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Arm Blow up!


Erwin Landau

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I just heard that Jeff Mart's Arm finally bit the dust a couple of days ago. We had discussions about the age and the condition his arm was in, when I flew his AR on "House" last year. And he was in the market for a new arm... I thought that he bought the new G70... I guess he waited just a tad to long. His Master was one of the original first run. Anybody heard anything... as I think I have his old number...

 

Fly safe and in one piece...

 

 

Erwin "Rumor trap" Landau

 

 

PS: I'm not surprises... here a pix, that is Jeff's set up with the Panaflex Platinum Conversion

post-45-1149381274_thumb.png

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Haven't heard from Jeff, but on a related note (i.e., arms and stress) -

 

Garrett, Larry, and I were doing some (unrelated-to-stress) tests on Friday with the G-70 arm with both front and back-mounted vests.

 

One thing we noticed was that the socket block position of the back mounted vest (to the rear) creates a much longer lever arm from the load (the sled) to the socket block than with front-mounted vests.

 

Therefore, this longer lever arm puts much more stress on the upper arm segment and the socket block. This is true for all arms.

 

Extending the arm even further (working far from the body) is also adding more stress to the upper arm and the socket block.

 

Also, be aware that the restriction of the movement of the "shoulder" (the spring loaded joint of the socket block) in back mounted vests MAY, in some positions, add hard bumps or shocks to the socket block.

 

Jerry

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Jerry,

Very interesting that you bring this idea forth....

My Masters arm was working without failure for 5 years (I think I'm the 3rd owner) until just recently. First day on set using my new Klassen Harness, my Master arm snapped...top bone as you've described being the one with more stress.

I justified it as coincidence, but your point makes me think perhaps otherwise....either that or there was a small nic in the spring and the lesser stress from my frontmount harness was keeping it at bay....then switching to the backmount harness might have increased the stress and boom.

Out of curiousity, how do you guys measure the level of stress? I'd be really curious to know this measurement on different arms....which arm shows less/more stress I mean.

Steadicam....it NEVER ends!....Pervertedly happy about that I think!

 

All the best y'all!

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So what's the answer Jerry. I fought the change over to the back mounted vest until recently and now that I've used it daily for the last couple of months I hate to think about going back. I recently had my Master arm (#12 or so) rebuild and it has been flawless...But I'm concerned about you findings...please let us know as you progress.

 

Thanks,

 

John "Buzz" Moyer

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Not to panic! Larry's been using the Klassen vest for several years with an Ultra arm, farily heavy rig, no problems.

 

I believe both PRO and Tiffen recommend using steel sockets in the arm instead of the titanium when used with a back-mounted vest. George Paddock showed me (and everyone else!) a special, super strong one last year at CineGear he was making with some exotic steel.

 

Jerry

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"George Paddock showed me (and everyone else!) a special, super strong one last year at CineGear he was making with some exotic steel."

 

This is the one I'm using and sure its heavier than the titanium one (of course this weight is nice and close to the body) but I think it is the way to go with the Klassen vest and perhaps more importantly, Klassen's vehicle mount.

 

Just spent today zipping around Central Park hard mounted to a golf cart, pushing the rig way out at times.

 

Also, did some shots from the Hands Free, but I'll post about that in another thread soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Just wanted to let you know: 2 days ago my Master arm snapped...top bone! I've been using it with the backmount for over 6 years now and it was working great!I guess the late delivery of my G70 (I ordered it three months ago) got to me ! Unfortunately it happened an hour into a live show I was doing here in Berlin for the World Cup and the director had me finish the rest of the show with the broken arm (just 15mins but anyway).Sometimes live tv just sucks!!

Good thing there are so many helpful ops here in Berlin! Next morning at ten I had another arm to keep going(still have about 18 days left here with the world cup!).

Will send my master arm to Rob and get new springs!

 

 

Guido "I want my new arm,now" Lux

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