No No No Pleeeeeeease nooooooo! unless your purpose is to 'decomission' that particular headstack... ;{} From my years of professional audio experience, including many pieces of gear restored and miles of media transfered - a truly *rusty* head assembly can sometimes be saved by removing it (implies you can replace it and re-align it) and using a strip of linen and some jeweller's rouge in a bit of mineral oil - used very judiciously, and certainly mindful of the VeryVery small space between the pole faces (the head gap). But I've seen very few actually "rusty" heads because most aren't made of materials that rust. I have cleaned my share of decades-old crusted-on accumulations of oxide and binders and whatnot - sometimes with a microscope and dental tools. I had at one time the materials to re-lap heads - a precision plate, holding fixtures, and a dial guage - but I just send 'em out now, let folks that do it for a living restore them.... Leave the ScotchBrite for what ot does well: post-dinner lasagna... Cheers John

I guess I should have been more specific, and say that 3M company makes a line of abrasives that use the scotchbrite technology but are MUCH finer, (10000 grit or so I think is the bottom end, I don't use anything finer than 1800) and these have supplanted most of the bar substances in the machine shop, I routinely use this stuff to remove the last part of that 1/10000" of an inch on a high spot the grinder missed, I certianly wouldn't endorse a pot scrubber (unless perhaps the heads had been uncovered, in a backyard for 15 years and it might work) but have seen some pretty scary things done with surface-plate honing too. I suppose at some level this gets into the individual owner vs museum debate where many of the things we do to old computers shouldn't be done by other than trained professionals, supremely confidant in the execution of the delicate task of restoring these increasingly rare artifacts, but if the individuals hadn't been doing this, how many of these machines would still be around? I'd like to have my packs professionally cleaned and certified, etc but with it costing $2000 to have a servo written, who can afford it? actually, this reminds me of baking-soda blasting for microfinishing and rust removal, I wonder if this is still done? Pavl_

You might also look at a _good_ jewellery equipment supplier (I'd go to H. S. Walsk, simply because they're near here). They stock some 'interesting' polising abrasives that might well be useable on tape heads (they are certainly usable on optical parts. You've struck a raw nerve there! Never underestimate the skill, equipment, or abilities of a true enthusiast. No, they're probably not trained to do the job, but that's a good thing, because it may mean they really understand what they are doing and are not going to do something stupid as a result (all too often, 'training' at least in the UK simply means knowing a procedure to follow, and following it, even if it's totally the wrong thing to do!). No I don't claim to be able to lap a tape head. But I do claim that I routinely do things that the manufacturers claim are impossible to do in the field, and I have no problems at all... -tony