broken titanium

[Marc Abernathy]

nope, no typos...

 

eric, let me tell you/all my no frills story... :-)

 

i had not taken a worksop until 2003 i believe. BUT i have been operating steadicam and doing indie projects up until then... only WHEN i took my workshop is when i was able to score bigger projects.

 

i first started steadicam in april of 1999. my first rig i ever tried on was an old 3A.

 

when i met up with you i had never tried on a Rig with a 35MM camera on it.. the projects i did up until that point were ALL video and small things such as commercials for a local TV station in Tennessee and some

promo music videos i did with artists i produced music for.

 

even though i had not yet taken a workshop until later, i still consider my operating PRE Workshop to be part of my "professional" career in this exciting Craft...

 

Eric, meeting you was a dream as you were the FIRST REAL A list Operator and that was indeed a blessing. i still owe you for that day... B)

 

P.S. Apologies for the OT post....

[Peter Abraham]

Afton,

 

"Was that pun intentional, Alec? If not, it was the pun coincidence of the year. High five."

 

I wish I was that clever, but it was just the new software for my computer, "i-Pun."

 

Your modesty is showing again, Alec. :P

 

I had my first gold spring arm break while under load with a regular Ikki 377P. Alec is spot-on, the SMALLEST of scratches or nicks can exacerbate out into a full-scale failure. No clue if I'd shoved a screwdriver in there at some point. Nobody got hurt. I kind of wish I'd kept the broken spring sections- cool souvenir.

 

Sad, about that arm. I FedEx'd it to LA, to have the arm rebuilt. It was scanned into the FedEx office at LAX, and never scanned out.

 

Ever. After a few weeks of an internal FedEx investigation, they did admit that it was stolen by someone within the facility. I took the insurance $$$ and got a new IIIA arm. Yeah, I still use FedEx all the time but god almighty that hurt.

 

Spring failures are rare but do happen. But you know what's really rare?? Having your upper vest spar crack apart on you. Man. That's rare !

 

Back to you, Alec. ;)

Peter Abraham

New York

[Brad Hruboska]

Peter funny years ago at the Malibu classic, you almost forced me to buy a spare model 2 arm hinge with the words " you are going to need this" and a few years later i did indeed crack the damn thing stepping off of a bit too high a riser on a dock near lake ontario. Peter, thank god you made me buy that hinge for the princely sum of 50 bucks!

 

Since then i've sheared a gimbal ( pro / xcs hybrid) that hurt alot as the rig went down, at the top of a set of stairs......and i was in a static position at the time, ....I've also sheared the main arm male socket pin, and titanium shears all at once. I saved the rig on that one and another op bailed me out with an arm in an hour so i could finish the job, but man those sockets are costly. I sheared my 3A top stage once too, just setting up, it just broke off in my hand and the grips machined it back for me on set so i could work.

Proof its better to be lucky than smart.

 

So....go over your rigs guys, any stretched screws, worn fittings, get them serviced, oh and look into carbon steel socket blocks not titanium for rear mounted vests, thats the current recommendation from PRO.

Later ......

B)

[Peter Abraham]

-smile- The $ 50.00 is meaningless if it meant you got to be a hero out there on the edge of the water !!!!! Glad I was so pushy.

 

:)

[Brad Hruboska]

me two!

:rolleyes:

[Martin Newstead]

Funnily enough this happened to me recently :blink: Ultra series arm, three years old with a digibeta 790.

I was filming with a (very short) actress and had the arm boomed all the way down, and just standing there not even moving when there was an almighty BANG and a smell not disimilar to gunpowder.

The spring in the arm section closest to the socket block had snapped and was hanging out of the end!

Thankfully no injuries, just new underwear :(

 

FYI Tiffen said the cables had crossed.

 

Marty Newstead

[Peter Abraham]

Crossed Cables

 

This is a very common situation, and in no way is a flaw or mistake on the part of CP / Tiffen. As the cables move across the rollers, and the springs spring in and out, the spring ends that are turned around the ends of the titanium springs can by the very nature of the way the move, slowly rotate.

 

This can eventually cause the cable to cross. Bits of dust, dirt and grit being rubbed back and forth will cause the plastic sheathing to wear away, and then slowly cause the cables to fray. Eventually they snap.

 

It is nothing at all to eyeball one's spring ends and adjust if need be. No matter how new or old your arm is, the proceedure is the same. It is done in the field, and you don't have to ship it back to the factory to do it. ( I am a huge fan of having my arms completely disassembled and cleaned and reassembled about every 18 months, and did so before I went to a Flyer arm. )

 

1. Take off the dust caps if you own a Model I, II , III, III-A or EFP arm. Similarly if you own a MS arm. I haven't handled the Ultra arm enough to know if there is the same kind of dust cap on it, I suspect there are.

 

2. Have a cloth t shirt or old towel handy. One you are willing to throw out, or wash as a rag. It will get slightly greasy.

 

3. Cut said rag in two. You will need to cloth "grabs".

 

4. Grab ahold of the stainless steel spring end in one hand, and the spring itself in the other hand. Dire serious note:: Do not touch the springs with anything metallic or sharp at all. Not even a small scratch. Use a 100 % cotton rag or towel. The slightest mar or scratch will become the fracture point on the surface of the titanium spring coil, and could result in, as they say, catastrophic failure. :huh:

 

5. Rotate slowly to uncross and align the two cables coming off the rollers at the spring end.

 

That's it. This is a process that occurs naturally, but it takes literatlly hundreds of thousands of "flexes" ( the cables movling slightly as the arm flexes with each step ) for the spring end to slowly rotate.

 

While you've got those dust covers off, no sense passing up a chance to clean off things. Larry McConkey has spread the word on an amazing anti-grime marine sealant, whose name I think is ACF-50?? Anyone have the proper name and a lnk? I used to use it on the MS arm and sled to keep it grime-free.

 

6. Replace dust covers.

 

As for the new G-50 and G-70 arms, send them to Tiffen for normal cleaning and bearing lube as per any instructions in the manuals.

 

 

 

Just so we are clear.

 

I am a huge fan of sending my Steadicam arm back to the factory every year to 18 months, for a complete overhaul and parts replacement where needed. I didn't mean to say that one should deconstruct one's arm while kneeling in the living room in front of a roaring fire or anything.

 

It is a big part of the magic we get to make, and while I tend to be hard on my gear, I am rather genteel and respectful around the arm and gimbal.

[Rhys Duncan]

i have a 3a , 20 years old and have cracked a spring , you know the noise when you hear it once , i suppose it is fatigue , i was on a shoot and i thought crap what do i do now , middle of nowhere , i happened in to a lawnmower shop and we got some cable ties believe it or not, 18 of them and laced that sring together and continued the shoot the next day with out a problem until i could get a new set , occasionally they break and although i thought it to be a function of age i broke a spring on King Kong with a new ultra rig pushing down to do a low angle shot and it just popped ,i suppose there is an incredible pressure excerted on those springs and they do fail sometimes,