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Author Topic: Brenkert Tony L. Hernandez Expert Film Handler Posts: 158 From: Windsor, CO, USA Registered: Dec 2005 posted 10-08-2006 01:08 AM                     Hi There. I have all throughout my 8 years or so in the exhibition business heard projectionists/theater owners bitch, complain and all around hate Brenkert Projectors. Why is this? I myself have never even seen one in person, much less operate one so I truly have no idea. I have operated Motiograph AAA, Simplex E-7 and XL, Strong and Centry equipment (not too sure about the Century...I think we had one at my old six plex but dont really remember) with the Simplex E-7 being my favorite. Those machines are WONDERFUL. My close friend, Ola (now deceased) who operated movie theaters with her husband and drive ins all around Colorado for over 61 years, used to swear by Motiograph equipment. But my real question is for thoes who love or hate Brenkerts...why do you??? Also, if anyone knows what ever happened to that company, I'd love to know! ~~Tony H.~~  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-08-2006 03:56 AM                     Since this doesn't belong in the Ground Level forum, I am moving it to where it should be.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 07:55 AM                     Your friend was very wrong about them. Introduced in or about 1939 the BX-80 was the most advanced projector made in the states for many years and the only oil bath type mechanism. They were also the first to introduce a modular type mechanism. Brenkerts are excellent projectors and very long lived.... RCA eventually bought out Brenkert sometime after WW-2 and continued production for many years. When RCA stopped making them all the tooling, parts, etc were bought by Wolk and Wolk continued making parts. When Wolk moved back in the 90's most parts were discontinued or disposed of and the Brenkert came to an end and is just part of history. There are still a number of BX-60's running in the areas that I service. Brenkerts in general have far better build quality than the early pot metal Simplex X-L's and they have a huge star and cam and roller pin in the intermmittent that last just about forever! All models of Brenkerts shared the same movement. Back in the early 80's Wolk made a run of fibre shutter drive gears for the BX-40, BX-80, and BX-100 that were made from the wrong material and they would literally fall apart in a short time. The original Brenkert made gears were of ultra high quality and would typically last 20 or more years, eventually you might have to replace the gear. Without good gears made from the correct material the reliability of three models of the Brenkert was doomed. Brenkerts could put out ultra steady images because of the tight tolerances in the movement and the extra long straight gate. They were a snap to keep clean and didn't have any of the nooks and crannys that were hard to keep clean like a Simplex. The model BX-60 is what you will most likely find running today when you find a Brenkert. The BX-60 has a completely different gear train that doen't use that fibre gear and it was always the most reliable machine of the bunch. The down side of the Brenkert was that it was a heavy load for the sound reproducer to drive. Bronze gear failures in sound head gearboxes happened more regurlary than actual projector breakdowns did but regular oil changes to the gear box and replacing the pinion when the bronze failed got you the longest life from those parts. Today use of synthetic oils in the gearbox prolongs the life of the bronze gears at least ten fold. Motiographs and Brenkerts in my opinion were on the same level as far as quality was concerned. The BRenkert was oil bath and the Motio was greased and ball bearing... Brenkerts ran almost silently and Motios were typically very noisy and had at least twice as many gear pairs meshing as a Brenekert. All of these machines were produced by craftsman... not machinists which is why they last so long. Motiograph died out long before Brenkert did but I still have abot 10 Motio's running in various locations too. As they die they have to be replaced because parts just don't exist.... they only place to get parts is from another machine... while Wolk does still carry some Brenkert parts they are few and far between and if you need a major part it too has to be robbed from another head. The E-7 is a good machine but a pain in the ass to work on... parts are also very scarce. I would take a Super any day over an E-7... much easier to repair and more common. Oiled daily before starting they can last almost indefinately on a platter. Supers when properly maintained put out excellent images... There are still over 24 Supers running in the Mountain States...many of these heads are still original to the theaters they were installed in. I think that overall the Super wins hands down for being the longest lived projector mechanism still used in any quanity today, at least in this area. Mark  |  IP: Logged Luciano Brigite Master Film Handler Posts: 277 From: Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-08-2006 01:34 PM                     I wonder the same thing about why people dislikes these projectors.. While working as projectionist I got to work with BX60/80/100 and never had a problem with any of them,except for hte usual oil leak here and there but nothing like I've heard many other say aboit it. I now have 4 of htese projectors to keep myself entertained and even in a poor state they're running quite well. I can't say the same as Mark about hte intermittents.. mine are ugly and worn out, probably because the lack of proper care the slots on the star are getting thin and hte roller is so worn you can see between it and the star's slot when it's engaged :/ . Parts ,as said, are hard to find and to get some of them have to be taken from projectos out of use. Regarding it being heavy on hte gearbox.. can't really say much from hte 4 projectors I have only one came with broken gears and it's because the gearbox had the wrong oil in it .On hte ohters the gears looked ok for hte time I was told they were running until they went out of use. There are 4 theatres I maintain htat runs them, two have BX60 and two BX100, I'm servicing htem for about 4 years now and none of hte projectors had a mechanical failure and hte last time htey went in the shop for repair was over a decade ago. Recently I received 2 soundheads to rebuild and when I opened the gearbox the gears loked like new and those where in use for several years. And it does looks like a projector compared to recent machines found in today's theatres...  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 10-08-2006 03:40 PM                     Doesent the Nugget Theatre at Telluride CO still run Brenkerts?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 05:35 PM                     The Brenkert is an excellent machine I have a lot in my area still I think the moitograph AAA is a better machine and in my opinion quieter running The BX100 is still made in india and japan by Photophone and in Japan there is the 35/70 version of the BX100  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-08-2006 06:43 PM                        I would echo everything Mark said about this line. In the late '60s, I first learned how to thread on a Brenkert machine. In the '70s, one of the Seattle chains I worked for had a lot of them. I ran my drive-in for 15 years on Brenkerts. Were it not for the shutter gear problems, I have little doubt the machines would be here today. Unfortunately, as my business improved, the reliability of my machines did not... especially once a shutter gear went. I obviously needed to depend on the booth, so the Brenkerts were retired. The RCA version BX100 was the hardest on my sound heads. Mark mentioned that problem. My BX40 and 60 models didn't seem so hard to turn. Aside from that, whoever told you that Brenkerts were to hate didn't know what they were talking about. They were among the best.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 07:56 PM                     I agree that the Motiograph might be a little steadier laterally but there were WAY to many gear pairs in the head and many that ran alot of years developed gobs of lost gear motion. The AA and Triple A also suffered from a curious form of flicker that was admitted to even by Motiograph people that I knew that worked at the factory... The double blade Christie P35GP also exhibited a similar flicker and thats why the single blade shutter came to be. This flicker problem was never gotten rid of in the Motiograph and always remained a problem. It was worse with the double barrel shutter arrangment and this is but one reason that was abandoned... the other was that it added even more gear pairs and lost motion to the mechanism. I think if you count them there are 23 gear pairs in a Motiograph head, makes a Century look like a whimp by comparison. Its indeed an impressive gear train to observe running though. The Motiograph soundhead was a piece of junk compared to the others out there. A Triple A on an SH-1000 or RCA is a really nice match! Yee ha.... 8000th post! Mark  |  IP: Logged Tony L. Hernandez Expert Film Handler Posts: 158 From: Windsor, CO, USA Registered: Dec 2005 posted 10-08-2006 09:39 PM                     Wow, so interesting you should mention that,Mark. I have noticed that Motiograph "flicker" up at The Park Theater especially on very bright scenes in the movie. We still have a Motiograph AAA with xenon lamp and platters up there and I have never seen any Simplex or Strong machines do that. Do you have any idea what causes that flicker?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 09:40 PM                     With a slow start the SH7500 didn't have many issues the AA that I have still in service have no ghosting issues either  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 10:37 PM                     I just dislike the 7500 reproducer. Its just too basic even for its day of manufacture, there was the RCA and the SH-1000 which were far better designs and spec'd out better too. The part I dislike the most are the motor coupling... replacement is a pain. Removing and re-installing the motor without some sort of other support or person to assist is a bitch! The inching kob that "gets your knuckles" if you're not careful would never make OSHA today. The lateral guide is lacking too and a bad design for stereo.... too much weave. Noyw did I forget to mention that the ARE very reliable for what they are... A motor coupling now and then is about all that fails. Felt rollers for the lateral guide assy. are long sold out. I have 4 AA's and 7500's still running in Idaho we removed 2 a couple of years ago and replaced with Simplex's. The 4 are all thats left that I deal with. The AA and triple A don't ghost they flicker, so does the Christie P-35GP with a two wing shutter. If you have a two machine booth with AA's then throw in a Super Head on one side and compare the two.... The AA will have a definate flicker. Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-08-2006 10:53 PM                     Only thing I didn't like on the 7500 was the absense of the damping flywheel on the motor so the machine can ramp up to speed instead of the sudden jerk starts that any head that was attached to the 7500. I've seen quite a few Super's mounted on 7500 reproducers and wonder how those Supers can last as they did with that sudden jerk start that they weren't used to.. On the topic of the Brenkert, I unfortunately, didn't have the time to actually experience their operation all that much, just did some relief work in theatres that had the BX-60's and one house had the dbl shutter BX-80's. But I could tell that these were great machines - far better than the Simplex and rated quite along with the Motiograph AA's and AAA's. (I like Robert Madara's member pict..he's playing with a Brenkert sitting on an RCA reproducer...) -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-08-2006 11:14 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer I've seen quite a few Super's mounted on 7500 reproducers and wonder how those Supers can last as they did with that sudden jerk start that they weren't used to.. Oops, there is a pair of these in Preston, ID. at the Worm Creek Opera House. So that does make 6 still running if the theater is sill open. BTW: The Worm Creek served as the high school auditorium for the filming of Napolean Dynamyte. Mark  |  IP: Logged Jeff Stricker Master Film Handler Posts: 481 From: Calumet, Mi USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 10-09-2006 06:39 AM                     Ah, Brenkerts are wonderful machines. I've got (2) BX-40's (thanks to Mark G), a BX-60, and a BX-80 (parts machine) in my collection. They'll be working long after I'm gone!  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-09-2006 09:20 AM                        I've got a BX-60 running in one of my booths now, and three spare heads for parts - should I ever need them. My BX-60 has been running at my place for a little over a year and we've had no problems whatsoever with it. I'd like to replace it with a re-built Simplex XL, but funds are tight and the Brenkert isn't broke!  |  IP: Logged

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