Little Weekend Tape Project

[Numistrek09]

setting up the tape baking kludge

Baking kludge?? Whats that? All the old BASF tapes i've come across didn't need baking. They just shed a little oxide dust. All i had to do was play the tape, then clean the heads, then play the second side. Clean heads and pinch rollers, done.

Infact, most old tapes don't require baking, some are even destroyed by it (acetate tapes for instance). Only the stuff from Ampex, some Scotch, and a few other specific models from other lines require it. We have a thread here on the topic. There is a list there with all the known offenders of the problem.

 

[xlbee]

Baking kludge?? Whats that? All the old BASF tapes i've come across didn't need baking. They just shed a little oxide dust. All i had to do was play the tape, then clean the heads, then play the second side. Clean heads and pinch rollers, done.

Infact, most old tapes don't require baking, some are even destroyed by it (acetate tapes for instance). Only the stuff from Ampex, some Scotch, and a few other specific models from other lines require it. We have a thread here on the topic. There is a list there with all the known offenders of the problem.

Yep, Ampex 456 tape recorded in 87 (so, it was manufactured before that). My test run saw the reels eventually stop because the sticking was so bad. The whole reason I knew about baking or sticky shed syndrome was because of the great resource that is Audiokarma.

I call my setup a kludge because I used a food dehydrator, a rheostat and a digital oven thermometer.

You're right though, these were the first tapes where I experienced sticky shed first hand. My other tapes seem to be fine so far (fingers crossed).

 

[RobRoy]

My test run saw the reels eventually stop because the sticking was so bad. The whole reason I knew about baking or sticky shed syndrome was because of the great resource that is Audiokarma.

Same here. Both sentences. In fact, I think researching the problem may be how I discovered this site in the first place.