precision reels!!

[christiandaelemans]

hey y’all, i’ve been pretty active on here the last few days. maybe a little too active… but anyways:

i’ve scored some 6-screw heavy duty precision reels! 1 is here, another one is coming in a few days (i bought one, and then bought another from the same listing the day after) and i have some question’s about these guys.

my main question is whether or not it’s more beneficial to have just the precision reel on the take up side, or to have them on both sides. i’m assuming that your deck doesn’t have to be calibrated or adjusted any differently than typical NAB reels to safely use these 6-screw reels, but if it was the case, i feel like having both of them on may make the tape move in a more ‘exact’ path that could maybe hurt the edges of your tape if incorrect.

and for my other question: what do these guys do differently than NAB 3-screw reels? my tape winding seems to be quite a bit more accurate when fast winding to the take up for storage, but is this the only benefit? i’d love to hear more about why this 30 bucks i spent on NOS ampex precision reels was a good use of money lol.

 

[RRuskin]

I doubt using them makes any real difference. FYI - Operating a deck upright puts more wear on its motor bearings because they are supporting their own weight. Motors for TASCAM decks of are no longer available nor are the DC motors rebuildable.

 

[christiandaelemans]

I doubt using them makes any real difference. FYI - Operating a deck upright puts more wear on its motor bearings because they are supporting their own weight. Motors for TASCAM decks of are no longer available nor are the DC motors rebuildable.

thanks for reminding me of this, i read this a while back but completely forgot about it and i think about this machines mortality a lot more these days… a desk set up change is in order.

 

[rob aylestone]

I bought some ‘ampex’ reels from china, and they turned out to be rather good. The real thing with these is the stiffness of the flanges OFF the machine. If you bend the things when you drop them, or abuse them accidentally, it takes a lot of effort to get the bends out. One of my machines does not behave vertically, but is ok horizontally. A box off a shelf onto the flange of the left spool and i did not notice for a week and the one spool with thinner metal bent badly. It had six screws, so i doubt 3 or 6 makes much practical difference. As i have mixed them all up, i dont know now which is the Chinese pair.

 

[sweetbeats]

The six-screw reels tend to have a hub that’s a closer tolerance fit on the hub adapter…less eccentricity. This may make zero difference. You may need to adjust the reel table height to accommodate the thicker flanger. I prefer the precision reels. But they, except maybe in some rare conditions, impact the performance of the machine. But I prefer them.

 

[ecc83]

OOoo! I have 4 of those. Two with tape on and two empty. Seems to be a bonus when I come to sell my A3440?

Dave.

 

[christiandaelemans]

The six-screw reels tend to have a hub that’s a closer tolerance fit on the hub adapter…less eccentricity. This may make zero difference. You may need to adjust the reel table height to accommodate the thicker flanger. I prefer the precision reels. But they, except maybe in some rare conditions, impact the performance of the machine. But I prefer them.

last night, i rearranged my deck to be laying horizontal and ran the tape a few times. it astounded me how NOISY the 3-screw NAB reel was on the supply side as it was clacking against the tape. meanwhile, the 6-screw reel had the tape flowing perfectly into the flange and even when i fast wind the whole reel into the take up side, its so much more even than before. i can definitely see why you prefer these.

this is unrelated, but ever since i put the precision reel on, the take up tension arm will flop down when stopping while rewinding. for example, i hit rewind and hit stop while the tape is flowing in reverse. the momentum causes the tape to stop in a way that allows the tension arm to drop, and i have to spin the take up reel slightly with my hand to get the tape to pull against the roller and get the capstan shaft activated again.

though, when i follow a tip i read recently and simply fast forward while rewinding, and stop when the tape begins to travel towards, it’s totally cool. i wonder what that’s about? perhaps it’s a sign from the universe that i should fast forward at the end of my rewinds which is probably better for the machine.

 

[sweetbeats]

Adjust your brakes.

 

[sweetbeats]

Or check for a tacky brake solenoid cushion. Ask questions. I just don’t have time to go into detail atm.

 

[christiandaelemans]

Or check for a tacky brake solenoid cushion. Ask questions. I just don’t have time to go into detail atm.

i’ll be home shortly and i’ll take video of it. it isn’t the end of the world, i feel as though i could make things MUCH MUCH worse by opening up the machine and poking around with the electronics. it’s simply an inconvenience, as i’ll now have to press fast forward and wait a few seconds for the tape to start moving up-stream before stopping. as opposed to the instant gratification of pressing stop and halting my tape (which still takes several seconds to slow down and stop).

 

[christiandaelemans]

alright, here’s video 1 where the 38 is being ran horizontal and is experiencing the issue i mentioned:

here

and here’s video 2 where i put it back up on its feet and it runs FINE, totally normally. playback isn’t slow or anything either.

here

@sweetbeats, what is your take on running the tascam 38 horizontally vs. vertically? as i mentioned in the second video, i’ve researched and only found about 3 or 4 accounts of people saying they were designed to be ran on their back or a steep angle, yet things seem to not work right for me when i do that.

 

[sweetbeats]

i’ll be home shortly and i’ll take video of it. it isn’t the end of the world, i feel as though i could make things MUCH MUCH worse by opening up the machine and poking around with the electronics. it’s simply an inconvenience, as i’ll now have to press fast forward and wait a few seconds for the tape to start moving up-stream before stopping. as opposed to the instant gratification of pressing stop and halting my tape (which still takes several seconds to slow down and stop).

I don’t need a video. Based on your description I’m pretty sure you need to adjust the brakes. They were probably close to being out of adjustment and then you put more mass on the reel table with the precision reel, highlighting the maladjustment. Adjusting the brakes is easy. It’s a mechanical adjustment, not electronic. It’s all in the manual. You’re welcome to continue shuttling to stop, but I’m just saying if you ever wanted to take a whack at fixing the problem, I’d start by checking the brake adjustment.

 

[sweetbeats]

alright, here’s video 1 where the 38 is being ran horizontal and is experiencing the issue i mentioned:

here

and here’s video 2 where i put it back up on its feet and it runs FINE, totally normally. playback isn’t slow or anything either.

here

@sweetbeats, what is your take on running the tascam 38 horizontally vs. vertically? as i mentioned in the second video, i’ve researched and only found about 3 or 4 accounts of people saying they were designed to be ran on their back or a steep angle, yet things seem to not work right for me when i do that.

You can mount it however you like. It’s not that you can’t operate it vertically or angled or horizontal or that one is more “right” than the other. Notice RRuskin didn’t say vertical is “wrong”, horizontal is “right”, he’s simply pointing out operating the machine vertically long-term will ultimately cause more wear to the bearings. And I agree. Gravity is a b1tch. Horizontal will place more load on the capstan thrust bearing, but this is less of a concern than the capstan shaft sleeve bearings. IIRC the capstan motor also uses sleeve bearings and that’s where you get into difficulty with rebuilding it. There may actually be shops that can do that sort of thing, it I don’t know any specifics. The reel motors are an easier story because they use cartridge bearings. The issue with the reel motors is they are not brushless type, so eventually new brushes and a commutator rebuild would be necessary. I think there are shops that can do the commutator rebuild, but I don’t know about sourcing brushes. You can get a lot of miles out of the reel motors though just by replacing the bearings with good quality parts, and cleaning the commutator. And you can pull the brushes and see if they’ve got a lot of meat on them. They probably do. But there are shops that specialize in electric motor rebuilds and one of those might be able to steer you in the right direction if there’s a need they can’t handle. But…if your motors are working fine, don’t add this to the list of unnecessary things to worry about.