Bob Scott wrote:Janitor Tzap wrote:MrAl wrote:
I used rubbing alcohol but i guess i'll have to try to find some
iso alcohol next.
I normally buy it at the local pharmacy, or at Walmart.
Ya, the rubbing alcohol has lanolin in it, and leaves a greasy film. 99.99% Isopropyl is recommended. At my TV station, the operators ran out of VTR head cleaner for the Ampex 2" quad head machines. The maintenance supervisor bought rubbing alcohol as an emergency measure. It's a good thing I caught them before they used it! It would have gummed up those expensive(!) heads.
I've used methyl alcohol successfully. Has anyone else? Come to think of it, in a pinch I've used scotch or rye whisky for cleaning the heads of a friend's 8-track.
I worked for Sony back in the days of 1/2" reel-to-reel tape machines. I learned quickly that cleaning belts and scraping rubber idlers parts like I did in my amateur days, doesn't last as long as doing it the right way, by installing new unstretched and unaged belts or rubber idler wheels.
Cleaning and roughing up a belt pulley sounds like a good idea, but I'd use very fine 600 grit sandpaper, not by scraping it with a knife.
I date myself when I mention that to fix shiny 8-track capstans shafts, after masking the bearing surfaces with electrical tape, I used to soak the shafts in ferric chloride etchant for an hour to get rid of the shine and restore the grip. This worked but was only a temporary and inadequate solution. It lasted even less time than cleaning an old stretched-out belt. I thnk that those capstans were case hardened at the factory. Etching them ruined the hardening and made them wear much faster. The only real solution was capstan shaft replacement.
Hi Bob,
Nice to know I wasn't the only one tinkering with these.
But yeah,
I and several of the people I worked with at this Repair Shop.
Came up with some fixes that were pretty weird.
The 8-track repair of the Capstan that you mention sounds extreme.
I've used polishing compounds like "Mothers" to remove the build up of oxides, that the tapes left.
Then used Isopropyl to remove residue from the "Mothers" polish.
But a lot of times the brass bearings in the 8-Track Players were worn out.
Or both the Capstan & Bearing were worn to the point that they were grooved.
I found in an old manual on cleaning Reel to Reel Audio Tape decks.
It stated that after you finished cleaning the heads.
You were to take a Q-Tip and a Lite Machine Oil and lightly coat the Audio Heads,
then wipe off the excess leaving just a film on them.
I guess the thinking was.
The Audio Tapes at the time didn't have a lubricant mixed in with the oxides and binding material.
Thus, they would wear down the heads quickly if there wasn't some kind of lubricant on the heads.
Yes,
Replacing the stretched out belts, worn out Tires, and Pinch Rollers is the best way.
But while I was working at the shop, we got in VCR's that were only months old.
So, replacement Belts, Tires, or parts weren't yet available,
and the customer wanted his VCR back, and working ASAP.
So, we came up with a lot of quick fixes.
One trick that worked pretty good was turning Tires inside-out.
This would give us up to a year before the machine would come back in.
By that time we could then get the replacement parts in from our suppliers.
By the way......
I don't advocate roughing up a belt pulley with a Razor Blade knife either.
Normally I will use a Q-tip and Isopropyl to clean it.
But, I've run into one or two really gummed up pulleys.
{This guy tried to cleaned the belts with WD40!}
The belt broke, and pieces were stuck to the pulley.
One thing that we used a lot was the Ultra Sonic Cleaner.
It was great for gears, and the occasional badly clogged Video Head.
Case History:
I wish I could remember the Panasonic VCR that was the size of a book.
It was Panasonic's attempt to make a VCR that had only one motor to
run every function. Play/FF/RW and Load and Eject the tape.
We saw a lot of those, that the gears had tore up, burned out the motor,
burned out the drive IC, or Power Supply Failed.
A lot of them end up in the parts pile in the back room.
Signed: Janitor Tzap