Ampex 600 Rebuilding

[Harry Spring]

Just acquired my first Ampex 600 which needs some mechanical work. The two 4" wheels at the back of the transport need to be redone. They are identical and appear to have rubber tires on them. The rewind side has a flat spot on it and is especially noisy. Take up side not too bad. Is anyone familiar with this mechanism? Wonder if it is worth the $$$ to rebuild. Capstan idler is in pretty fair shape as well as the belt and other rubber idler. I'll be recapping the preamp and probably replacing tubes, etc. Since I got the companion 620 speaker/amp I'd kind of like to get these both back in tip-top shape. I know this stuff is pretty old, but was top notch in it's time.

Thanks for any suggestions. I've e-mailed Terry's Rubber Rollers to see if he can re-do these wheels.

 

[GCalo]

Terry can do anything.

Why NASA wants him to redo the rollers on the Mars rover!!!

NASA just can't figure out how to get those rollers to Terry however!

 

[sweetbeats]

Greg...your zany comments are out of this world.

Yer killin' me...

Really...

Harry, you're on the right track with contacting Terry Witt. He likely can rebuild them.

Have you visited the Ampex Museum site at www.recordist.com?

It is also the home port for the "Ampex List" which is a listserv that Howard Sanner and others support and maintain. The emails are distributed every 1~2 weeks depending on what Howard is up to...he reviews each one. So it moves at a slower pace but there is a great group of really knowledeable Ampex buffs there, some having been involved with Ampex in its analog audio heyday.

Of course we will certainly do what we can here but that may prove to be a valuable resource for you as well.