000007-001 Motor Control Card C000105-001 Roller, flanged C000105-002 Keeper roller C000130-001 Shaft, roller [ 08-03-2004, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: Bevan Wright ]  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-03-2004 11:51 AM                     quote: Bevan Wright C000003-001 Film retainer pad Better known as the world-famous Bevan-Poo™ -Aaron  |  IP: Logged

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