Quick sticky-shed question

M

Muckelroy

Member
I saw firsthand the absolute worst case of sticky shed I've ever seen, in a 7" 1/4" reel of Ampex 407 (it's a 1 mil tape, supposedly pretty good quality).

The first few feet of tape were fine. Soon after, the entire binder was becoming seperated from the backing at a frighteningly fast rate. :eek: I of course, stopped it, and manually unloaded the takeup reel.

Which leads me to wonder - I've never seen sticky shed on Scotch 203, Realistic Supertape, or other "consumer" hi-fi brands. The binder on these tapes is a very dark, almost black color, whereas the upper grade tapes have a distinct light brown binder, and a black backing. What are those Scotch, and Realistic "black" binder tapes made of, and why do they not suffer from sticky shed so readliy?

just curious.

I may have to bake this old ampex if I'm ever gonna know what's on it :(
 
If the binder and oxide are pulling completely off the backing, then it's probably too far gone for baking. I used to do a lot of preservation work, and I've seen a couple of tapes that bad. We couldn't save them.
 
Well, not COMPLETELEY, I'd say about 60 percent of the binder was sticking to the layer beneath it. Kinda an over statement.
 
That's still pretty bad, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Might as well give it a shot. I'd suggest at least 8 hours of baking time.
 
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