Ampex 440 and the Meltdown

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technoplayer

Recovering Gear-aholic
I ran across a pair of 440 C 2 tracks a local university radio station was offering up cheap. These had been in storage at the studio for several years, and they did not know what to do with them. The station mgr actually considered placing them by the curb!! The deal was right...nice overall shape, mint condition Russ Lang floor consoles, extra upper consoles for adding electronics, original manual, extender cards, hubs, spares, etc.....and a lot of fuzzy dust from storage. I've always had a soft spot for the 440 since using them in college, so I grabbed these.

I havent had the chance to do much except clean them up a bit, but here's the weird part. I brought the transports home in the trunk of my car, nicely padded and all. When I took them out of the trunk, the rubber pinch rollers had melted...I mean LIQUIFIED! The rubber was running off at the consistency of thick syrup....a f**in mess. One had melted right down to the metal core.
Ok so its summer in Texas and all but it surely did not get THAT hot in my trunk. Its been 3 days, and the rollers are sitting on piece of cardboard on my benchtop,in a sticky puddle of their own making. They rubber (??) has not firmed up much.

What gives?? Anybody have any bad experiences with meltdown like this??
 
technoplayer said:
When I took them out of the trunk, the rubber pinch rollers had melted...I mean LIQUIFIED! The rubber was running off at the consistency of thick syrup....a f**in mess. One had melted right down to the metal core.
Ok so its summer in Texas and all but it surely did not get THAT hot in my trunk. Its been 3 days, and the rollers are sitting on piece of cardboard on my benchtop,in a sticky puddle of their own making. They rubber (??) has not firmed up much.
Click to expand...
Good - you'll be able to clean the gunk out of the recorder. If it solidified inside the system you'd have a big problem.
I've never heard of pinch rollers going that bad, but in case you don't know, what you must do is send them to www.terrysrubberrollers.com for rebuilding - probably in a jar, by the sound of things. :eek:

He's got some good 'before' pictures of somewhat molten rollers, but I don't think any of them went like that.
 
Fortunately, I was unable to stand the units up in my trunk, so I had transported them "face down" on an a couple old comforters I use for padding stuff in the trunk.
Most of the goo ended up there, and on my driveway, and on my hands, and etc.

I'll have to get a picture up of the pinch rollers...its amazing
 
Rollers can get pretty gooey. I haven’t had one quite that bad yet. I’ve seen drive belts turn into a tar-like substance that you could probably spread on toast with a butter knife (don’t try that). The roller will have to be replaced, as it won’t recover from that state, in case you’re wondering. ;)

Terry (in JP’s link) has a great reputation for putting new rubber on any roller.

You can also still buy new parts from the following.

http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/index.html?JRF_mainframe=/audioprices.html

http://www.atrservice.com/products/item_details.php?item_id=64&dept_id=26

Vern Sauer At TSI also makes rollers for Ampex models that are said to be better than original (smoother – lower wow & flutter)

TSI - Technical Services Inc.
107 S. Prindle
P.O. Box 765
Arlington Heights, IL 60006
(847) 392-2958

~Tim
:)
 
Thanks Tim. Fortunately there was an extra pinch roller in the spares I got with the machines, so at least I can get on with checking the units out. Funny that the spare roller did not exhibit the same symptoms. I wonder if over the years the old installed rollers got "cleaned" with something that broke down the rubber. If so, its a cautionary note to be careful what you use on rubber parts. I know I will be!!
 
Yeah, I'm not sure how or why they breakdown, but they all do eventually. I've had to replace the pinch-rollers and drive belts on everything I own over the years.

I made a roller a lot worse once by trying to clean it with Goo-Gone. :eek: It had tape residue and other USOs (unidentified sticky objects) on it that wouldn’t come off, so I was down to desperate measures. It basically melted, but not dripping like yours.

That was a good thing though because I was wasting a lot of time on it. I bought a new one from TASCAM, which is what I should have done in the first place… but you know, that mad scientist side sometimes gets the best of us. :)
 

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