Tape seals?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 5/18/19 8:25 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
> 
> 
> On 5/18/19 7:33 AM, Shoppa, Tim via cctalk wrote:
> 
>> Is there any outfit that sells "new tape seals"? Or a preferred better way to hang tapes in 2019?
> 
> FWIW, IBM auto-load hard plastic seems to be holding up better, you might be able to find a small
> quantity of those around.
> 
> Failing that, late era crappy tape might be found, and the seals scavenged though the price is
> probably prohibative.


Exactly.  After cruising for about a year or so, looking for tape seal
replacements, I decided that none were to be had.  Not even the few
places that still sell NOS tapes had any to spare for any price.  And
any old stock is likely to be deteriorating.  I suspect that no new tape
seals have been produced in the last 20 years.

After doing more investigation, I settled on 800' 16mm film cans made
for archival preservation.  There appear to be two types (I have samples
of both)--one vented and the other not. This makes sense as a lot of
acetate-based film stock was manufactured and, as it decays, gives off
acetic acid, which, unless removed, further corrupts the film base.

Of course, if you have the old Wright-Line style of tape racks, you
can't hang film cans.

Fortunately, all of the magnetic tape that I've seen is mylar-based,
which doesn't have the problem, so no venting is necessary.  Magtape
issues are mostly due to deterioration of the tape binder, for which
"baking" can go a long way to at least temporarily remedy.

Both types of film cans are made from polypropylene, as far as I can
tell, so they're probably good for my lifetime, at least. A 10.5" reel
of tape fits quite nicely, such that no additional support is needed.

Larry Urbanski seems to have the best price on the cans, about $5.75
each, but he'll negotiate for quantity.

There may be better solutions, but I haven't come up with one yet.  It's
a bit funny; I can remember when the tape seal adoption was causing
dumpster-loads of hard plastic tape cases to be scrapped.  The cases
that remain tend to be intact, even after 50 years.

--Chuck