Advice for tape drive repair / maintenance

A number of years ago I had some luck making rollers using two methods: (1) Use a double punch to punch out thin doughnuts of rubber--too thick deforms on punch. Stack them on the shaft tacking them with a very small amount of silicon or urethane glue. Mount in chuck of drill press and turn slowly against stones of different coarsenesses to smooth the surface. You may need to fiddle with the speed to get a good finish. This method usually requires that you can somehow cap the top and bottom of the roller, especially if the doughnut is wide. (2) Cast a new roller using urethane or silicon. Mount the shaft, or tube that represents the inner diameter, in a drill press. Using an n-way machining vise, center the outer tube with the inner shaft. Pour in goo, lower inner shaft into goo using the press handle and fine tune the positioning with the vise if needed. I turn the shaft a few times to get the goo the settle and air to vacate. Let harden, remove with plunger, heat or cold. Trim as needed. For outer casings, I've used pvc and copper tubes, but the smoothest results are with a machined and polished steel tube, open at the bottom to help push the roller out. For one roller that would not stick to the shaft, I milled several grooves in the shaft and repoured. This kept the rubber from turning. -jim