Laying down or upright?

[Bigsnake00]

I am building a custom cabinet for my recorder, I think I read somewhere that it was easier on these machines to be laying on their backs. Is this true? It wont hurt it will it?, because laying on its back would be best for my design.

 

[brendandwyer]

well i know from experience that my Tascam 38's channel cards hang from their main board. so when the machine is setup vertically, gravity is trying to pull the cards down. I had some recording troubles on channels 1 -7 and then had to reseat all the channel cards. Now it works, but it makes me think i should be using this machine horizontally.

The TSR 8 may have the same config of channel cards.

 

[jpmorris]

I am building a custom cabinet for my recorder, I think I read somewhere that it was easier on these machines to be laying on their backs. Is this true? It wont hurt it will it?, because laying on its back would be best for my design.

Apparently (and my reference for this is not online anymore unfortunately) there was some infighting at Teac: the people who designed the cabinet built it to stand up, but the transport was engineered to run flat on its back.
Therefore, it is better to run the machine on its back because that's what it was designed to do, but the phono cables will stick out the bottom. Mine is 'bricked up' on a couple of spare external disk drive chassis and various other oddments. I intend to trolley-mount it in future, although the rack ears fetch stupid money on e-bay (forty pounds for two bits of bent metal? Get real).
Running the machine on its back also helps cleaning the heads.

Good that your machine is sorted out by the way

 

[Beck]

It's technically made to go either way, but laying on the back or angled back is actually best for the transport and plastic reel clampers (hubs) – this according to a Tascam rep from a 1989 H&S Recording review of the TSR-8.

I have mine angled back in a rack stand. Because the LED meters are on the front, having it completely horizontal is a little inconvenient for visibility, IMO.

Another thing to be careful of when angled or horizontal on any machine is cleaning the capstan. You don’t want alcohol to drip down the shaft, so don’t soak the swab dripping-wet for that procedure.

 

[SteveMac]

It's technically made to go either way, but laying on the back or angled back is actually best for the transport and plastic reel clampers (hubs) – this according to a Tascam rep from a 1989 H&S Recording review of the TSR-8.

I have mine angled back in a rack stand. Because the LED meters are on the front, having it completely horizontal is a little inconvenient for visibility, IMO.

Another thing to be careful of when angled or horizontal on any machine is cleaning the capstan. You don’t want alcohol to drip down the shaft, so don’t soak the swab dripping-wet for that procedure.

Beck, do you think one of those roller stands that Musicians Friend sell would be strong enough to hold a 38? Putting it on it's back seems difficult to me too. Too hard to see the meters. I actually just bought the feet to mine and like it how it is. But, maybe at some point would like it on a rolling stand.

 

[Bigsnake00]

I spent tonight building a cart to hold the tsr in a horizontal position. I built it low enough that I can see the meters, and if it is a problem i can always angle it up. Ive also left a space for rack mounting. It still needs a little work, but I'll post some pics tomorrow

 

[A Reel Person]

I'm in favor of running these decks in an upright position,...

pretty much across the board, but I do have one tilt rack and it's okay. If I had more rolling racks maybe I'd mount more of them at an angle, but upright on it's feet is the winner in my book.............

 

[Beck]

Beck, do you think one of those roller stands that Musicians Friend sell would be strong enough to hold a 38? Putting it on it's back seems difficult to me too. Too hard to see the meters. I actually just bought the feet to mine and like it how it is. But, maybe at some point would like it on a rolling stand.

I got mine from Stand Solutions a couple years ago when they were selling them on ebay. They still have them in their store. It’s the 20-space rack at the bottom of the page. It’s rated at 400 lbs.

http://www.standsolutions.com/studio_racks/index.htm

The angle is not adjustable but the price was right and it works well for me.

I was fortunate enough to get the rack ears with my TSR-8, but if you don’t have those, I know at least one fellow that was on TascamForums in the early days (before the Nazis took it over) who uses the following:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--QLKQL400

He said it worked fine, but the max weight is only 80 lbs… cuttin’ it a little close, IMO.

Below is a pic of mine from Stand Solutions. If I could have had it made to order I think I would have had it tilted back a bit more, but it seems to be running well as is:

 

[Beck]

I spent tonight building a cart to hold the tsr in a horizontal position. I built it low enough that I can see the meters, and if it is a problem i can always angle it up. Ive also left a space for rack mounting. It still needs a little work, but I'll post some pics tomorrow

Ah, one thing I didn't mention... make sure not to block the vents at the top for the heat to escape.

 

[brendandwyer]

i'm planning on tilt mounting as well. I wanted to run it horizontal for editing and tape loops (cause it's easier to mark and cut on a block) but the VU's make it impractical.

(i'm using the Tascam 38 btw)

 

[jpmorris]

What size (rack height) is the TSR-8 when mounted? I'm looking at adapting rack-ears intended for something else (this thread has inspired me to finally do something about rackmounting the thing, as my desk is falling apart and won't survive the next move).

Although that remote stand claims to be able to take analogue recorders, I wouldn't trust it with a 35kg unit when it's rated at 36kg.
Heck, putting the tape on the machine is enough to push it over spec..

I've found a reasonably cheap 40kg trolley, so it's mostly a matter of sorting out the actual rack-ears. But I need to know how long they must be.

 

[brendandwyer]

my only inhibition to rack my 38 is that the channel cards very easily come dislodged and if i ever have to reset them, racking it will cause more of a pain. But, if it's on a stand alone rolling tilt rack, the bottom panel is exposed anyway, so it might make sense.

 

[SteveMac]

Although that remote stand claims to be able to take analogue recorders, I wouldn't trust it with a 35kg unit when it's rated at 36kg.
Heck, putting the tape on the machine is enough to push it over spec..

.

I actually have that Quick Lok stand. I have a Roland workstation on. For a second I thought I was going to put the 38 on it. No way! It's definately not strong enough for that.
I guess the first one like Beck has or there was another I saw that was tiltable with rack mounts on it.

 

[Beck]

While we’re on the subject of racking reel-to-reels, I thought I’d post these pics I saved from an ebay auction sometime back. I didn’t bid on it but I saved the pics for future reference. My studio is pretty spartan when it comes to racks and such, but deep down I’m a warm wood and fireplace kinda guy. I hope someday to make my studio look as pretty as it sounds.

Maybe these will give some inspiration and ideas for those handy with carpentry (which, I’m not that good at). If my dear father were still with us, he’d whip something like this up for me in a jiffy.

Hey JP, the rack ears for the TSR-8 are 15-3/4" long (about 400 mm). They are each one continuous piece and attach to the sides of the deck with the three screws near the front, and then to the rack with four screws. They could be fashioned from L-shaped angle iron about 3.5-4 mm wide.

 

[myparents]

Racking

I just got a new (to me) Model 80, I know its a fostex but have any of you guys seen solutions for racking it up.

 

[Bigsnake00]

Here is the rack/cart that I built, (building). Cell phone camera, sorry about the quality. Im going to cover the sides and front (just cut out slots for my rack gear, in some sort of ply wood. My plan is to put the recorder on an incline, and "box" it in as well, of course the back of it will be open for ventalation. Hopefully it will turn out nice, i'll follow up when more is done.

 

[jpmorris]

I just got a new (to me) Model 80, I know its a fostex but have any of you guys seen solutions for racking it up.

There are rack-ears for it (I nearly bought some to use on the TSR-8) but again, they're rare. You might consider that Quiklok remote stand. If the Model 80 is like the A8, which I suspect, it only weights about 13kg and would be comfortably within the maximum rating for it.

Either that, or do what I'm about to.. get rack ears for a Soundcraft Spirit and drill some new holes in them
Oh yeah, thanks for the measurements, Beck.

 

[brendandwyer]

if you at all talented with a drill press, tap and dies, and cutting oil, you can purchase rack rails, and drill holes to match the patterns on the Fostex

 

[amphony]

I seem to have problems with flutter with my Fostex E16 when it's upright. I wish I didn't because it works out better ergonomically. I do have the angled Quick Lok rack stand mentioned earlier. It's pretty sturdy, but the wheels are for s**t!

 

[Dr ZEE]

Beck, do you think one of those roller stands that Musicians Friend sell would be strong enough to hold a 38? Putting it on it's back seems difficult to me too. Too hard to see the meters. I actually just bought the feet to mine and like it how it is. But, maybe at some point would like it on a rolling stand.

Steve, are you talking about this one ? I would think it may do the job well, but I don't know for sure. I think if it's not strong enough as is then it could be set-up to the angle you like and then reinforced with couple extra metal rails or maybe even with couple of wood cuts.
*****
I actually successfully use 12-space KMD so-called compact rack stand to mount super-heavy TEAC A-3340s, MF has similar this rack model ... but MF's is only 8-space... not sure if it's enough for 38/tsr-8 (????), also it's almost vertical. I have that rack with the machine standing on top of my rolling tower, which all together weights a ton, but it's rollable , I don't have a good photo of the whole tower, but you can see the top part of it on this page .