Tascam TSR-8 Pinch Roller Disintegrating

J

Jmoog

New member
A friend of mine passed away recently and left me his Tascam TSR-8 recorder. I went to clean the tape heads and pinch roller today and after I was done cleaning the pinch roller I noticed that about a quarter of it looked like some adhesive had gotten on it. Kind of like scotch tape had been put on it and then been taken off leaving residue. I have cleaned tape heads and pinch rollers before but I never saw this residue left behind. So I cleaned the roller again to try and get the "adhesive" off and then I realised that it wasn't adhesive but it was the rubber itself disintegrating from the pinch roller. I quickly dried off the rest of the rubber cleaner from the pinch roller but now the whole roller looks shiny and sticky like it's coated with adhesive.

Here are some pics of the pinch roller as it looks now.

IMG_0913.jpg


IMG_0906.jpg


I guess my first question is am I screwed now? Does this pinch roller need to be replaced right away or can it still be used? Also in the pics you will notice that a little bit of the q-tip material I was using is now sticking to the roller. Can i use something to clean this off without damaging the roller any further?

Another thing i'm confused about is why did this roller disintegrate like this? Could it just be the age of the machine? I used cleaner for the rubber parts of the tape deck and I didn't use the tape head cleaner on it or anything. I've also cleaned the rubber pinch roller on my Tascam 38 8-Track recorder before and never had this happen to me.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.
 
I think it needs replaced.
Parts Department
TEAC America
7733 Telegraph Road
Montebello, CA 90640
Phone: 323-727-4840
Fax: 323-727-7632

I just made a call for you and they have them in stock. $36.04
Part # 5800291500 Good luck. You might try
http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/ and see what his prices look like.
 
dodgeaspen said:
I think it needs replaced.
Parts Department
TEAC America
7733 Telegraph Road
Montebello, CA 90640
Phone: 323-727-4840
Fax: 323-727-7632

I just made a call for you and they have them in stock. $36.04
Part # 5800291500 Good luck. You might try
http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/ and see what his prices look like.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks Dodgeaspen! I appreciate your calling for me.

I'm just so pissed right now. I had a feeling that I should just clean the tape heads and leave the rubber parts alone. At the same time, as I wrote before I have cleaned many pinch rollers and never had them start to fall apart on me like this one did.
 
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Don't blame yourself. It may just have been it's time. I just sent a counter roller for MSR-16 to terry. (TEAC was out of stock) That thing was gooey, and I'd not done a thing to it.

Sorry about your friend passing though.
 
Blue Jinn said:
Don't blame yourself. It may just have been it's time. I just sent a counter roller for MSR-16 to terry. (TEAC was out of stock) That thing was gooey, and I'd not done a thing to it.

Sorry about your friend passing though.
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Thanks Blue Jinn - your condolences mean a lot to me.

I've calmed down a bit from this morning lol. It's just that I've spent the last two days integrating all of the new equipment I got from Rob into the studio and when I finally got it all hooked up I decide to clean the recorder. You can imagine how I felt when as I was carrying out this last step to getting the studio going the pinch roller falls apart on me for no apparent reason. You are right though it could have just been it's time. We are talking about a pretty old recorder. Thanks again.
 
Jmoog said:
Thanks Blue Jinn - your condolences mean a lot to me.

I've calmed down a bit from this morning lol. It's just that I've spent the last two days integrating all of the new equipment I got from Rob into the studio and when I finally got it all hooked up I decide to clean the recorder. You can imagine how I felt when as I was carrying out this last step to getting the studio going the pinch roller falls apart on me for no apparent reason. You are right though it could have just been it's time. We are talking about a pretty old recorder. Thanks again.
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In the future, never clean any rubber part with head cleaner. Use something specifically made for rubber or rubber-like parts. I think that Caig Labs still makes that kind of cleaner but as i still have a small stash of the old TEAC stuff I'm ok for the moment.
 
RRuskin said:
In the future, never clean any rubber part with head cleaner. Use something specifically made for rubber or rubber-like parts. I think that Caig Labs still makes that kind of cleaner but as i still have a small stash of the old TEAC stuff I'm ok for the moment.
Click to expand...

Thats the thing. The cleaner I used is specifically made for rubber - "S & R Audio Pinch Roller Cleaner". That's why I was so suprised when it just started falling apart on me.
 
Jmoog said:
Thats the thing. The cleaner I used is specifically made for rubber - "S & R Audio Pinch Roller Cleaner". That's why I was so suprised when it just started falling apart on me.
Click to expand...

There comes a point in every pinch roller's life when it's going to fall apart no matter what.
 
Wow, can't believe I haven't peeked in here in a while.:eek:

First off, sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

I think everyone has beaten me to the punch on most of the stuff already. If I am correct, the pinch roller is interchangeable with the 38. I've got both, but have never tried to swap them. I just remember looking at the TSR8 roller when I put it on and looking at how similar the two were. The rubber is just going to break down over time. Not alot you can do to avoid it. It will either go gooey (which is your case), or it will get hard and possibly lopsided.

Tascam is pretty good at having spare parts, especially for older machines. Order a new roller from Teac (Tascam) and get a feel for the TSR-8. If you haven't used it before, the transport is light years ahead of the 38, although (at least in my case) the ffwd/rwd on my 38 trumps my TSR-8.

Good luck and let us know how everything turns out!;)

Johnny
 
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