Sony 350 reel to reel tape recorder -- Needs some work

[solarblast]

I think the 350 needs to have it's head cleaned and maybe a spot of lubricant placed somewhere. I can play a music tape, but it crackles every once in a while, and the take up reel stalls on occasion--every 10-15 sec or so. That causes tape to spill around the take up reel, which could lead to trouble. Comments?

Does the unit take metric screws? The screw head in the roller with the radial markings on it is pretty worn. I got it out, but I'm having trouble matching threads at our local h/w store.

Oh, when I stop the recorder it emits a grunt like sound. The speed seems OK.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

The rubber parts inside are likely either dirty, greasy or in a state of decomposition or all three.

I have an older Sony reel to reel from the 60's and it uses a cam drive system which also exhibits similar issues to yours. I've never made any serious attempt to get it fixed as I found it in the garbage and don't really have a need to use it as much more then as a decorative piece of electronic nostalgia.

If yours was fully functional, how do you see yourself using it? As a device to transfer over some older recording of the day to a different format? Or as part of some home studio set up? If its for the latter, you'll be wasting your effort as these decks specs even if fully healthy, could be bettered by a half decent cassette deck in virtually every category of measurement.

About the screw threading standards...no idea. Sorry.

Cheers!

 

[solarblast]

Whoops. It's a 250. I guess one only gets one chance at an edit.

The reason I dusted it off and tried to use it is that I though I had some family audio tapes, and I thought I'd try to capture on a digital device. I now think they may have disappeared. If so, I might put it up for sale. On the other hand, I might toss it, if I can't find the family tapes. Really strange though is that I know I had a commercial music tape with Johnny Comes Marching Home. It was in a distinctive box.

From what I can tell, the parts seem OK.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

250 or 350. Both are pretty similar and from the same era.

If the rubber looks OK still it might be an issue of the lever arms not applying enough pressure to push one drive wheel against the other. And that could be from degraded pivot points. Not sure if lubing those or somehow tightening them up might improve their contact pressure.

But if you can't find the tapes that were to be transfered, it sort takes the edge off the need to even bother other then to increase the resale value from 20 bucks up to 30 bucks!

Cheers!

 

[solarblast]

Well, in the last two days I've scoured likely places for my old tapes. Nothing. I'll most likely offer the recorder to our local community TV station; otherwise, it's going bye-bye.

 

[solarblast]

Well, not quite finished. I realized that I did not have the deck screwed down properly. Fixing that freed the take up reel to work properly. However, I still have grump sound when I stop the tape. Sort of like two pieces of rubber skidding against one another. That may be easy to fix. Unfortunately, the play speed is a bit off. There may be some adjustment on the deck that can be changed.

I think I'm going to put this aside for some months with the hope that I can find my missing tapes that may have family recordings on them.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Glad to read you've made some progress!

Hope the search for the family tapes works out for you! I too have a couple of those which have many now deceased relatives on it and as such are the only recordings of their voice in existence. This due to the old 8mm home movies of the same era being silent films.

Gosh I feel old now!

Cheers!