WARNING: Clear QIC Tape Bands

[Chuck Guzis]

On 1/18/22 07:33, Jonathan Chapman via cctalk wrote:
> https://i.imgur.com/48EfOQG.jpg
> 
> That's after sitting parked a couple months. I have a Dysan doing it too. The Dysan had been re-banded with a boiled 3M band and run for years like that with no shedding. I have another Dysan with a green Plastiband in it which is also fine, minimal/no shed. So, I think we may need to re-evaluate if the clear Amazon cheap "plastibands" are perhaps totally incompatible with tape.
> 
> I know, I know..."just use the band to get data off." But I want to *run* QICs without having to destroy them constantly.
> 

Big difference here--Al and I are interested in getting the stuff off
and tossing the cart afterwards.  You should be warned that Plastibands
do deteriorate after a year or so--I have a package of them that cannot
be stretched without breaking.

And I've got factory 3M carts with the original bands where the same
thing has happened--it's just harder to see.

To be clear (no pun intended), I wipe the clear ones down with
isopropanol before installing.

Regardless, they're all TPU.

P.S.  If you're interested in fun, try re-banding a TR-7 cart successfully.

My opinion is that if you're trying to use DC carts for archival
storage, you should have your (tape) head examined. It's an old, cheap
(for the time) medium with a fatal design flaw.

--Chuck