Care and Maintenance of Cassette and Reel to Reel.

Travis - Thanks for the info on the "nature" of denatured alchohol.

I've used IPA on pinchrollers for years and haven't yet had a problem, but what you stated about that makes sense. I'm now thinking about getting that Caig product. It's almost too easy to just press play and move the swab from the head to the roller as soon as you're done cleaning the head.

My technique for cassette capstan and pinchroller cleaning, FWIW: I just place the swab against the roller while the machine is on play and the capstan is turning it - must be careful not to let the swab get caught between the two! Every 10 seconds or so, I rotate the swab a bit to get another clean surface. I only grab a new swab when the old one is completely full of crud, and I keep doing this until I can't get off any more crud.
 
john_w said:
Travis - Thanks for the info on the "nature" of denatured alchohol.



My technique for cassette capstan and pinchroller cleaning, FWIW: I just place the swab against the roller while the machine is on play and the capstan is turning it - must be careful not to let the swab get caught between the two! Every 10 seconds or so, I rotate the swab a bit to get another clean surface. I only grab a new swab when the old one is completely full of crud, and I keep doing this until I can't get off any more crud.

I do the same thing on R2R, but knowing that the alcohol is getting on the pinchroller I follow it right up with the rubber treatment on the rubber only. The alcohol does not seem to have enough time to dry things out that way.

Travis
 
billed1954 said:
Hi Travis, THANK YOU for taking the time to help me understand the differences with the alcohol and differences. Thank God that my intentions with denatured alcholol are for audio related only :)- Well you would have to drink a lot of it to kill you, it tastes so bad you would have a hard time doing that. Wood alcohol, on the other hand, will make you go blind.

I have also used IPA 70% basically to clean off dirt and fingerpints, smudges, etc. on the panel knobs, controls, etc. but careful to keep them off any markings. I would try and get the chemical grade IPA from Techtronics or US Recording for the heads and tapepath, you will not have to worry about unlisted additives and can be sure of the purity

That is very cool that your Dad worked at Ampex. They were the standard with reel-to-reel recorders and remember that the college radio station I worked for in Milwaukee in the mid 1970's had Ampex R-to-R tape decks. It comes in handy in a lot of ways, he is a great source of information. Ampex was for sure the standard in R2R, a real shame they could not keep up. Studer was quoted as saying that his goal in life was to make a machine better then the Ampex; he said he matched it, but never exceeded it

I will utilize your recommendations here.

What do you think of SoundDoc03's thoughts on lacquer thinner? Not too sure about that. I know that I don't like the Techtronics Rubber treatment either, but I would try the Caig product before I reverted to lacquer thinner. There are generally two problems with rubber rollers, they either get dried out or they leach out chemicals and become gummy to the point of being inoperable. Pioneer RT rollers are notorious for the gummy issue, but the more common issue is the drying out problem. When they get so dry, almost glazed, they lose their grip. The Caig product is great for this. If this did not help, I would try anything, including lacquer thinner, to avoid having to track down another oem princh roller or worse, having to have one rebuilt.

Thank you so much for your help as this will be for anyone else searching for this type of info on AK.

Thank you also SoundDoc!

Best, Bill

Hope this helps
 
billed1954 said:
Penkosey, I think that you may be on to something with Denatured alcohol. Perhaps we do get a bit overreliant on the Walgreens type of Isopropyl Alcohol and also that a rubber cleaner may be best for certain types of roller cleaning as also discussed. I look forward to any more thoughts on this and how the 99.9% variety works for ToTo Man and the expansion on John W's thoughts.

Gentlemen, thank you and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Denatured alchohol is ethanol with something added to make it undrinkable.

Ethanol is straight grain alcohol, you have to buy it at the liquor store and it is taxed to death, but a pint is less than $10 and as an electronics or glass cleaner you do not need a lot. Everclear is the most common brand. It is 95% and that is about as high (99.5% anhydrous can be obtained from chemical supply companies, but finish the sentence) as you can get if you open it to the air as it sucks moisure right out of the air.

Wood alcohol is methanol. Poisonous stuff usually used in paintlike products.

Isopropanol is, I think, made from petrolium. It is usually used for medical purposes.

Rubbing alcohol is isopropanol that is mixed with some skin softener type of thing, and is what you buy off the shelf at the drug store.

Probably the best to use for cleaning your tape deck, or camera lenses is the Everclear from the liquor store as it does not leave anything behind when it evaporates. Straight isopropanol, not rubbing alcohol, is second.

Hope this is helpful.
 
Everclear Alcohol - Will try this out

Thank you Greywolf -this will be my first initiative to go into a Liquor Department on behalf of stereo maintenance and cleaning! I appreciate and learned from your comparisons on the different types of alchohol.

I finally was able to find lintless/sponge-type swabs that will be a big help.

Best, Bill
 
dwilawyer said:
Caig also makes a great product called CaiKleenTM RBR, I prefer it to the Techspray rubber treatment. Parts Express does not carry it but lots of other places do.
Amazon carries it and a few others:

http://www.amazon.com/Caikleen-Rbr-Rbr100l-25c-Rubber-Cleaner/dp/B0009JFF5W

http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=3127

http://www.computercasesandcables.com/ccc/214-0140.html

This larger can looks to be a better value:

http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog_name=MCMProducts&product_id=200-202
 
My cassette deck has a problem with recording a muffled left channel and a clear right channel. How do you fix that??
 
Oil of wintergreen for rubber rollers

I recall years ago hearing a tip from a stereo tech that oil of wintergreen (available at the drugstore) rejuvenates rubber quite well. Smells minty fresh too - but don't drink it, its poisonous. Leaves the rollers looking soft and pliable like new, I've used it before with only good results. Does a certain degree of cleaning with some rubbing on a swab, let it soak in a bit then wipe away excess and let dry.
 
Trance88 said:
My cassette deck has a problem with recording a muffled left channel and a clear right channel. How do you fix that??

If the cleaning info you find here doesn't help that problem, it's more of a repair issue. In that case I suggest either starting a new thread for it or contacting one of the techs on this site.
 
Dull sounding when playing on one side

I swear when I play tapes on my deck that Side A sounds a bit dull. When it flips over to Side B (auto-reverse) that side sounds brighter overall. I have even manually flipped the tape (Side B takes the place of Side A) then played the tape and Side B now sounds dull and Side A sounds ok.

Happens on multiple tapes so this leads me to rule out the tapes.

I've cleaned the heads and capstans with 91% alcohol. I don't have any roller cleaner to try that yet.

Can one direction of play get messed up this way or could I be imaging things?

(All Dolby is turned off when playing)

thanks
 
geauxldmember said:
I swear when I play tapes on my deck that Side A sounds a bit dull. When it flips over to Side B (auto-reverse) that side sounds brighter overall. I have even manually flipped the tape (Side B takes the place of Side A) then played the tape and Side B now sounds dull and Side A sounds ok.

Happens on multiple tapes so this leads me to rule out the tapes.

I've cleaned the heads and capstans with 91% alcohol. I don't have any roller cleaner to try that yet.

Can one direction of play get messed up this way or could I be imaging things?

(All Dolby is turned off when playing)

thanks

There are two issues that create this problem. The first is mechnical, that is the tape path is out of adjustment in some way. As the tape is off line and it goes through the guides it causes the tape to bow, which casues it to lift up from the heads, which causes the sound to drop. This effect has more of an effect on recording then playback, but it will cause a difference in the frequency response and playback of one channel over the other. So first look so see that the tape is ridding nice and smooth through the entire tape path, including guide rollers, buide pins and tape heads. You will need to pull off any head covers that you can and lay it horzintal. If head cover won't come off you will need one of the dentist mirrors and good light.

If that is not the problem then it is in the electronics and it can be a whole host of issues, playback bias circuit is going bad, bad head, etc.

Can you get the side A to sound the same as side B if you increase the tape output? Or is there also a difference in sound?

What brand and model of deck do you have?

Travis
 
There are two issues that create this problem. The first is mechnical, that is the tape path is out of adjustment in some way. As the tape is off line and it goes through the guides it causes the tape to bow, which casues it to lift up from the heads, which causes the sound to drop. This effect has more of an effect on recording then playback, but it will cause a difference in the frequency response and playback of one channel over the other. So first look so see that the tape is ridding nice and smooth through the entire tape path, including guide rollers, buide pins and tape heads. You will need to pull off any head covers that you can and lay it horzintal. If head cover won't come off you will need one of the dentist mirrors and good light.

If that is not the problem then it is in the electronics and it can be a whole host of issues, playback bias circuit is going bad, bad head, etc.

Can you get the side A to sound the same as side B if you increase the tape output? Or is there also a difference in sound?

What brand and model of deck do you have?

Travis

Well this a Pioneer ct-wm77r, not a vintage deck. I will have to see what I can do to see the tape path as you described. I did have another deck laying around and hooked it up. Now this one sounds better and plays a bit louder at the same volume level. Meaning I play a tape in the "problem" deck at a certain volume setting. Leave the volume setting,take that tape and put it into the other deck and it sounds louder at that volume setting.

One more thing is that at times I believe the problem deck seems ok. I just played a tape and it really sounded better than when I originally posted but not quite as loud as the other deck I hooked up.

This thing has never had the pinch rollers replaced. Would that be advisable just in general? I can clearly see a path worn on one of them for sure and will have to take the cover off to get a look at the others.

thx
 
A very informative thread, indeed!

I own a 3-head '97 Nakamichi DR-1 that's hardly used anymore (was bought for a home recording studio that was later sold). I haven't recorded anything since then ('99) and it's used only for playback, maybe used 10 hours or less a year now. I have always maintained all my decks; clean the heads and capstans with Walgreens 91% IPA after about 10 hours or less of use (and before every recording session), and have always used the same alcohol for the pinch rollers without any drying out of the rubber from what I can tell (maybe I've been lucky so far).

The instruction manual for the DR-1 says to use a zero-residue flourocarbon-based fluid for both the heads/capstans and pinch rollers. What is this type of cleaning fluid that's safe on metal and rubber parts, and where would I find such a product?

By the way, I have a Nakamichi DM-10 wand demagnetizer that I also use every time I clean the heads...works great (used as instructed, natch).
 
The other r to r group I belong to has a regularly scheduled rant about headcleaning every so often. The end result is bashed heads (human variety) and hurt feelings. Just kidding about the bashed heads.

But here's the bee's knees as far as I'm concerned as far as head cleaning and rubber cleaning:

http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/cleanwipandm.html

They also sell degaussers.
 
Thank you Greywolf -this will be my first initiative to go into a Liquor Department on behalf of stereo maintenance and cleaning! I appreciate and learned from your comparisons on the different types of alchohol.

I finally was able to find lintless/sponge-type swabs that will be a big help.

Best, Bill

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before...

A little for the pinch roller, a little for John...A little more for the pinch roller, a little MORE for John...:drunk::D

(Just for the record, I don't REALLY drink straight Everclear. No, really! :para:)
 
I have a Sony K717 ES 3 head cassette deck that I bought in 1994. I haven't used it much, since burning CD's took the place of tape cassettes, but whenever I have, it has always been excellent in every way. I used it about 6 months ago to play a cassette and it worked well.
Recently, when I tried to play a cassette, it would not play. It would FF and RW perfectly, but just not play. Since I am not very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the unit, I did some inquiring and was told that it sounded as if the drive belt needed to be replaced. I removed the door of the tape compartment and looked at the rollers etc but could not find
a drive belt or a broken drive belt or any remnant thereof.
I did find the drive belt part online, but I have no clue how I would install it or how it should fit on the rollers.
Can anyone advise me on how I could remedy this?
I don't want to throw this machine away and I am unable to find anyone to repair it that wouldn't charge an exorbitant amount of money just to give an estimate on the repair cost.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
 
Hi missminni, welcome to AudioKarma. It's a funny coincidence that I just bought a Sony TC-K717ES on "that auction site" today. The seller said it was having a bit of trouble with the fast forward and rewind, so it sounds like I'll be replacing a belt myself on the same deck as yours.

This tape deck has three motors, one for the play capstans, one for the reels, and one for the door. The play and reel motors are inside the deck, and have rubber belts that connect them to the play capstans (the small metal shafts that the rollers pinch the tape against) and to the parts that turn the tape reels. To get to the belts, the metal chassis cover has to be removed first, and then there is probably some amount of disassembly of the tape transport that's needed to get to the point where the new belts can be put on. This is something that some of the folks on AK can do themselves, and others would look for someone to do it for them. Sorry, but until I pick my deck up and take a close look at it, I can't say how complicated a job it is.

When you ask for repair advice, it would be helpful if you put in your profile where you live, at least a general area if not your city. Or even just mention it in your post. Then you may be able to hook up with someone local to you that can help out. Good luck!
 
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