Tascam 34b going clockwise

Ericday

New member
Just picked up a reel to reel to play my dad’s old tapes. Never had one so please be forgiving. The left spindle goes clockwise when Play is depressed. Shouldn’t it go counter clockwise so tape can play left to right? If so, how do I change this? Thank you!
 
Er, confused. Left hand reel spins anti-clockwise, right hand reel spins anticlockwise. The left hand spindle motor however, has a low torque in the opposite direction to keep the tape taut. No tape, or a tape break, and it spins clockwise, quite fast too! That's why wild records is asking about having a tape threaded. You should easily be able to stop it rotating with a finger in play. Hit rewind and your finger will be thrown off, sometimes painfully!
 
The reverse rotation of a reel on the supply side is called back tension and it may seem wrong when no tape is on the machine but all these years they all have been doing that.
The right reel table will spin CCW as that is the way it takes up tape. At first in play there will be a couple of seconds of stronger force than after a few seconds. That is to make sure the tape is taken up when thrown out by the capstan- pinch roller capstan pair. If you see the tape slide through these two at start then the shaft is glazed and needs to be bead blasted or to use the Capstan recovery method of sandpaper on a roller with double sided tape- let it play for 7 minutes with no tape. The pinch roller should be flat black colored no oxide on it or glazed condition. These can be recondition with an old towel and Naphtha that you can get at a hardware store. No need to buy expensive renew this and that.

The sandpaper on the capstan shaft prints a sand blasted effect- it does NOT scratch the shaft. I have done these many years now.
 
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