24 Apr
2007
24 Apr
'07
8:17 p.m.
I've been cursing my way through a load of DC300XL/DC600A carts
written a bit over 20 years ago. They're mixed "Scotch" brand (blue
logo) and "3M" (red logo).
The "Scotch" ones have been an unmitigated nightmare. Binder bleed
visible between wraps on each reel (white gloppy deposits), flaking
of the binder (the tension band has great chunks of oxide firmly
laminated to it). Really awful news and prety much a total loss.
The "3M" brand are largely recoverable, with a few missing block
errors.
Does this match everyone else's experience with these two brands?
Cheers,
Chuck
25 Apr
25 Apr
2:37 a.m.
On 25/04/07, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
I've been cursing my way through a load of
DC300XL/DC600A carts
written a bit over 20 years ago. They're mixed "Scotch" brand (blue
logo) and "3M" (red logo).
The "Scotch" ones have been an unmitigated nightmare.
[..]
Hmm... I've got a couple of DC600As in the back of the cupboard from a
system I was working on about 15 years ago .. I really ought to check
up on them. Need to find a drive at some point ..
While not directly relevant, ISTR that c.20 yers ago Scotch marketed
their VHS tapes over here with a lifetime guarantee, and the tag line
"re-record, not fade away" "you can watch scotch forever".
<http://groups.myspace.com/rerecordnotfadeaway> (I should still have
some of their VHS tapes that are 20 years old now .. really ought to
check on them....)
Did their data carts have the same guarantee??
Rob
5:52 a.m.
On Tue, 24 Apr 2007, Chuck Guzis wrote:
The "Scotch" ones have been an unmitigated
nightmare. Binder bleed
[...]
The "3M" brand are largely recoverable, with
a few missing block
[...]
Does this match everyone else's experience with
these two brands?
Yes, absolutely! All of the Scotch/"no name" stuff (DC300 cartridges that
were used with IBM 5100/5110 here) are a real nightmare (I still want to
save the data on them as they contain many student/research projects of
that era). On the other hand the 3M cartridges (although they might have
small white belts that break) are all fine.
Another nightmare are breaking belts in DC100 cartridges (mostly Scotch
brand, but also HP). I will have to try using a belt from a DC2120
cartridge.
Christian
6:13 a.m.
Christian Corti wrote:
On Tue, 24 Apr 2007, Chuck Guzis wrote:
That's really strange, because 3M and Scotch are the same company.
Peace... Sridhar
The "Scotch" ones have been an
unmitigated nightmare. Binder bleed
[...]
The "3M" brand are largely recoverable,
with a few missing block
[...]
Does this match everyone else's experience
with these two brands?
Yes, absolutely! All of the Scotch/"no name" stuff (DC300 cartridges
that were used with IBM 5100/5110 here) are a real nightmare (I still
want to save the data on them as they contain many student/research
projects of that era). On the other hand the 3M cartridges (although
they might have small white belts that break) are all fine.
8 a.m.
On Wed, 25 Apr 2007, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
That's really strange, because 3M and Scotch are
the same company.
I know, but I think that Scotch was the low-cost brand of the 3M company.
BTW the original IBM data cartridges for the IBM 51x0 have been produced
by 3M, too. You can see the small 3M logo embossed into the metal plate.
These "IBM" cartidges are all fine, too (except for the belt...), so they
are of 3M instead of Scotch quality.
[Maybe Scotch used their adhesive tape as base for the data cartridges ;-))]
Christian
8:09 a.m.
Christian Corti wrote:
Really, really strange.
That's
really strange, because 3M and Scotch are the same company.
I know, but I think that Scotch was the low-cost brand of the 3M company.
BTW the original IBM data cartridges for the IBM 51x0 have been produced
by 3M, too. You can see the small 3M logo embossed into the metal plate.
These "IBM" cartidges are all fine, too (except for the belt...), so
they are of 3M instead of Scotch quality. [Maybe Scotch used their adhesive tape as base for the
data cartridges
;-))]
Have you ever played with rust-covered scotch tape in a reel-to-reel
tape player? It works surprisingly well.
Peace... Sridhar
9:30 p.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 08:09 -0400, Sridhar Ayengar
wrote:
Really. I might have to see if I can dig that up.
Peace... Sridhar
Have you ever played with rust-covered scotch
tape in a reel-to-reel
tape player? It works surprisingly well.
Tim Hunkin did this in one episode of his series "The Secret Life of
Machines". 
26 Apr
26 Apr
9:55 a.m.
On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 21:30 -0400, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/
http://www.timhunkin.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hunkin
http://www.rudimentsofwisdom.com/
Just a few off the top of my head. Tim Hunkin is something of a hero of
mine ;-)
Gordon
On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 08:09 -0400, Sridhar
Ayengar wrote:
Really. I might have to see if I can dig that up.
Peace... Sridhar
Have you ever played with rust-covered scotch
tape in a reel-to-reel
tape player? It works surprisingly well.
Tim Hunkin did this in one episode of his series "The Secret Life of
Machines".
27 Apr
27 Apr
2:13 a.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Really. I might have to see if I can dig that up.
http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/
http://www.timhunkin.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hunkin
http://www.rudimentsofwisdom.com/
Just a few off the top of my head. Tim Hunkin is something of a hero of
mine ;-)
I've seen the show before, but I don't believe I've ever seen that
particular episode.
In any case, I've downloaded the entire series through the kind courtesy
of someone on the list.
Peace... Sridhar
Have you ever
played with rust-covered scotch tape in a reel-to-reel
tape player? It works surprisingly well.
Tim Hunkin did this in one episode of
his series "The Secret Life of
Machines".
25 Apr
25 Apr
12:06 p.m.
On 25 Apr 2007 at 14:00, Christian Corti wrote:
I know, but I think that Scotch was the low-cost brand
of the 3M company.
BTW the original IBM data cartridges for the IBM 51x0 have been produced
by 3M, too. You can see the small 3M logo embossed into the metal plate.
These "IBM" cartidges are all fine, too (except for the belt...), so they
are of 3M instead of Scotch quality.
It's very confusing. "Scotch" brand used to have a very respected
following among reel-to-reel audio tape people (with the exception of
777--that acetate-based stuff seemed to degrade faster than
anything). But the 3M carts are very clearly superior to the Scotch
ones. The determining factor doesn't seem to be age either--all of
the carts I'm working on were recorded within the space of 2 years.
I'm going to bake a couple of them to see if I can get better
results, but a big problem is adhesion of the oxide to the tension
belt--I don't know what to do about that--the oxide seems to form a
better bond with the belt than it does with the base.
I'm assuming that a couple of hours of heating the base plate to
about 130F (about 55C) will do as much good as anything will. Beyond
replacing the tension belt and praying, that seems to be about the
extent of what can be done.
Cheers,
Chuck
6259
days inactive
6261
days old
10 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
cc＠corti-net.de -
cclist＠sydex.com -
gordon＠gjcp.net -
ploopster＠gmail.com -
robert＠irrelevant.com