RMGI GOO Cleanup...

C

CurlyMon

New member
Hi Guys,

I have a bit of a problem on my hands. I am doing some demo work with some peeps using my Akai 4000ds. The deck is in tip top shape and sounds great. We have been using up some Quantegy 457 rolls I've had since 1998. Everything sounds great. Last weekend we needed some fresh tape, so I picked up 2 new reels of RMGI LPR-35 from a local retailer. Cleaned heads, demag, put tape on, would tape tails out...no gunk on lifters..ok good to go. A few hours in, everything seems a bit goo like, tape seems like its "worming" thru the transport. Then I notice this GOO EVERYWHERE!! You can't see it but its all over the transport, the buttons on the machine, my hands...then door knobs, my laptop etc etc. I washed my hands but it won't come off! I have dealt with sticky shed ampex before and that is nothing compared to this. I have never seen anything like this. My question is, how do I clean up this mess?

I have tried:
Dish soap and water
Mr clean eraser
denatured alcahol
Electronic wipe thingys

Nothing seems to work, the deck is cleaner then I have ever seen it, But so much as to move the machine it gets all over your hands again, then everything else.. To make sure I'm not crazy, I had the girlfriend wipe the front of the machine with her finger and a few minutes later she noticed this weird grease on her hands too... Would acetone work to cut thru this stuff? The place I got the tape from gave me a refund so that's good I guess... Any help would be great! I dont want to get this stuff on my other tapes.


-Mike
 
I have to say, that's a new one on me. I've seen RMGI tape shed oxide, and I've seen ancient 406 deposit some weird white muck, but I've never heard of RMGI tape melting.
 
I haven't seen tape do that, but my pinch roller did get extremely gooey once. Check to make sure it's not the pinch roller.:(
 
This may be a bit redundant, but have you looked at the pinch roller(s)? To me it sounds like the rubber on the roller(s) have broken down and turned to goo. I can't say I've ever seen tape turn gooey.:confused:
 
The pinch roller is good, as far as I can tell. Very little wear. I ran a shop reel of 457 last night for a couple hours and it played nice and smooth, sounded great as always. It seems like the glue fell off the tape. I cannot for the life of me clean up this mess. I've literally cleaned the machine 10 different times in the last week trying different things. It's like the whole deck has the glaze on it :(
 
I would contact Phil Paske at RMGI and talk to him about the problem. If this has ruined your deck they would want to, at the very least, know about it. Did you get the batch numbers off the reels of tape? If not, contact the retailer and see if you can get that info. Be prepared to send pics to Phil and have the batch numbers, but you would be doing everybody a favor by following through with this, and there may be some restitution in order. This is also totally new to me. :eek:

You could try acetone, but keep it away from any plastic or rubber parts...it will melt them.

Very sorry for what you are experiencing.
 
I will contact RMG today about it and see about getting a batch number. My rep told me the tapes "have been sitting here a while" before I bought them. So I'm sure they weren't the freshest stock. My deck is about as clean as it gets now. The take-up reel I was using was the hardest to get clean. The best way to describe it is a slippery grease that gets on everything. It made the metal parts very shiny and my hands sticky and itchy. This is not an RMG bashing thread, I've had good results using their tape in the past.;)
 
If you ask me, they (RMGI) should have had a recall going on for those early batches. It's a good tape but why on earth are the early runs, which reportedly had insufficient curing, still sitting in dealer / distributor warehouses?
 
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