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Source for cheap belts for a Sony TC-W250

daviddeep

daviddeep

Well-Known Member
My sister recently gave me her old Sony TC-W250 which served as her college dorm tape deck. If you're not familiar, it is a pretty basic entry level "BPC" dual well deck from the late 1980s. Nothing fancy, but it was a rugged deck that made decent sounding recordings, and it does have Dolby B & C.

Anyway, I have no use for it since I have a much better deck for myself. I was going to clean it and donate it to my local charity's thrift shop rather than seeing it go to the landfill. However all four belts (two per transport) are droopy and non-functional.

I don't want to spend a bunch of money fixing this thing up which will probably be lucky to bring in $25 at the thrift. Therefore I'd like to keep the cost of belts to under this amount, or even less. I also don't want to do a shoddy fix that's going to end up disappointing the eventual buyer. Does anybody have any suggestions for sources of cheap, decent quality belts?

I suppose I should mention that they are all square belts. Two appear to be about 1.0 mm in section by about 15.0 cm long (when cut in half) and the other two are more like 0.9 mm by 18.0 cm long. They are all sagging some, so I suppose I'd be looking for something about 1.0 cm shorter for each type.
 
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I've bought a few things from there with no problems that I remember.

More recently I've bought belts from this place...

http://studiosoundelectronics.com/belts.htm#SBS

They don't have specific model kits, but if you know the size, they have them for $2 ea. They also have a page for "how to measure a belt'. I've also emailed them and gotten a recommended size. So far they've all worked.
 
Using the belt measuring instructions from Studio Sound Electronics, I'm coming up with this:

The belts I need are all 0.039" in section, or their "SBO" series.

Two of my current belts measure 5-7/8" or 5.875". Deducting 5-10% for stretching yields a range of about 5.3" - 5.6". They carry a 5.4" SBO series belt. Perfect.

The other two belts measure 7-3/16" or 7.187". This range is 6.5" - 6.8". They also carry a 6.6" SBO belt. Again, looks right on.

HiFi in WYO, I checked vintageaudioforyoutoo's current eBay auctions and he/she doesn't list any cassette belts. They seem to deal primarily in turntable belts. I suppose it is possible that they could get some for me, but ordering directly from the Studio Sound website seems more convenient.

Thanks everybody for your help.
 
:thmbsp:

They have an eclectic mix of parts; belts, speaker parts, guitar and amp parts, VCR parts, lamps, etc. Some are extensive and others are limited. They do have some useful 'how-to' pages also.

My only complaint is that they charge shipping by price, as do many other places. For nearly weightless items like belts the shipping shouldn't cost more for 8 than for 2, but it's fairly reasonable compared to some places.

Interestingly they recommend Vintage Electronics as a source for some items they don't carry, even though they sell competing parts in other areas.

FYI once you understand how the belt size numbering system works, you can compare prices and shipping at many sites, as they all seem to use the same system and likely are from the same source.
 
In this case at least, Studio Sound beat Vintage Electronics by about $6. They had similar minimum shipping charges but the belts are only $8 at Studio Sound vs. $14 at Vintage Electronics.

I've bought CD tray belts before from Ken's Electronics and they were of good quality, but their price on the belts for my tape deck would also have been about $6 more than what I paid:

http://www.kenselectronics.com/
 
I have to tip my hat to the order fulfillment department at Studio Sound Electronics. My belts arrived in just two days. Not too shabby. Now I just need to find a few minutes to put them on.
 
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