Baking tape on 7" reels?

B

BillnShell

New member
I have 2 7" Ampex 456 reels in sealed boxes. There is no date code on the grey boxes. If I need to bake them, I'm guessing I'd need to transfer them to a metal reel which, concidering I don't have a deck with Idler rollers, and the thought of removing the heads to re-pack, well, mabey I should just keep them as memorabilia :o

I'm waiting to hear back on another thread for the best place to buy new tape, but for the dozen or so TDK reels I bought in Japan in 1980, and 2 Maxell XLI 35-90B(n) bought in the late 80's, also on plastic reels, I'm wondering how those two brands fared regarding sticky shed, and if it's worth trying to re-pack them onto metal reels without removing the heads, and bake? I should mention that these tapes were stored in a carboard box in garages ( I know better now thanx to recently finding this site ). There is no mold, and upon carefully un-reeling 20 or so feet of tape, there appears to be nothing notable regarding any "stickyness". Is this a good test, or am I all washed up?

Sincerely,

Bill
 
No, you can bake them right on the reel. Tape baking is done at low temperatures and shouldn't affect the reel.

Take a Q-Tip and rub the oxide side of the tape. If it becomes really shiny then you have sticky shed. If there's no real noticeable difference then the tape's OK.
 
BillnShell said:
I have 2 7" Ampex 456 reels in sealed boxes. There is no date code on the grey boxes. If I need to bake them, I'm guessing I'd need to transfer them to a metal reel which, concidering I don't have a deck with Idler rollers, and the thought of removing the heads to re-pack, well, mabey I should just keep them as memorabilia :o

I'm waiting to hear back on another thread for the best place to buy new tape, but for the dozen or so TDK reels I bought in Japan in 1980, and 2 Maxell XLI 35-90B(n) bought in the late 80's, also on plastic reels, I'm wondering how those two brands fared regarding sticky shed, and if it's worth trying to re-pack them onto metal reels without removing the heads, and bake? I should mention that these tapes were stored in a carboard box in garages ( I know better now thanx to recently finding this site ). There is no mold, and upon carefully un-reeling 20 or so feet of tape, there appears to be nothing notable regarding any "stickyness". Is this a good test, or am I all washed up?

Sincerely,

Bill
Click to expand...

That's right, the low temps 125 - 140 degrees won't harm plastic reels.

I'm not sure about TDK, but Maxell UD and XL have never given me problems. I have some XL 35-90 from 1980. It seems as good as new after years of storage.

-Tim
:cool:
 
M.A., Beck, Thank you for the replies, that's great news! I think I will keep one of the Ampeg's sealed and put away, not that it would end up being anything like my original Willy Mays cards that became spoke noise makers.. Yea, I still weep late at night sometimes.

Bill
 
BillnShell said:
I'm waiting to hear back on another thread for the best place to buy new tape, but for the dozen or so TDK reels I bought in Japan in 1980, and 2 Maxell XLI 35-90B(n) bought in the late 80's, also on plastic reels, I'm wondering how those two brands fared regarding sticky shed
Click to expand...
Hi Bill

I have a few reels of Maxell 35-90 from 1979-1980 and some 35-90B from 1993; no problems with sticky shed on either. All 7" plastic spools of 1/4" tape.

I understand that the baking at 50C shouldn't cause too many problems with the plastic spools - they should be able to handle this temperature. This is only going on what I've read - I only have two spools of mid-80's Ampex with sticky shed and they don't have anything particularly important on them so I'm not sure if I'll bother baking them.

Cya
Andrew
 
Thanx Arjoll.

From my first post: ( considering I don't have a deck with Idler rollers... )

Well, I was all washed up on that, my RT-707 does have them, but it's a silly point now that I know I don't have to transfer to metal.

You should have seen the look on my wife's face when I told her we were having a "different kind of pasta for dinner", and then placed the reels in the oven :D

Bill
 
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