I realize that, but this has occured to often to be just a coincidence. It might have to do with alignment, since my TU56 had to be rebuild. Jos

I'm guessing he's looking for a Tape Cleaner & Certifier. They look kind of like a stand up 9-track drive minus the whole part with vacuum tubes (so the sit nicely on a desk). It runs the tape over glass "blade" to clean it, and I believe it writes/reads a pattern to the tape while doing that to check for errors. Oh, it also has a cleaning ribbon after the glass blades that it rolls over, IIRC. (not the best description, but it's been nearly 10 years since I used one) The company that used to see the tape head cleaning pads now markets them for cleaning screens. I've found the Radio Shack tape head cleaner great for cleaning my TK50, TZ30, and TK70 drives. I'd assume you could use isoprophal alcohol as well, since that's basically all the cleaning pads were. The important thing is to use lint free swabs or cloth. Zane