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**Tony Bandiera Jr** · 08-03-2023, 11:59 AM

Best advice? Scrap ALL of it. That rectifier is a major fire hazard, even at it's "best" was prone to failure. The lamphouse was horribly inefficient, and good luck finding any parts for it. Don't even get me started on the ORC boat anchor.

Now, to be more helpful:

You CAN easily find good, used, WORKING lamphouses and rectifiers (even switchers) online. Fleaybay sometimes has good listings, and some F-T members still have stuff in storage that they could set you up with. John Eickhof on here has a warehouse full of stuff, reach out to him (I'll point out this thread to him) and he can set up a nice equipment package for you. John also knows a good, reasonably priced shipping outfit.

Bottom line, you would waste a HUGE amount of time and money trying to get this pile running, better to scrap it, pocket the cash and get some good stuff that will work better and most importantly, be a LOT safer.

Edited to add: Love the old school Honda!

**Sam Chavez** · 08-03-2023, 12:57 PM

Totally concur with Tony. There's is nothing there worth saving. Much better stuff available all over the place including my wearhouse.

**John Altonen** · 08-03-2023, 01:32 PM

What equipment I should be specifically looking for? I need it to run off 120V single phase. If someone has something they would be willing to sell please PM me.

**Mark Gulbrandsen** · 08-03-2023, 01:35 PM

Yikes! However, that WAS State Of The Art Xenon stuff in the early and mid 70's... No parts available either.

**John Eickhof** · 08-03-2023, 04:20 PM

I am rewriting the original post as my edits got messed up! As i said all your stuff appears to be worthless and not worth trying to resurrect! It is all primitive early xenon technology, the ORC Cinex35s were developed from early xenon spotlights used on helicopters in Vetrnam in the late 1960s, the little lamp was robotically controlled to search the jungles for the enemy, it was powered from the ships 28v DC power grid, in 1970-71 they were tried as a light source for 16mm film then with a beam spreader lens 35mm, (it appears yours are missing the front mounted beam spreaders so they are worthless for projection, not only that but there are probably other parts missing internally) ORC received a technical academy award for the early design. the power supply they used for film was a real P-O-S employing a dozen or so early power transistors and a bunch of control circuits that were very unreliable and were phased out quickly, ORC then went on to the M-1000 a lamp with integrated power supply, also a problem with over heating and current regulator problems, anyway, not worth scrap value! The BF christies were designed in 1973 to convert carbon arc theatre model 16mm projectors like the Eastman 25, RCA Porto-arc, Hortson and other carbon arc machines. The light beam is too small for 35mm and there were a few sold with a glass beam spreader (the BFG series) but they are impossible to find today. The christie power supply was a total piece of crap, they were usually down more than they were working! All that stuff was deemed obsolete decades ago. I know because I was an ORC dealer back then and had to go fix 'em! Anyway, free is good but their value matches the cost! What is your end game? do you want to set up a 35mm machine? If so PM me or Sam or maybe a theatre supply house closer to you some of us just couldn't throw perfectly good late model equipt away after digital came in! As for me, I have lots of stuff I would like to get out of my warehouse and see it get some use! Good luck!

**Mark Gulbrandsen** · 08-06-2023, 10:30 AM

Originally posted by John Eickhof View Post

ORC then went on to the M-1000 a lamp with integrated power supply, also a problem with over heating and current regulator problems, anyway, not worth scrap value!

I have to strongly disagree about the M-1000. Once you rebuilt them with more modern semiconductors, they were extremely reliable. I actually used them on dailies jobs till I got the Super Lumex's, where we had a ten foot wide or less image to project. With new mirrors in them the cinematographers actually loved the light out of them. Out of 45 location jobs I only had trouble once. They fed-exd it to me, I replaced a diode and fed-exd it back to them. This all took place over a weekend. The projectionist re-installed it and they didn't miss any dailies.

**John Eickhof** · 08-06-2023, 01:50 PM

in 1969 i cut teeth in a booth with the first two m1000s sold by NTS in SF, they had 4" muffin fans input and exhaust, a old style triac current regulator and control board, underrated caps in the filter, a hermetically sealed spark gap as well as an underrated blocking diode and rectifiers, and NO external exhaust required per factory specs! in about a year, after many mods from the factory including a 6" top fan and cover, upgraded dual scr regulators, larger blocking diodes and rectifiers, as well as separate fan sw for cool down after use, plus automation connections, replacement of mains fusetron to a circuit breaker, and addition of external exhaust they became quite reliable i still have saved for the set up im building for my daughter, it was the cinex-35 i referred to as 'not worth scrap value' the m-1000 did a good job of lighting our screen 12x25 (w/ osram 1kw lamp running 750-800 watts) and after the mods was quite reliable and they were still running when replaced with digital some years back I serviced at least 4-5 dozen of them and still have lots of boards and other parts.

**Mark Gulbrandsen** · 08-07-2023, 11:08 AM

John, They were pretty common around Chicago and also out in the Mountain States. There was a pair in Buffalo, WY, and Jerry Lewis Theaters also seemed to use a lot of them in the Midwest... Believe it or not, there still exists one Jerry Lewis location in Chicago Heights, IL that is now built into a Marcus Theater. Anyway, like I said above... As long as they were rebuilt with higher current semiconductors, they were problem free. These lamps were used on some big pictures. This is one of my machines on the movie "Philadelphia". This was setup in the Pennsylvania RR Station in down town Philly.

**John Eickhof** · 08-07-2023, 02:14 PM

Mark, you keep taking me back in time! I still have an early black 'slim jim' ped in my shop, i used it for portable setups too! and thats a nice dubber! the ORC looks to be the fourth run revision yes I liked them too, in fact the one i have still is the same era but only has 20 hours on it!

**Jay Schwartz** · 08-07-2023, 07:16 PM

Originally posted by Mark Gulbrandsen View Post

John, They were pretty common around Chicago and also out in the Mountain States. There was a pair in Buffalo, WY, and Jerry Lewis Theaters also seemed to use a lot of them in the Midwest... Believe it or not, there still exists one Jerry Lewis location in Chicago Heights, IL that is now built into a Marcus Theater. Anyway, like I said above... As long as they were rebuilt with higher current semiconductors, they were problem free. These lamps were used on some big pictures. This is one of my machines on the movie "Philadelphia". This was setup in the Pennsylvania RR Station in down town Philly.

Er...where in the 30th Street Station did you set up projection (and why there?)? I'm in Philadelphia, and never heard about that.

The premiere of PHILADELPHIA was at the beautiful Boyd Theater (now demolished, except for the lobby areas, which are now missing much of their decor). Tom Hanks was present.

**Mark Gulbrandsen** · 08-07-2023, 08:00 PM

Originally posted by Jay Schwartz View Post

Er...where in the 30th Street Station did you set up projection (and why there?)? I'm in Philadelphia, and never heard about that.

The premiere of PHILADELPHIA was at the beautiful Boyd Theater (now demolished, except for the lobby areas, which are now missing much of their decor). Tom Hanks was present.

There was an abandoned room upstairs that used to house an old IBM computer. The room was empty except for the electrics. 480 volts was supplied to the room, so the PRR Station maintainance engineers put in a big step down transformer. I was not the projectionist on this film as I had other upcoming dailies stuff in Chicago. Had lunch down stairs several times while I was there... Pretty cool old building! Tom was at dailies the first night. Mostly lens tests, but some simple stuff with him in it so they could determine the printer light setting. Also did 12 Monkeys there, but just the Philly stuff. Oops, Monkeys was not at the Station. It was setup in another office building just outside down town.

**Gordon McLeod** · 08-08-2023, 08:00 AM

The M1000 was a good preformer as long as one stayed with a 700 watt lamp as was the larger M1600 with a 1000w lamp.

**Tony Bandiera Jr** · 08-08-2023, 06:55 PM

Originally posted by Gordon McLeod View Post

The M1000 was a good preformer as long as one stayed with a 700 watt lamp as was the larger M1600 with a 1000w lamp.

But the main issue I had with those lamphouses is the very fact you just stated. Being forced to trade off reliability for a significant reduction in light output is just plain stupid.

It's like buying a race car capable of doing 200mph, then the manufacturer says "If you want it to last more than five laps, you can only run it at 140mph."

ORC was a questionable outfit at best. They DID make SOME good stuff, but when they sucked, they sucked like an Electrolux.

**Gordon McLeod** · 08-08-2023, 07:23 PM

No you are wrong the M100 was called that as it easily produced the same light output as a 1000watt vertical lamphouse did but at 700 watts as did the M1600 did with a 1000wat lamp compared to a vertical 1600
the nameplate clearly has always state its output current. In original installations it was never a issue as the engineer's specifying them understood the design of them and what they were rated for the problem came with second hand installations by those with inadequate knowledge of the product putting them into environments they were not designed for with lamps they were not designed for and frankly they couldnt even read the rating nameplate on the unit . ORC made well engineered products but one had to install them properly within there guidlines

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