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I am an assistant manager for a major chain and am being trained to be booth manager. This house has 15 Christie machines. Several are noisy (like they are running dry) when I turn them down to set the shutter. I am attempting to find a Christie manual now to see if they have not been properly oiled. Have any of you had experience with Christies? If so is it normal for the to run noisy? (In my 26 years in the booth I've run just about everything EXCEPT Christies.) Also, I have several that make snapping sounds when they are running. And, would you believe, our tech has put rubber bands on the sound drum rollers to hold them tighter to the drum saying the two rollers work against each other and the company won't spend the $2000 per machine to buy the replacement part for these rollers.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

As I understand it, the Christie "Ultramittent" is pretty much unserviceable. Being sealed, there's not much you can do but replace it. If your company is balking at fixing a soundhead, they'd probably faint at the thought of replacing half-a-dozen intermittents!

Interesting, though. I can't imagine any part in a Simplex or Century soundhead that would cost $2,000. You could get a whole new soundhead (or two) for that kind of money!