[QuadList] OT: How to move a VPR-80 in a sidecar cabinetwithout a truck or trailer--AVR 2 Next??

[Ted Langdell]

Thanks again for the kind comments, and to Bill for the background on  
the Barco's appearance in the Ampex lineup.

Re: This project—We had help from Tim Stoffel and Ken Zin.

Since the system will be used to digitize tapes at a university  
library by a new to 1" user, I wanted to make sure my customer had a  
machine that wasn't going to be a problem child.

I'd originally planned to provide a machine that was one of the trio  
in the original cabinets.

As a backup, I had another, newer VPR-80 that has had always performed  
well... my first VPR-80 and my first Ampex 1" in the collection.

Tim came down from Reno and we began going through the three older  
machines to see which seemed like the best candidate for service.  One  
had power supply problems and didn't seem like a good candidate when a  
PS from another machine was subbed.

Of the other two, one had an Athan refurbed scanner assembly  
apparently not long before the machines were taken out of regular  
service.

This scanner had good head life left, and the machine itself seemed to  
be in pretty good shape for a 1984 model.



Tim did the PM on the scanner and capstan motors, and back in they went.


Brushes on both motors were in good shape, so we didn't install the  
new Athan units I'd purchased for the project.


In the course of dealing with other PM stuff, we found that the  
machine had some idiosyncrasies, possibly  related to the AST servo.   
Dealing with them took longer than Tim had time to spend in  
Marysville, so I asked Ken to get involved.

Ken checked out both the intended and the backup machines, and did  
further testing and tweaking on the older unit.  It was working  
acceptably after assembling the package to test before delivery.

Like a lot of older gear, it works well for a time—especially when the  
engineer is watching—but may not on alternate Monday's ending in Y, or  
at random times when the moon is full, humidity is high, etc.

During the course of continued operation Sunday into early Monday  
morning, the deck went from nice playback to exhibiting some of the  
same issues Tim and I experienced.

Playback becomes a bit unstable, the scanner sounds as though there's  
a bearing going out—may not actually be the case—and AST servo errors  
are reported.

After a number of hours of investigating whether the issues were tape  
specific, related to environment in my workshop or something else I  
decided to go with the backup machine.

After swapping machines, the B machine worked just fine.

I left the Plan B machine powered up while I caught a short nap and  
then resumed testing.  No problems : )  A slight vertical jitter in  
the Barco also disappeared with continued application of power to the  
monitor.

We packed things as you've seen, and off we went.

Unloading and re-assembly took less than two hours (including parking  
the car in a garage several blocks away) and we had power up and E-to- 
E bars before my client had to leave for the day.

A followup visit is planned for two weeks from now. If you have any  
VPR-80 operating advice I should pass along, please post.

A side note on moving machines this size by yourself:  I've  
successfully pressed a stool-height adjustable chair into service.

Take the back off and it's possible to ease the deck onto or off of  
the chair seat.  The pneumatic column makes it possible to raise or  
lower the height so that it's close to the needed elevation then ease  
the deck on or off the chair seat and onto the next platform.  That's  
worked well for sliding decks in and out of the cabinets, the  
Mountaineer and the trailer.

I have been thinking about getting an engine sling, though : )  It  
might be apropos since a lot of the folks who work on old VTR's might  
otherwise be restoring vintage cars.  In fact there's at least one  
person on the list who does!

If other folks on the list have refurb stories—especially re: Quad— 
please share.

The message size limit is 1MB, but you can break the story into  
several parts so the total size with pictures wont send the message to  
the moderation folder for review.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary
Skype: 	TedLangdell
e-mail:	ted at quadvideotapegroup.com


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