Break it to me lads

[Paul hill]

Hello guys,

 

I own the Old Skool Tiffen Ultra Cine arm (See below if I've attached the picture correctly), the first job it had was Shaun Of The Dead, so I'm guessing by the age of the film its 10 years old - and its been immaculatley looked after. I've never overloaded it (much) in the 3 years of my possession.

 

Recently I've been hearing horror stories of these arms going bang on set and just dropping - and this is putting the fear of god in me! I will be upgrading in the next couple of years……..should I be worried?

 

[Jerry Holway]

I believe the original Master series arm had some square cuts in the "U" of the end blocks - as seen from above. By the time it was tweaked as the Ultra Cine Arm, the end blocks had a good radius in the corners and we much stronger.

 

Check yours for a nice radius.

 

Jerry

[Rob Vuona SOC]

I loved that arm, but along with two other arms I have owned, yes the springs do eventually snap, and it sounds like a 45 being fired. When my first arm snapped everyone in the audience ducked . . . .LOL . . . .

 

But thats not to say your is going to . . . . keep an eye on it like Jerry says, inspect the springs and your good to go

 

I wouldn't fly a BL4 anytime soon, Made that mistake myself . . . . LOL

[David Hughes]

If you want to put your mind at rest then take to Brian Busbee and get it inspected. Every time I see him there seems to be one of these sitting on his bench getting overhauled. He should be able to tell you if it is about to pop.

Brian. 07754 722980

[Thomas English]

Yeah I second the busbee inspection. Top bloke!

[Paul hill]

Sounds like a plan - thanks lads.

[RobinThwaites]

Hi Paul

 

Look at the cables and the pulley wheels, sometimes it is a spring but often the cables. Can be caused by misalignment where someone has tried to de-tune the arm, just make sure they look parallel.

 

Robin