Working with Old Tapes

[Curious Marc]

> On Oct 17, 2018, at 12:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 10/17/18 11:10 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
>> 
>> The 1/2 inch tape drives I'm familiar with incorporate such a device.
>> Typically it's a ceramic thing, so it looks like a small shiny white
>> rectangle near the heads.  It has to be scrubbed clean periodically
>> when it gets brown from accumulated ferrite dust.
> 
> Certainly mine do--some drives use a single ceraminic "blade" and others
> use a sort of comb structure.
> 
> My tape cleaner uses a tungsten carbide blade and a follow-up vacuum
> that picks up the debris.
> 
> But even after baking, there are a few tapes that have issues where the
> binder has bled through to the surface.  Such tapes will even stall when
> being drawn through the mechanism of a cleaning machine.
> 
> I find that coating the tape with cylcomethicone allows the tape to pass
> freely.  The lubricant evaporates without affecting the tape in a few
> minutes-half hour.  I've used the same on floppy disks with good success.
> 
> My application method is with a felt wick fed by a reservoir.
> 
> 
> FWIW,
> Chuck
> 
Chuck,
Where can you get that chemical? Is it a common one?
Marc