La Vezzi sprocket catalog or dimension sheets

[Josh Jones]

Does anyone have a product catalog for the VKF sprockets? I can't seem to find any info on bore dimensions, etc. A cross reference to different machines would also be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

JJ

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Contact or call Chicago Cinema Society. They ended up with what was left at LaVezzi when they shut down the MP Parts end of it... If they don't have one that could be copied, then I'd be really surprised.

(773) 850-0141

[Ryan Gallagher]

I doin't know what vintage this Sprockets catalog is, but I found it online somewhere a bit ago, very good dimensional information. Please share if you get something else from CCS too!

Perhaps a good one for the manuals archive too? Appears to have been scanned in 2017 at least, and the last page price list is 1966.

Hopefully this shared public g-drive link works, was too large a scan for the attachment feature.

Lavezzi Sprockets for All Perforated Film Tape Charts
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pOf...ew?usp=sharing

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I've seen old LaVezzi catalogs before, but most of what they made is not in this one. They moved from the Lake St, location to Elmhurst in 1973. I was there once to pick up parts for some custom Simplex X-L projectors at the Museum Of Science And Industry that ran a double frame 16mm film. There were three exhibits that used this 16mm system. Then they built a HUGE plant in Bloomingdale in the mid 1980's, which was only about 5 miles from where I grew up. The Bloomingdale plant was ginormous, probably at least three football fields in size, unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside. I can only tell you that the final grind on the slots in Star wheels were made in a sound proof booth using an air bearing German made Studer surface grinder with each star wheel placed in a special jig that allowed perfect 90 degree indexing. At the new Bloomingdale plant they also made surgical and dental tools and devices, as well as a lot more projector parts including OEM stuff for Christie and Strong. All the Christie Ultramittents were made by LaVezzi. Paragon Medical bought out LaVezzi and the plant still exists today..

[Josh Jones]

Paul Thompson and myself toured that place back in 2004. I don't remember much about it except the grinding rooms. I wonder what it would take to have stuff like that made today. Surely there exists CNC stuff of comparable accuracy.

That catalog is fairly old, as it predates the VKF product line.

JJ

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I believe I saw a date in it of 1966.

I had 32 tooth alumnium intermittent sprockets made at a place in Northern CA. a number of years back for the VV projector. But they appear to be gone today. They were $300 each with a min order of six. This was early 1990's. After I received them I did a couple jobs using one, and they worked fine. Then I found the Positrol Lavezzi sprocket that was custom made for a microfilm reader company in Portland and that's what is still on the projector. A friend at ILM turned me on to both places.

[Jesse Crooks]

It's actually the Chicago Film Society that bought the remaining LaVezzi parts inventory, not the Chicago Cinema Society, which is a separate organization. There's a parts inventory posted on their website.

Contact or call Chicago Cinema Society. They ended up with what was left at LaVezzi when they shut down the MP Parts end of it...

[Jesse Crooks]

See p.9-10 of the attached catalog for VKF sprockets. The second doc is a price list that gives the bore diameter for a few makes of projector.

[Josh Jones]

Thanks for the info!

JJ