my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Kaylee GK21 ? (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Kaylee GK21 ? Steve Matz Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 672 From: Billings, Montana, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 03-11-2014 04:29 AM                     This Projector is a Monster;when I first saw it I thought it had to be 70mm. Nicknamed "The Elephant Foot" Apparently this Forum had a thread about one clear back in 1999-2000. Don't really see a lot of info about it. Mfged 1948-58. Anybody give us a history lesson on it. I'm just curious why it was so massive for a 35mm Machine...  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-11-2014 09:49 AM                     It was built in the UK by Kershaw as the top of the Kalee line of machines It was designed by comitte of Gaumont Theatres to be the standard machine in there theatres where odeon had the BTH Supra It was ahead of its time there were several versions of it with a diffrenet soundhead combination different bases and slightly different heads there were 3 lamphouses in the serries the Lightmaster (largest) the president (fairly common) and the Universal With scope came a colour matched penthouse and a designer matched anamorphic Kalee also made a lazy eight horizontal machine after Rank decided to back Techniramma system breifly Kershaws was bought by the Rank orginization and became eventualy i have been told part of the Rank Precision Industry's group Rank started to import the cinemecanica Vic8 when they dropped the techniramma system and Kalee basically folded up in the cinema market They also made Dubbers Amplifiers Speakers and Optical Sound Recording Cameras and lens  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-11-2014 01:50 PM                     I brought back a number of these from Canada via a friend of Gord. Had them set up in my home screening room for a long time. They are among my 8 or 10 all time favorite projectors. They are built with the fit and finish of a fine British built master clock. Mark  |  IP: Logged Philip Jones Film Handler Posts: 90 From: England Registered: Dec 2011 posted 03-11-2014 02:31 PM                     We have GK21s in both projection rooms here. Sadly not used much anymore but they are still there waiting!  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-11-2014 05:09 PM                     Phillip, many years ago I installed Dolby Stereo in your cinema. I was a very young and green engineer in those days When is came to fitting the stereo cell I made a 'schoolboy error', for anyone who's not familiar with the solar cell for a GK21, it has the slit on the cell face, as the optics are a cumbersome reverse scanning design, I seem to remember involving prisms and other forms of light bending witchcraft... Well to young and uninitiated, that slit looks awfully like the L/R division on most other SVA cells... Could I get this soundhead to line up? NO! Yet flick a torch beam across the cell and I got *THUMP* from the speakers. After much sweating, stressing and a good deal of swearing I finally made a phone call to one older and wiser than I, who asked if I'd got the cell the right way round. The penny well and truly dropped and I felt a right fool! Turns out aforementioned older and wiser man had done exactly the same thing some years before me, hence he took a very educated guess at where my problem lay and was able to point me in the right direction very quickly Even further back in time I ran many a movie on GK21s and GK19s, they were getting really old by then but still kept on running. Like every other piece of British engineering from the post war period, they were utterly incapable of retaining lube oil, so a baking tray was a common thing to be found on the projection room floor.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 03-11-2014 05:43 PM                       Once in a cinema in Brazil I saw perhaps the two leakiest devices in our world bolted together; A GK 21 atop an RCA 9030. Big cookie sheet on the floor. I think they just kept funneling it back in.  |  IP: Logged Peter Howard Film Handler Posts: 44 From: Forster, NSW, Australia Registered: Dec 2005 posted 03-12-2014 05:11 AM                        We still have Kalee 21's installed in all 5 of our auditoriums. It was the main machine in only 1 of those auditoriums, otherwise they were the second machine and only were used for the trailers before auto changeover to either a Simplex Millennium or a Simplex PR1014 for the main feature. All the Kalees were heavily upgraded over the years with many rare NOS parts, re-manufactured and custom parts, and modifications like digital sound, curved gates, and lens rotators. Not used now that we're digital in all auditoriums, but all we have to do is flick a few switches and run them for a few minutes to get oil flowing into the intermittent and we're GO. They are a most amazing machine, and with proper maintenance would have kept running for decades to come.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-12-2014 09:30 AM                     Component Engineering even made a reverse scan reader for them  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-12-2014 12:01 PM                     Peter... That looks to be a Kelmar gate assembly and turret on that GK-21. Nice re-design for sure! I used a framing handle assembly from a GK-21 on my VistaVision projector. There are pictures of it in the F-T warehouse. It is the only framing handle I know of that also incorporates an internal locking mechanism so framing can't drift over time. Mark  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-12-2014 03:46 PM                     I too have a Gk21 racking handle. When I get round to it will be adorning my bathroom door (After a bit of judicious machining of some form of adaptor)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-12-2014 05:04 PM                     Great idea Pete!  |  IP: Logged Peter Howard Film Handler Posts: 44 From: Forster, NSW, Australia Registered: Dec 2005 posted 03-15-2014 01:01 AM                        quote: Gordon McLeod Component Engineering even made a reverse scan reader for them Yep, my father was the person who first commissioned them to do the job, back in about 1998 I think. We sent them over a complete Kalee 21 head from memory.  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 03-15-2014 07:28 AM                     Only this week I was servicing the digital machine at the Rex, Elland in Yorkshire, and took a photo of this Kalee, which shows the usual drip tray, however the machine is in full working order and still gets quite frequent runs for special showings or during their monthly organ concert and was in use daily until the digi install last year. And then again when replacing doremi drives in Bowness a month ago, again another Kalee in frequent use in the background. You can see clearly on the pedestal Kershaw Leeds; the former Kalee factory was only 5 mins from where I live, I can remember it being still there with the Rank logo on the front until about 20 years ago. I do like this image; it almost looks like the Chrisite has spool boxes attached - perhaps that's the future a dual format machine!! Apologies for the photo quality, I didn't have a decent camera and just snapped with my less than average phone camera!  |  IP: Logged Steve Matz Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 672 From: Billings, Montana, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 03-15-2014 11:13 AM                     Great info;Thanks everyone who posted. I was hoping someone had a booth picture similar to the one I posted with the behemoth pedestal. Sounds like Kaylee carried on the Tradition that was also shared by British Motorcycles from the 50's and 60's. They leaked oil; it was just something you accepted if you rode/raced a BSA,Triumph,Norton, etc. However around 1969 BSA/Triumph started using Graphite impregnated Gaskets similar to what Honda was using. That cured quite a bit of the leaking Primary & Main Case issues....  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 03-15-2014 01:48 PM                     have you seen these photos? https://www.facebook.com/402310479876144/photos/a.433046070135918.1073741921.402310479876144/443321685775023/?type=1&theater  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.