Kneisley Xenex II or Strong Super Lume-X?

[Chris Wehrman]

Hello guys, I have the opportunity to do a lamp house and power supply trade with another collector but I'm curious as to some opinions of which set up is better. Currently I have a Xenex II lamp house with a strong Type 62-81002 switcher. The lamp house and reflector are in pristine condition with about 2700 hrs on it.

I have a opportunity to trade them for a Super Lume-X with 40 hrs on it with a strong type 61001 high reactance power supply. Do you think this is a fair trade assuming everything is working?

I'd like to hear opinions on which is better


Thanks,

Chris

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Actually, both lamphouses are on a par with each other. The Kneisley will accept up to a 4 kW lamp while the Super Lumex will only take a 2500. And at that the reflector is really too small for a 2500. A 2kW in either lamphouse can create the nicest light on a screen you may ever see. I used Super Lumex's on all the location dailies jobs I did. The cinematographers loved the flat light.
The compact switchers are far supetior to the high reactance supplies, but the semiconductors for the original suitcase size switchers are NLA. So avoid high reactance and the suitcase size switchers. Compact switchers are still repairable by Strong as they still use them with Super Troopers.

[John Eickhof]

mark is spot on...however the xenex with the dichroic reflector puts out a more even and cooler light and definitely stay with the switcher! the only weakness on the super lume x is the igniters will fail when running high amperage lamps and the potting tends to dry up and they can start arcing to ground, for your purposes the xenex is a very suitable unit and quite simple to repair and maintain.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Correct John! He could look for a Xenex 1 instead of the Xenex 2 to get the glass dichroic reflector.. No matter what lamp house he gets, he is gonna be making lamp adapters for it unless the kit of original adapters happens to come with what ever lamp he buys. Or unless John has some in his parts stash.. Also, the wiring in most Super Lumex's is gonna become nice and crispy at some point in time because Strong did not use UV resistant wire, like Christie did in their lamps and consoles. Over the years I have had to rewire many Super Lumex's.. .

[Chris Wehrman]

Thanks Guys, thanks so much for your input. I will see if this guy will only swap the lamp houses. A bit of an interesting story, I bought this lamp house and 3 switcher power supplies on epay, along with the XL, 5 Starr hound head and simplex base, came out of a change over theatre in Philadelphia. Apparently this guy has the other machine and is wanting it's matching lamp house and power supplies in his collection. I get it, he wants the set, but I paid a lot of $$ to have the whole works shipped freight. He's helped me out with other equipment that he didn't want, though, so I'd like to do this for him but I don't want to downgrade what I have. IF I do this trade, I'm making a road trip to Pittsburg to meet this guy. He salvages a lot of cinema equipment and related stuff so I may do some picking if I get lucky. I like the idea of the Super Lume-x having only 40 hrs. on it, so the wiring (I would think) shouldn't be burned up yet and the igniter still in good shape. Plus I do have a lamp adaptor I kept from a old Lume-x lamp house that fits a 1600w lamp IF I need one. Do you guys know if the lamp adaptors are the same for a Lume-x and Super Lume-x?

Also, I was mistaken on the model of switcher I have, it's a 62-8000. Is this considered the compact switcher and not the suitcase style?
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And just for fun, this is me with one of the Gladiators at the Enterprise Center where the St. Louis Blues play. Same switcher that I have. They have Super Toppers there too, 12 follow spots total I think, 2 troopers above each goal and 4 Gladiators on each long side up in the catwalks. I want one, don't know what I'd do with it, but I want one!
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Merry Christmas!

Chris

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Hi Chris... That's the older suitcase style 4 t0 7K that you want to avoid. They also made a 3kw version as well and most of those are finished in black. The newer 4 to 5k supply looks similar but they are gray hammertone finish, as is the 1 to 3kw unit. There are also a group of LED's along the top to show the status of the supply. There are no 1 to 3kw switchers on Epay right now for a photo grab. I have pictures on my NAS and will post as soon as I can find them...

[Randy Stankey]

... I want one, [spotlight] don't know what I'd do with it, but I want one! ...

I've always wanted to mount something like that to the roof of my car for use when some other asshole doesn't turn off his hi-beams!
You'd probably need to tear out the trunk of the car to mount the generator that powers it, though.

Or, maybe one of these babies!

SperryLight.jpg

I've always wanted to have my own Bat-Signal!

[John Eickhof]

Chris, figuring the use you will get and reason for the swap, i would say go for it! the super lume x will out live both of us! the bulb adaptors are the same between the early lume x and the super, I would just swap the lamphouses let him keep the high reactance one since it will work just fine for him. have fun! happy holidays!

[Chris Wehrman]

I've always wanted to mount something like that to the roof of my car for use when some other asshole doesn't turn off his hi-beams!
You'd probably need to tear out the trunk of the car to mount the generator that powers it, though.

Or, maybe one of these babies!

SperryLight.jpg

I've always wanted to have my own Bat-Signal!

I want one of those too! I remember as a kid asking my parents to "Chase" the searchlight just so I could see it up close. I was amazed that there was a "fire" in there. Seriously though, those anti-aircraft units with the remote control stations are just remarkable all around.

[John Eickhof]

i still have one carbon arc super trouper left, i had wo more in twin falls that i ran at kings castle hotel casino back in 1978, but i told the guy to go ahead and throw them into the scrap pile! i have operated all models of strong followspots from the incandescent trouperette through the huge gladiator! it was 135amps! and had a current minimizer for striking the arc. plus xenon models! also ran the sperry/ge searchlights a friend in Reno had a rental company!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The old Souper Troupers are the best. Those new things they call Souper Troupers are crap, except for the switching supply. You could run the old ones by using one finger. The new ones use a 1970's Lumex lamphouse and have an awful, almost non-existent center of balance.

[Jim Cassedy]

I've always liked both those lamphouse models & have never really had any trouble
with either of them. At one venue where I worked, two of the Xenix II's had been
modified to take a 3K xenon blub. I'm pretty sure it was till using the 'stock' reflector,
but the guy who did the mods added additional blowers on top & in the back, and
put in time delay relays that kept the blowers running for 8 -10min after the bulb
was turned off. Never had any trouble with them except for once when a bulb
exploded & shattered the reflector after another tech doing some work forgot to
turn on the lamphouse roof exhaust system and also did a shutdown by killing
the breakers that powered the time-delay & blowers- - thus overheating everything.
I was walking up to the booth from the auditorium when I heard the explosion and
alotta breaking glass. I knew exactly what I was going to find when I went in there.
It was a real mess to clean up! We pulled an old, LP Associates lamphouse out of
storage & did a pretty quick & somewhat sloppy temporary installation to get that
auditorium bak up for a couple of days till we could get a new reflector & bulb.