Cleaning heads

[jimfrusciante]

Hi

Can anyone tell me the basics required for head cleaning and general maintenece for a 16 track reel to reel.

please can you tell me where to buy any products required also, I seem to be getting a hell of a lot of backing coming off old tapes, I don't know if anything can be done to aleviate that?

Cheers

JIM

[Herm]

Wallgreens has acohol that is 95% that will work but dont go anything less than that like the 75%stuff. I just use q tips to clean the tape path and have never had any problem.
If your getting a lot of shed form the tape stop using it now. Its just clogging up the heads and path way of your recorder and doing damage.
The tapes may be baked in a food dehydrater but thats a whole differant story I suggest you do a search on the analog forum to find out what is involved there. Try tape baking for search words.
Good luck and again quit using that tape.

[guido #2]

95% alcohal. Don't use it on any of the rubber parts. Get a head demagnatizer and demag everything metal that the tape touches. Stop using the tape thats shedding or there wont be anything left on it to playback. Look up how to bake old tapes. You might get one or two more good passes of of them

[jimfrusciante]

Hey up

does anyone know why chemists have stopped selling isopropyl alcohol?
It seems a bit funny, whilst I gather its not the greatest thing to put into your cosmetics and so on.

Seems like its a move to increase the price for Maplins proffit.

Jim

[guido #2]

Jim
I can get it all day long at the drugstore.... why can't you get it???
I can send you some
And who is Maplin?

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by guido #2

I can get it all day long at the drugstore.... why can't you get it??? I can send you some And who is Maplin?

If I remember the Everyday Electronics magazines I used to read in the mid-80's Maplin is a UK electronics company. Probably similar to Radio Shack or Dick Smith (Aust/NZ) in the day.

Its getting very hard to buy isopropyl alcohol in NZ as well, thanks to those idiots who decide to make drugs in their basement. I bought my last bottle (100%) from a local chemist who also runs a sound hire company.

[guido #2]

Originally Posted by arjoll

If I remember the Everyday Electronics magazines I used to read in the mid-80's Maplin is a UK electronics company. Probably similar to Radio Shack or Dick Smith (Aust/NZ) in the day.

Its getting very hard to buy isopropyl alcohol in NZ as well, thanks to those idiots who decide to make drugs in their basement. I bought my last bottle (100%) from a local chemist who also runs a sound hire company.

That's just so ridiculous! I hate that.
They should just legalize the drugs for a month, then all these idiots would rush out and do them while the good folks holed up in their houses. At the end of the month all the druggies would be dead from OD. Problem solved.

[jimfrusciante]

Hey up.

Yeah maplins is the replacement for Tandy-Radio Shack. They went bust in England as far as I'm aware, and Maplins sucks. They're sort of helpful in there, though I think its more individuals than policy. But they sell all this disempowering userfriendly confusion.

Its sort of like Mcdonnalds for electronics. I half thought it would be an American competitor that crushed tandy, but Radio Shacks still living in USA hey. Anyway they're sort of expensive, especially for IPO = £10...

As far as I knew it only costed a couple of pounds in the chemist, but when I went in they gave me some seriousley scrutinishing looks (I might pull off a certain tramp chiq, but thats cuz it costs so much to clean my equipment)

So if it is because of misuse, once again the powers that be have excelled themselves by raising the price and hiding the stuff... Cuz everyone knows its only the poor musicians who'll have enough dedication to put up a chase.

a couple of days later I found I was looking for rubbing alcohol (unrelated) not realising its main ingredient is IPO... cue same funny lies and staring (don't you just hate it when chemists bluff complete ignorance as though its going to disued your search) But it turns out that I can buy rubbing alcohol pretty cheaply for the corner shop at the end of my street.
Does anybody know how to seperate the isopropyl from the methanol or whaterver it is that makes it rubbing alcohol? I half expect the lotion content would be pretty fatal to its IPO content???

Anyway, thats enough of my hard work and secret information given up for free.

see ya


Jim

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by jimfrusciante

Its sort of like Mcdonnalds for electronics.

Here it's Dick Smith. They seem to be steadily dropping a number of electronic component lines - the range is getting pathetic. I also would never buy CMOS from there - its shocking (pun intended) seeing how they treat static sensitive components.

They're now just a store for buying cheap junk CD players and computers...

Originally Posted by jimfrusciante

Anyway they're sort of expensive, especially for IPO = £10...

Ouch. I paid about NZ$2 for 50ml of 100% IPA - "packed by PSM Healthcare, Auckland NZ" - earlier this year. It might pay to try long established chemists to see if you have any more luck. Also might pay to contact the local distributor of an oil company - I know the local Shell distributor here sold it, in something like a 500ml bottle, but only to account holders or people known to the staff.

[jimfrusciante]

I sense a dissapearance of real chemists, they all seem to be "pharmacies" which seems to be similar to other American store names I've noticed cropping up, optometrist.. I'm wondering whether that just means "commercial equivalent to...X"

Anyway I've got plenty of IPO for the time being, and after reading all the health scare stuff its being dispensed by the tinyest tip of a Q tip at arms length only for critical cleaning procedure, so I think it will keep going for a lonf time.

Jim