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Submitted by: Les Brown, July 11, 2010 I often worked midnight studio maintenance with Mike Blair, Tony Santos, and an individual I'll only identify as "Bob" (NOT Bob Palmer) to protect him in case he's still in engineering somewhere. One task was to renew some "O Ring" seals in one of the Vinten pneumatic camera pedestals. This involved bleeding off all the nitrogen, removing the camera head (we hung it with a block and tackle from the prop room rafters) then tipping the pedestal on its side on the floor. Then remove three "dogs" that limited the travel of the solid steel shaft inside the cylinder. Once out, replace the O-rings and reassemble. There was a spring-loaded "catch" that engaged the shaft in the down position when the pedestal was not in use. "Bob" changed the rings, re-inserted the shaft and engaged the catch but purposely DID NOT re-install the dogs. Then he re-pressurized the ram to the max, aimed it into the studio and pulled the catch! The ram took off like a torpedo and drove itself through the front of one of the "Newscope 6" desks. The one Wayne Bailey was to use in a couple of hours from then for the early morning 'cast. We hustled the pedestal back together and, miraculously, it was undamaged. The desk, though, had a six-inch hole through it. Duct tape and brown paint. Lots of brown paint. I really don't think anyone ever really noticed. Well, Wayne DID notice and ask, probably because of the smell of the paint, but it was easy to convince him there were some things he was better off not knowing. |
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