Tape Drive Capstans
Chuck Guzis
cclist at sydex.com
Thu Jan 29 14:25:50 CST 2015
On 01/29/2015 10:55 AM, Ali wrote:
> Does anyone know if at any time in the past thirty years if the material
> used to make capstans has changed? I.E. can one be more confident of tape
> drives manufactured after some era to have non-goo capstan or is it that all
> tape drives (including ones manufactured now are ticking time bombs?
>
> Also how do you guys check capstans? Just stick long Q-tip in there? Thanks.
Capstans fail in several ways, in my experience. One way is the "turn
to goo", which seems to happen more on 80s-90s-era units. Another way
is to simply dry out and crumble (no goo); I see that on 60s-70s units.
A third way is to permanently deform; e.g., when used as a pinch
roller, forming a depression where contacting the driving shaft.
Oddly, I've never seen a case where a capstan hardens to a rock-like
mass, as is encountered in typewriter or printer platens. There, methyl
salicylate can work wonders.
--Chuck
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