tape baking

Alan Perry aperry at snowmoose.com
Tue Apr 28 17:37:13 CDT 2020



On 4/28/20 11:47 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> I'm a bit surprised that this is even a "thing" in the audio business.
> Restorers have been baking audio tapes for a long time.

That is acknowledged in the slides, isn't it?

"Thermal Baking: A popular, poorly understood remedy"

"Most common remediation (successfully used for decades)"

"No consistent baking procedures - to this day audio tape users argue 
about about why it works."

> Isopropanol does not clean the sticky deposits from equipment--you must
> use a stronger solvent.  Acetone, Perc or MEK generally does the trick.

I am trying to read a bunch of late 80s QIC-24 tapes (Sun/Computervision 
install media). In addition to the normal QIC band problem, I am seeing 
problems with the tape sticking on the metal posts that the tape goes 
around to change direction towards the reels. Should I try wiping the 
posts with acetone or wiping the tape with cyclomethicone? Should I be 
baking the tapes? If so, what is a safe way to bake QIC cartridges?

alan


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