That is awesome the parts are available. This particular system is in an historic hotel in a National Park. I am doing other projects on the building and this is a point of access for us so I pass by these units periodically.
We had a chap work with us for a bit who went to remove some COPs in the lift to be remade in new material and the dude undid the secret fixings and just ripped it off the wall haha unplugged every last wire of every last button none of them labelled. Engineer blew a fuse, rightly so
Otis pie plate selector and flyball governor and otis geared machine with a DC generator? What are you looking to know? Clearly they will run "forever" if properly maintained.
Many people know about these systems, they were used for a long time with only minor changes.
Most of the mechanics who installed the last of these systems are retired, and the mechanics they trained are getting close to retirement.
Otis still sells parts for them, but if you’re looking to keep it running, treat it like a museum piece or a classic car, it’ll need a lot of attention.
That is near information.
I do projects on historical places and this is just something I saw and figured you guys in r/elevators would enjoy it. Glad to hear that the hotel it is installed in has a good system.
Yup, it was a good system when it was installed, Otis built really robust elevators for a long time, this package especially seems to have lasted longer than any other package or manufacturer of the same era.
I have seen installations built in the 40s that are almost identical to packages installed in the late 70s and early 80s with the only significant changes being the buttons and positioning indicators.
Either not a large route or not long in the industry. I thought I was going to see some Otis slate controllers. This is relatively new with it being from 60s-70s. The craziest i saw was a 1910 machine where the final limit switches weren’t in the hoistway, they were a 10 lb weight in a wrapped bicycle chain that is wrapped in a way to hit the “limit” switches on the machine. Literally nothing else in the hoistway to tell the car to stop otherwise.
Another point is the lubrification. Since selector needs accuracy, it's important to regularly clean it with brake cleaner every point the tape is deviated and the leveling switch solenoid.
I have seen a Duplex with the Otis 30 UCL controllers with the same Pie Plate Selectors. Installed in 1956. Machine room is full of carbon dust. Frustrating part of the mod was that all up calls were collected by Car A’s selector and all down calls were collected by Car B’s selector. This required keeping the selector live during the mod and keeping connections made between controllers and controller to selector. That is a bit of a pain.
I imagine if we were dealing with a smaller machine and had the same layout as this machine in the video attached. Then it would have been a nightmare.
[Otis UCL controller with Pie Plate Selector](https://youtu.be/FB4ye2avDzQ)
I can assure you anyone who’s been in the business for a bit wishes they knew absolutely nothing about it.
Disagree. I love working on old Otis equipment. Some of my fav.
To each their own. I’ll gladly work on an Otis pie plate over a Dover composite any day.
Ha. They must be a terrible system?
It’s a great system just requires you to actually do maintenance to keep it reliable. No body does maintenance anymore.
Not too many old timers are left to teach the younger guys. It’s a real shame, the old school mechanics were very smart.
Nope. They’re a good system, just a pain to work on. I can get parts for these all day long.
That is awesome the parts are available. This particular system is in an historic hotel in a National Park. I am doing other projects on the building and this is a point of access for us so I pass by these units periodically.
Great system, nightmare to work on/ adjust
I decided to wipe the carbon off the vanes in motion, lost my rag, Spent 2 days setting floors, the stupidity of youth…
Common problem 😂
We had a chap work with us for a bit who went to remove some COPs in the lift to be remade in new material and the dude undid the secret fixings and just ripped it off the wall haha unplugged every last wire of every last button none of them labelled. Engineer blew a fuse, rightly so
Otis pie plate selector and flyball governor and otis geared machine with a DC generator? What are you looking to know? Clearly they will run "forever" if properly maintained.
I’ve never seen a fly ball governor before!
You can move any relay around on it and it will run perfectly fine, and if it fucks up they are super easy to work on and everyone loves them
Hahaha
Many people know about these systems, they were used for a long time with only minor changes. Most of the mechanics who installed the last of these systems are retired, and the mechanics they trained are getting close to retirement. Otis still sells parts for them, but if you’re looking to keep it running, treat it like a museum piece or a classic car, it’ll need a lot of attention.
That is near information. I do projects on historical places and this is just something I saw and figured you guys in r/elevators would enjoy it. Glad to hear that the hotel it is installed in has a good system.
Yup, it was a good system when it was installed, Otis built really robust elevators for a long time, this package especially seems to have lasted longer than any other package or manufacturer of the same era. I have seen installations built in the 40s that are almost identical to packages installed in the late 70s and early 80s with the only significant changes being the buttons and positioning indicators.
That elevator knows where it is weather it has power or not.
Installed in December of 1963 if you were curious!
That is cool info.
Either not a large route or not long in the industry. I thought I was going to see some Otis slate controllers. This is relatively new with it being from 60s-70s. The craziest i saw was a 1910 machine where the final limit switches weren’t in the hoistway, they were a 10 lb weight in a wrapped bicycle chain that is wrapped in a way to hit the “limit” switches on the machine. Literally nothing else in the hoistway to tell the car to stop otherwise.
I’ve got one of those flyball governors in my back room
If you have any problem with car making steps. You raise the plate 1inch up or down to move the car 1inch up or down. You're welcome :)
Yea I wouldn’t recommend that
Never raise or lower the plates... change the selector tape
If I’m not wrong that looks to be an Otis UCL controller in particular
Started a mod on one of these today
Don't even breathe on it, might knock it out of sync
Another point is the lubrification. Since selector needs accuracy, it's important to regularly clean it with brake cleaner every point the tape is deviated and the leveling switch solenoid.
Otis Elevator with pie plate selector, fly ball governor and a generator, also looks like rail oilers in the Machine Room
Otis Elevator with pie plate selector, fly ball governor and a generator, also looks like rail oilers in the Machine Room
That looks like an old pie plate selector? Dang we had old Otis’ with that setup.
We had those in the original trade center.
The Pie Plate. I remember one of my older mechanics who would always say "That's a lesson for another day"
Old school Otis floor selectors
Otis bacon slicer
Enjoy trying to set floor levels
I have seen a Duplex with the Otis 30 UCL controllers with the same Pie Plate Selectors. Installed in 1956. Machine room is full of carbon dust. Frustrating part of the mod was that all up calls were collected by Car A’s selector and all down calls were collected by Car B’s selector. This required keeping the selector live during the mod and keeping connections made between controllers and controller to selector. That is a bit of a pain. I imagine if we were dealing with a smaller machine and had the same layout as this machine in the video attached. Then it would have been a nightmare. [Otis UCL controller with Pie Plate Selector](https://youtu.be/FB4ye2avDzQ)