tape baking

[Curious Marc]

I see the tape sticking to posts syndrome in my limited experience with HP QIC tapes also (DC100 / DC2000). The best I have come up with is wipe the posts with isopropanol. But I had not thought of lubricating them for a 1 time read, interesting idea. Or replacing the posts with ones machined from Teflon or Delrin?
Marc

> On Apr 28, 2020, at 3:37 PM, Alan Perry via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> 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