Lumpy tape???

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sweetbeats

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
Wierd...

I've got this reel of 1" 996 I took in trade some time ago and when spooled on its reel it is lumpy around one part. You can rest your finger on the spooled tape in PLAY and there are prominent lumps in a couple spots. The hub is smooth, round and without defect. Yet once you get some tape on the reel there come the lumps.

Ideas?

[EDIT]

BTW, the tape appears completely normal when traveling through the tape path...
 
It might be caused by a few larger bits of moisture bubbles which might have grown a bit of mold...? And if so, might be very hard to spot visually during a play or library wind.

Cheers! :)
 
First guess: too much tape tension, so if you spool the tape from one hub to the other the underlying layers of tape kind of "wrinkle" on the take up reel. The tape pack might be wound too tight.

Cheers
Tim
 
Thanks, guys...I think I figured it out...somehow its the reel...not sure how exactly. The bottom flange on this reel is tweaked, though I can't see where it is rubbing or otherwise messing with the pack, but when I PLAY spool the tape onto a different reel its fine. Wierd.

Here is a video of the lumpiness before I tried it on a different reel. Just doesn't look like it could be caused by the reel but I have to admit that that must be the cause. Too bad...me likey gold precision reels.

YouTube
 
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Have you tried play-spooling it back to the "bad" reel? I think you won't be able to reproduce the same effect. I've seen these lumps in pictures of an article about storing and handling tape and it was cause by too much or increasing tension when fast spooling the tape. I have not experienced something like this myself but it would seem logical to me if you started out with normal tension and an empty take up reel. If the tension increases with more and more tape on the take up the more losely wound inner tape will curl or start to build those lumps.

Cheers
Tim
 
Nope, Tim...I've PLAY spooled it onto that reel no less than half a dozen times and every time its the same thing...use a different reel and *poof* its fine. The takeup tension is constant and therefore the tension decreases as the reel fills up. The packs are beautiful when play-spooled though (even when lumpy).
 
All it takes is a little imperfection on the hub, like a ridge or line where the molding doesn’t quite match up. That imperfection is then magnified with each layer of tape until you can see a visible bulge. Or it can be the tape itself... a little ripple in the tape will do the same thing.
 
Oooo...didn't think of that. I'll have to check.

Actually, seriously, bad tape DOES smell bad. I spooled off some bad 456 and when I gathered the pile off the floor I could smell it. Doesn't have that nice new tape smell.

It was...smelly.
 
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