Reel-to-Reel care?

I recently received a Hewlett-Packard 7970A 9-track drive (circa 1971) which had been stored for years (perhaps decades) with tape reels mounted. The reels could not be removed from the hubs. It turned out the rubber compression ring on each hub (which is compressed outwards into the tape reel to hold the reel onto the hub) had sealed itself to the reel as a result of being left in the compressed state. The reels were sealed on well enough that pulling or prying them off was going to break the plastic reels. The hubs had to be dismantled to get access to the compression ring to break the seal. (Not too difficult on these units once you know how to do it, but in the absence of manuals I had to dismantle it to find out how I *should have* dismantled it :/ ) On a similar note, can someone comment on the long-term prognosis of 9-track tape? Is it still being manufactured or is everyone that still uses it relying on new-old-stock? Is the oxide coating stable if stored at the proper temp./humidity or does it turn flaky/icky after a few years regardless? (The tape that was left on this machine, once unwound a little ways, sticks to itself slightly and as it goes through the drive an oxide goo starts to build up which causes the tape to bind and chatter. Granted this may all be a result of the environment the unit was stored in (an airplane hanger I believe). ) -------------------- http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/eec