Progress on Victor 55c rehab

[Robie Lutsey]

Having received the last of the required caps, I was able to finish the electrical rehab of my projector (yay!). I plugged it in and started the motor running. It was pretty ropey in the beginning. I have added a very small amount of light oil to the lubrication points. I let it run for a while with the running gear engaged and disengaged. After a number of minutes it started to run a bit smoother.

At this point I couldn't wait anymore and loaded up some film in silent mode. (I have not powered on the amp yet since I am still waiting for a variac to arrive so I can do it as gently as possible.)

My first film was Let's Count by Coronet. I am not spending much on the films so my stuff is all very red and faded. I honestly don't mind that, though. If I wanted to watch perfect video the Internet is full of it .

The film ran great, the projector seemed to behave nicely and I had a lovely time watching. Even silently. After that success I went ahead and ran the rest of my tiny collection. AFter about 60 minutes of film the drive was starting to sound pretty smooth.

Only one thing concerns me at this point. If I remember correctly, the maintenance manual specifies 120 RPM at the main sprocket. I am measuring 112 - 115 RPM. Also, the silent / sound switch does not cause any change that I can detect. So that still requires some investigation.

All in all, I'm very happy to have had the chance to watch some moving pictures on a sheet of white card leaned against my wall. Good times!

[Robie Lutsey]

Variac in hand I was able to finally apply voltage to the audio side of the house. Initial tests did not produce smoke so I went ahead and inserted the tubes. A gentle glow ensued much to my delight. Once fully reassembled, I plugged in the speaker, applied power and flipped the Lamp switch.

A titanic racket came blaring out of the speaker and scared the paws off my poor little dog! It turns out I had the P.E.C gain knob turned up WAY to high. Oops!

Once rectified I was able to start fiddling with the P.E.C gain and the volume to find a reasonable starting point for running some film. Which I did.

Soon enough I found a good setting which produced a reasonably full bodied sound and gave me some head room for volume control.

So there we go! one post war tube amp'd 16mm film projector brought back into service! I am content.