17 Oct
2018
17 Oct
'18
11:22 p.m.
On Oct 17, 2018, at 12:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Chuck,
Where can you get that chemical? Is it a common one?
Marc
On 10/17/18 11:10 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk
wrote:
The 1/2 inch tape drives I'm familiar with incorporate such a device.
Typically it's a ceramic thing, so it looks like a small shiny white
rectangle near the heads. It has to be scrubbed clean periodically
when it gets brown from accumulated ferrite dust.
Certainly mine do--some drives use a single ceraminic "blade" and others
use a sort of comb structure.
My tape cleaner uses a tungsten carbide blade and a follow-up vacuum
that picks up the debris.
But even after baking, there are a few tapes that have issues where the
binder has bled through to the surface. Such tapes will even stall when
being drawn through the mechanism of a cleaning machine.
I find that coating the tape with cylcomethicone allows the tape to pass
freely. The lubricant evaporates without affecting the tape in a few
minutes-half hour. I've used the same on floppy disks with good success.
My application method is with a felt wick fed by a reservoir.
FWIW,
Chuck