Cleaning rubber roller???

[MartyMcFly]

Hi,
I have a rubber roller for my 38-8 that I would like to sell but it appears to have a sticky substance on it that my rubber roller cleaner wont take off. It looks like ink almost. Like someone smeared drying ink onto the part that would contact the tape. I have tried my "Lasermedia RC-5 Professional Rubber Pinch Roller Cleaning Fluid" on it and it just wont take off most of it. What to do???

 

[hilltop studios]

Probably toss it ! If the rubber is sticky it's probably beginning to disintegrate. This sometimes happens with old rubber rollers. Sometimes using improper substances to clean them will accelarate the deterioration. You could send it to "terry's rubber rollers", he re-surfaces them as good or better then new for quite a bit less then what a new one would cost. Regards, Dave

 

[MartyMcFly]

Well Its not the Rubber. Atleast i dont think it is. If I could take a good pic of it. It is something on it. Cause the rest of the roller looks great. I was just wondering if there is anything that might cut the ink-like substance? Also what are some common substances that you should NOT use on a Rubber Roller???

 

[snipeguy]

Well Its not the Rubber. Atleast i dont think it is. If I could take a good pic of it. It is something on it. Cause the rest of the roller looks great. I was just wondering if there is anything that might cut the ink-like substance? Also what are some common substances that you should NOT use on a Rubber Roller???

Dave is right. Send it to Terry's Rubber Rollers. He does a great job. He did my Otari MX50-50. Better than new.

Never use so called "rubber cleaner",alcohol, acetone, gasoline, sulphuric acid, maple syrup, Tremclad rust paint, single malt scotch, chicken soup or WD40. I use Windex on a Q-tip sparingly.

 

[Cosmic]

...Caig CaiCleen rubber cleaner and rejuvenator, by Caig Labs. It may not take the junk off, but once you are set with the roller, the Caig stuff keeps it fresh.

Best,
C.

 

[cjacek]

Well, the rubber cleaners that I used, take a small layer of the rubber off and so if that doesn't get whatever is on there out, then you may very well have to toss the roller or just sell it "as is". Check out MG Chemicals and Caig.com for rubber renew / cleaners.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

...Caig CaiCleen rubber cleaner and rejuvenator, by Caig Labs. It may not take the junk off, but once you are set with the roller, the Caig stuff keeps it fresh.

Best,
C.

Yup!

That's what I use too.

Cheers!

 

[Beck]

I’ve had no success in trying to recover pinch-rollers once they've become tacky or gummy. The rubber conditioner works wonders on a roller that is drying out, but the sticky ones seem to be sticky from the inside out because the Urethane is breaking down. I just had it happen recently with the roller for a TSR-8 (same part# for the 38 and MSR-16). The more I tried to fix the problem, the worse it got. It looks perfectly fine, but is in the early stages of goop. It still has its shape, but the tape sticks to it as it rolls past.

So far I’ve replaced the ball of goop formerly known as pinch on my 246, one 22-2 and my TSR-8. I can’t complain though… they were all 15 or more years old when they failed.

It can be hard to tell by touch between a good roller and a tacky one because a good roller should have healthy grab. So I pressed the bad roller down onto a paper plate and lifted the plate up in the air with it. It’s too tacky if you can do that.

I’m still going to experiment with this old one… maybe Xylene or Acetone… or maybe Co2 fire extinguisher since they seem to turn into a Blob-like creature.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Yeah, Im just gonna send it in and then keep it as a backup. I recently bought a TSR-8 (Which I LOVE) and the roller Im talking about came from it. I took the good one I had on my 38-8 and put it on the TSR-8 and now hopefully I can get this one redone and keep as a spare...

 

[MartyMcFly]

OK...Im wondering about the rubber rollers you see on ebay for the TSR-8 and 38-8? Are they any good? Would I be just better off to buy a new one of ebay? They appear to be about the same price...

 

[Beck]

I buy them from Tascam Parts in California. When I bought the one for the TSR-8 a couple years ago it was $29.00 plus $4.00 shipping in the US.

 

[cjacek]

Another source for pinch rollers is http://www.openreel.net/parts_3.html

They're on backorder currently but I've bought from these guys on several occassions and they're great.