25 Nov
2008
25 Nov
'08
11:29 a.m.
My thinking is that the drum could be recoated (this
is assuming it is
indeed shot), and using the rigid cast chassis, ground down to a
smooth surface with a custom made tool. This is much like a "poor mans
wheel lathe" used on railroad wheels. As long as the bearings are
still pretty tight, there should be very little wobble between the
If there is signifcant play in the bearings, you have prolems anyway,
since the drum won't remain at hthe right distance form the heads. You'd
need to sort that out before re-coating it.
drum and chassis. With each head being adjustable for
height, much
inaccuracy across the drum becomes fairly unimportant. Inaccuracy
around the drum is more of an issue, but I suspect it will not be too
bad if the correct tool material and magnetic coating is used, and the
drum ground down gently. I will ask my real machinist friends about
the tooling, as I doubt I (or any of us) could make it.
I wonder if you coud remove the heads and mount something in place of
each one temproraily holding a cutting or grinding tool. Then slowly feed
it in with the drum spinng. It shouldn't matter if all trackes aren't
exactlyy the same height, that's what the head adjustments are for :-).
Afterwards, replace the heads and adjust.
-tony