Kliegl AC Powered Color Wheel Repair

[pianoman]

I have an old Kliegl (I think) color wheel, the kind where you have a large disk with several 6" holes in it that you fit different gel into. It is a motorized one, but the motor doesn't work. The motor hums when you plug it in, but it doesn't turn. There are several gears between the motor drive and the color wheel itself, and it seems like the gears are locked up somehow, but I'm not sure what I should do to lubricate/unlock them. Anyone remember these things and have an idea of how to fix it?

Thanks,
Dan

[Van]

I would guess you have a broken tooth on a sprocket or gear inside the gear box assembly. it's been forever since I've taken a look at one of those things...... But I'm betting you could replace the motor/gear assembly with something from Grainger. Try this link http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/guideBrowse.shtml

I can't remember if the gearbox on the Kleigl color wheel is a sealed unit or not. If it is, there is next to no use trying to open it and repair the sprocket. I'f it's easilly openable, then pop it open and see if you find an obvious problem ; broken gear, broken sprocket, slipped gear shaft.

[pianoman]

I took a closer look, and it does appear to be a sealed unit, first of all. Secondly, I couldn't find any obvious source of the problem, unless something went seriously wrong within the motor. The only other possible culprit I see is an odd peanut-butter looking substance that is smeared on the side of one of the gears and on some of the bearings; it's hardened, but slightly sticky. I'm wondering if it was a lubricant of some sort in a past life. I may try picking some of that stuff off with a small screwdriver, but other than that it looks like I'm down to a new motor, which is not really cheap unless I get a used one. There are some motors of the same brand and type on ebay right now but they're 8 RPM instead of 6 RPM, though I suppose that would work.

I actually sort of have an interesting plan with this thing...since it requires a manual action to make it advance one color, I was thinking of seeing if I could use a time delay relay I have sitting around and calibrate it just right so that one could press a button, and the relay would activate the motor just long to change by one color space. This is only because I can't seem to stop myself from inventing projects. My last one was sorting out all of our lighting inventory. I managed to reassemble one or two Kliegl 1355s from parts we had laying around, so we have 5 now, not counting the 4 I have at home that were "disposed of". We also have like 20 century units of some unknown type, and 60 source 4s, which actually kind of surprised me. Especially since we have like a million ERS instruments of various types, but only like 20 fresnels. But I digress...

Does anyone by chance have a datasheet or manual on this thing? I looked on the Kliegl site but I didn't see one...I'm just curious what they had to say about it.

-Dan

[gafftapegreenia]

Now, I know there are gobo rotators that can be controlled through a dimmer. What if you found a motor from one of those, and then created a setting on your board that gave power to this motor just long enough to rotate it from one position to the next. I think a lower RPM motor would be better for this job.

Maybe the industrial suppliers, Grainger or McMaster-Carr, have a motor that would work.

[pianoman]

Still wondering about this thing. A "new" motorwould be like $80, so I'm checking around surplus. So far, ebay has not turned up much in terms of 6-8 RPM gearmotors with a 1/4" shaft (or maybe it's 3/8", I don't remember). Anyone have a bright idea for a source for one of these motors?

-Dan

[TimMiller]

I would remove the motor from the gear assembly and make sure its turning or not turning. It would suck to spend about 80 bucks for a motor when it turns out not to be the motor.