Super Simplex intermittent oil level

[John Altonen]

My C-oil looks like this. Is this the yellowing that signifies its past it's prime?

IMG-0237.jpg

[John Eickhof]

yes it should be ok, cpi used a generic wax free compressor oil original Simplex oil is Texaco Capella WF32 or Chevron turbo oil WF32 (WF-32 is ISO designation for wax free 7-10 wt ) put a drop or two little between your thumb and forefinger it should glide as your fingers rub, if it sticks or feels rough then replace it Gordon is spot on, the outboard bearing (ball oiler) just a drop every day, other oil points on gear side get a few drops every four hours of operation.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

And don't forget to place a fresh Kotex pad in the lower front film side of the projector to help sop up all the oil run off! You can cut it with a scissors to fit.

[John Altonen]

And there is no grease that needs to be applied to any of the gearing? Sure looks like there is grease on the old heads. Maybe thats just umpteen decades of crud buildup.

[John Eickhof]

Through the years, I have run across a few theatres that tried to lube heads like supers with grease! not only is it messy and does not provide any lubrication where it is needed on the shafts and bushings.. the standard, super simplex, wenzel ace, kaplan and others had a cast iron mainframe with center frame bearing design, the shafts turning in the frame, there were no bearings or bushings except on close tolerance shafts like the intermittent star and cam they used hardened steel and oilite bushings made of sintered bronze, these need daily oil! the other shafts need oil too as they are turning steel inside cast iron! take kerosene and wash the grease away! all it does in this situation is gather dirt and dust and will cause rapid wear on the steel and fiber gear tooth faces! lack of oil on the internal surfaces will inevitably end in a bind up and some stripped gears! the only rolling bearing in these heads is a special double ball bearing just ahead of the rear shutter blade that requires no oiling. they do wear out tho! As the shafts would wear out the center frame it was necessary to bore out the frame and purchase oversize replacement shafts, the E7 solved that problem by fixing the shafts to the center frame and the gear hubs would rotate on the shaft with a central oil pump system and flutes in the shafts to keep things lubricated, once worn it was only a matter of replacing shafts, right in the theatre, saving time and money putting a loaner head in and sending the worn head to a shop for machining. I wonder if it's from the same theatre that an XL head I bought from Ringold theatre supply years ago, the head was installed new in a Virginia theatre in 1970, it was removed from service around 1994 because the picture was very unsteady! The operator had been lubricating it with white lithium grease, they NEVER added any oil from the day it was installed! it finally wore off the hardening on the intermittent shafts and the cam pin finally broke! The rear cover was off for 24 years! the only reason it kept running was of the ball bearing gear train! plus all the grease had plugged up the internittent drain hole so by a miracle it ran so long! I was able to overhaul it and it ended up in a private screening room and is one of the quietest and smooth running XLs I have ever seen!

[John Altonen]

print out the operation manual and the parts list for the super simplex

This is the only operations manual I have been able to find

http://www.darrell.org/SSbody.html

I dont see any useful information on removing or tearing down the intermittent.

I am unable to find a parts list for the super simplex on the internet.

Could someone point me in the right direction?

[Gordon McLeod]

If you are going to teardown and rebuild a super intermittent there are some specific tools you need
A v block and needle puch to hammer out the intermitent sprocket taper pins
A taper pin reamer
Then the lapping reamers for the shafts
A run in jig to run the movement external of the projector to adjust it

[John Eickhof]

Gordon is correct if you are going to do an overhaul of the intermittent, however if you just want to replace the oil sight glasses and gaskets, no special tools are required. on this site, go to warehouse, manuals, and you will find the manuals you can download for the super as well as the sh1000. be careful though, the intermittent is a precision piece of machinery and when putting the movement case back together it is a sensitive adjustment to set the star and cam mesh. in addition to special tools, a certain amount of experience is required to do intermittent work, you can make things worse! Anyway, used as well as rebuilts are out there should you have a problem, good luck! heres links to the manuals SSIMPLEX.pdf (film-tech.com) and film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/SUPSIMPLEX.pdf and film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/SH1000.pdf lastly SIMPLEX4STAR.pdf (film-tech.com) also, if you are interested in when the equipment was made pm me the serial numbers of the supers and sh1000 i have a factory list showing the years made.

[John Altonen]

Thanks for links John. I probably dont have time to get into an intermittent now. The rebuilt head is installed and working nicely. What I need to work on now is getting a suitable light source. I am using a lamp house that looks like it was from some kind of slide projector. Its not nearly bright enough. I have a couple small Christie lamp houses and 2 small ORC lamp houses but none of the rectifiers I got seem to hook up to any of them. The rectifiers all look to be pretty beat up. I need to pull them out of storage. I'll probably start a new topic seeking help on getting them running.

[John Eickhof]

gotcha! i just put 2 and 2 together! if you are looking at just a single machine, i probably have something you can use, unfortunately, i just sold my last 120v power supply, but i do have several strong switchers that run on 208 single phase (could be used on a clothes dryer circuit) 120 v units are uncommon as the line current draw is pretty high, thus the wiring is required to be heavier. anyway, keep oiling the old supe till it breaks in, it's still my favorite model! and if you are going to use a small screening room size screen, even with a 1kw lamp the flicker may be excessive, i should still have some 3 blade studio shutters around here that will smooth out the picture.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Ha! I had a 1 KW vertical Christie lamphouse on the back of my VIC-10 for a short time... Of course, this was back in the mid 80's. Was about twice the size of the little 500 watter and a larger reflector. Here is a video a friend shot that briefly shows it. The movie is Krakatoa.

https://youtu.be/qt0LwlG6FIE

[John Eickhof]

yup thats the later BFG series that had a beam spreader so it would project 35mm, it should be a 900 watt vertical with glass reflector, i still have a couple of them on the shelf...looks like a home made rectifier? of course he must have a 70 beam spreader lens too... they did get great bulb life, even without external exhaust! seeing that VIC-10 brings back lots of memories!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

yup thats the later BFG series that had a beam spreader so it would project 35mm, it should be a 900 watt vertical with glass reflector, i still have a couple of them on the shelf...looks like a home made rectifier? of course he must have a 70 beam spreader lens too... they did get great bulb life, even without external exhaust! seeing that VIC-10 brings back lots of memories!

That was actually my setup circa mid 1980's. It focused fine for 35mm and didn't have any special optics that I can remember... Just a fairly large reflector. I made a mount for the beam spreader so it fit on the rear of the projector. It didn't make 16 fl on 70mm, but it did make 14 turned all the way up. Christie rectifier on the back end.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

If you are going to teardown and rebuild a super intermittent there are some specific tools you need
A v block and needle puch to hammer out the intermitent sprocket taper pins
A taper pin reamer
Then the lapping reamers for the shafts
A run in jig to run the movement external of the projector to adjust it

Also a new gasket!!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I've been working on getting some old equipment up and running.

See it here

Picked all the pieces up off the sidewalk when they were turning the Biograph Theatre in downtown Richmond VA into a noodle bar.

Super Simplex head on a SH-1000 sound mechanism. Besides the sound head leaking oil out almost as fast as I put it in, everything is working pretty good, but the sight glass on the intermittent is fogged up. I would be happy to drain out all the oil and fill it with the proper amount every time I used the machine but I cannot find what the proper amount of oil in a Super Simplex intermittent should be. Anyone know?

I used Mobil 1 gear lube on all RCA and Simplex SH-1000. You will never wear out a bronze gear if you use that stuff!