Tape seals?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 5/19/19 6:37 PM, Guy Dunphy wrote:

> Just a thought - I buy small ziplock bags of various sizes in bulk from Aliexpress. Very cheap.
> I use them around the workshop, electronics, and for filing B5-sized documents in storage cubes.
> 
> It seems likely there would be ziplock bags that fit tape reels. With a choice of light or
> heavy duty film thickness.
> 
> Pros:
>  * Keep dust, moisture and pests away from the tape.
>  * Cheap and always available.
>  * Takes up no significant extra space.
>  * Allows inclusion of things like information sheets, keeping them associated with specific tapes.
>  * Can put big labels on the bags.
> 
> Cons:
>  * Not as neat as ring seals.
>  * Doesn't allow hanging.

A lot of what I'm given to process are reels from the 1960s and 1970s.
Many, by the time they reach me, have suffered some reel damage.
Plastic gets brittle with age and tossing 30 tapes in a box and shipping
them ground certainly doesn't help!  You try to tell the customer to
ship the tapes in no more than about 10 to a box (25 lbs), but the guys
in the shipping department figure that if double-walled big boxes work,
then they'll just fill them up and toss in some bubble wrap...

Sometimes, just removing the broken off sections is sufficient if
they're small, but I've had to resort to using solvent cement to stick
bits of reels back together sufficiently to mount the reel (I use MEK,
but keep a separator between the reel flange and tape until the stuff
dries).  I've even had a couple of two-part reels come apart.  Ziploc
freezer bags in the one and two-gallon size are supermarket items here,
but they just don't offer enough protection.

Thanks for the idea, though!
--Chuck