Demagnetizing considerations

[miroslav]

You may not see it with every pinch roller...but most chemicals tend to react with the rubber in some bad way.
I can recall learning about the "no-alcohol on pinch rollers from as far back as the mid-'70s.

Check out the info on Terry's site: Terry's Rubber Pinch Rollers & Wheels

All he does is re-manufacture rubber rollers....and this is his view:

Many people ask me what to clean their pinch rollers with. I wish I had a good super secret formula I used and could tell you about, but I don't. I see daily and heard what chemicals do to rubber, and it isn't good. Sooner or later the rubber will be ruined. Some types of rubber dry out, crack, and get hard, while others get soft and gooey.
My advice and its only my opinion, and I know this doesn't clean as good as some high octane chemical, but I suggest just plain old dish soap and water, then rinse good.
Sorry thats about it.

I've since gone to cleaning with just water...and it was kinda' funny seeing how well it works...the rubber is clean and it gest back that nice, tacky feel like when it was new and fresh. I guess if you have some real nasty gunk, then add a little dish soap and rinse with water...but so far I've just used warm water.

 

[ClausRogge]

Shocked about the black!? traces - never had any of these! I use 97% alc from the chemist´s, no brand or anything.

BTW after a discussion on this forum a year or so ago I decided to stop demagnetizing my tapeheads alltogether and see what happens. Nothing has, so far ...

 

[Victory Pete]

Shocked about the black!? traces - never had any of these! I use 97% alc from the chemist´s, no brand or anything.

BTW after a discussion on this forum a year or so ago I decided to stop demagnetizing my tapeheads alltogether and see what happens. Nothing has, so far ...

I want to get a Gaussometer myself, I am curious about when the heads and guides need degaussing. Apparently high freqencies will get erased if there is magnetism on the heads and guides.

VP

 

[miroslav]

Shocked about the black!? traces - never had any of these! I use 97% alc from the chemist´s, no brand or anything.

BTW after a discussion on this forum a year or so ago I decided to stop demagnetizing my tapeheads alltogether and see what happens. Nothing has, so far ...

Yeah....I remember that thread.

I have to say that in my own experience, I've run my 1/2" 16-track at times for months without demagnetizing...and I honestly never saw/heard any difference.
I would still demag once in awhile and certainly before doing any calibration and/or running my MRL alignment tapes...but some folks do it almost daily, and I'm not sure if that much is necessary...???
AFA that guy's claims in that other thread....mmmmm...I dunno, some of the stuff he says seems to coincide with my own observations, that after month of use, I didn't hear any loss of HF....nothing more than what normally happens with tape....
...but, there's the other side of my brain telling me that I should demag at least once in awhile as part of the more involved maintenance and alignment procedure.

Now that I have a 2" tape deck...I'm going to monitor it and see if I can hear/notice any changes before/after demags if I've run the tape for a good number of hours.
While it's hard to doubt all the people that say you need to demag...the fact that there are also plenty of warnings associated with demagnetizing, it makes you sometimes wonder just how often it needs to be done.

 

[Beck]

Not to be a Sir Prancealot, but in 20 years, I've never found this.

I wonder if perhaps one reason we see different opinions on this is because of the different types of rubber used by different manufacturers. Some are quit sensitive to drying agents, which isopropyl is. Could be the same in some ways with demagnetizing, although I’m an avid degausser and highly recommend it. It doesn’t seem to matter how expensive a machine either, but depends purely on materials used in design.

I cut my teeth in a professional a environment and degaussing was a daily routine, but these machines were also used a lot more throughout the day than a typical home/project studio. I carried the maintenance habits over to my own more modest home equipment. When in doubt follow the user/maintenance manual and you can’t go wrong. One thing about degaussing is the more you do (have done it) the more routine and effortless it is. It’s no big deal. Some of the conversations about degaussing I’ve seen on the web are almost like, “Should I lose my virginity, and could it make me go blind? What about disease and unwanted pregnancy? Will I go to hell?”

It’s only since the web, in web forums with lots of people are contemplating degaussing and haven’t done it much if at all that I’ve ever seen such a debate. Back in the day this was a non-issue… degaussing was as normal as cleaning heads.

Anyway, the way I use the rubber cleaner is to use it every now and then to help maintain the properties of the pinch roller and other than that use a small drop of dishwashing liquid in a bowl of water to remove tape residue. Some people swear by using spit, but that seems, well… too spitty for my tastes.

 

[miroslav]

Some people swear by using spit, but that seems, well… too spitty for my tastes.

Do they remove to roller from the machine first?

"I let my cat lick it clean."


I agree that demagnetizing is not as involved/complicated as some folks imply. I just wish the Han-D-Mag units had a built in on/off switch so you don't have to fiddle with plugging/unplugging....but I guess they don't include one so that you don't accidentally hit the switch.
What I do is plug it into a power strip that has a switch...so that when I back away the 3'...when I get to the power strip, I can flip it on/off with my toe.

 

[Victory Pete]

Do they remove to roller from the machine first?

"I let my cat lick it clean."


I agree that demagnetizing is not as involved/complicated as some folks imply. I just wish the Han-D-Mag units had a built in on/off switch so you don't have to fiddle with plugging/unplugging....but I guess they don't include one so that you don't accidentally hit the switch.
What I do is plug it into a power strip that has a switch...so that when I back away the 3'...when I get to the power strip, I can flip it on/off with my toe.

I have some Teac E-3 demaggers and I am constantly aware of the switch, I would like to get the Handi-Mag with the Gaussometer.

VP

 

[AtoDeficient]

Spit, toes, and licking cats. . . .

I think I need more updated manuals.