STUDIO COLOR 575s ~ problem w/sticky yellow colour wheel

I have older units, and found that they had gunked up and gotten a bit sticky as well, so completely tore down the optics on all of them, and cleaned and used just a miniscule film of high temp lube on them, and things have been as good as new ever since. My recollection is that HES suggested Krytox (Spell?) high temp grease, and due to the $$$ cost, I went with high temp auto brake caliper grease, which appears to be holding up just fine after three years. Dry is also an option, but I didn't go down that road, for one reason or another . . .

- Tim

The boss won't shell out $100 for 3oz of lube, otherwise I would be doing what another poster suggested by applying Krytox with a light paint brush. Others have suggested the high temp brake caliper grease, but the majority opinion I have come across recommends making sure everything is totally cleaned of anything & run with that. But if it has been good for you for ~3 years, I may try it.

I'm not sure about the iris gears & such needing lube. I had not noticed any on the other units. But the unit that had the lube blob also has enough grease on the gears to totally muck up my cleaning rags & make a mess out of what I had already cleaned. [strike that, there is none on 2 of the other units. So I guess I now will be parting down to whole assy. for cleaning]
yuk.
Jon B

I have never lube the iris gears, nor would I think that they would need it, being plastic/nylon/whatever. The only thing I very lightly lube is the center shaft that the wheels ride on - it appears to be steel, with the bronze bushings of the wheels riding on it, and I don't care for metal on metal. As I stated prior, I use just a small enough amount to get a film of high temp brake lube. Considering the stuff is rated to about 600 degrees, it doesn't run . . . .

- Tim

O.K. One of my former co-worker put in his 2-cents on why the yellow is sticky on all of my units. He says that it may be due to lack of use. Going through the various color mixes is it possible that the yellow diacro had not been utilized, thus from the lack of movement it didn't get "enough exercise", and in his words "became a couch potato"?

It would make sense in a way.
-Jon B

I went thru the same thing with my 575s, I found the same issue with the yellow, I tore the units all the way down, and as “tadawson” mentioned, I used a very, very tiny amount of high temp caliper grease on the shafts, after cleaning all of the bushings, and optics. I also found that the belts were worn, and caused some "rubber band" effect when it was time for the optics to move. After I cleaned the units, replaced belts (took about 2 hours each including optics) they work awesome! Quite, and smooth too on color cycles!

As far as the Iris, this is what I did, so do not attempt if you do not like how it sounds... (disclaimer) I cleaned the Iris assembly with “brake clean” removed all residue, and contaminates. I then applied a very thin layer of grease to the “sliding lever section on the outside where the gear connected” between the groove. I also found little metal burs on the inside of the groove (from its opening and closing so much), and cleaned them out, which in turn made the Iris very smooth, and free of dust and debris inside the iris itself. I then used Graphite, and just lightly, very lightly dusted the iris on both sides, and then sprayed with DRY compressed air on both sides, while opening and closing the iris to free the loose graphite for about 3-4 minutes. When I did fire up the lights, and had them pointing straight up with the shroud off, and then ran an “effect” using “sine” to open and close the iris every 20 seconds from 0 to full. (this helped remove any other graphite /dust) and it did make a smell from the heat, but after about 10 minutes shutters were great.

Also two other notes on the Iris, I removed the gear from the stepper shaft, and rotated the shaft about 180 Degrees, and then put the gear back on. This helped one of my lights, as the shaft was always starting and stopping in the same location, the other I had to replace the stepper, as it did not have enough “torque” to open when the light was in the upright position.


Hope this helps, again this is what I did, and it worked great for me, so you might want to consider it as “my budge way to fix”, but not responsible if you have any issues J hope other will chime in to express their thoughts too!

I use a lot of yelow, mine are fine. Heat affects the motors over time and the bands. If they are lookin slack, replace them. A small dose of Krytox every 2 years helps also.

Hello,

I'm having the same problem with the yellow wheel on some sc.
I have already cleaned them, replaced belts when needed and even cleaned the motors when they didn't run smootly.
I had also shutter and iris problem due to the stepper motor not running smootly but using some synthetic lubricant that should withstands temperatures to 450°F or 232°C, did the job. No problems again with shutter and iris (or other wheels).
Some of the plastic gearwheels are coming loose from the glass but with this wheels are always coming back to the initial point.

But the problem with the yellow wheels comes back, sometimes after some months, sometimes after some weeks but with the last two Studio Colors, it came back the next day !

So why the yellow wheel and not the other wheels ?
Perhaps I must use grease instead of lubricant ? I trying to locate the Krytox stuff.
And the belt should it be losely of should it be rather tight ?

Thanks for any respons.

StafVG