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Author Topic: NAB Reels and Flanges  (Read 11371 times)

Offline astrotoy

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NAB Reels and Flanges
« on: January 29, 2009, 07:04:32 PM »
Hi folks,
As I get into the world of recording with 10.5 in reels, I am learning about pancakes, flanges, NAB hubs, etc. This is only about 10.5 in 1/4 in tape and reels. A few observations. It looks like metal reels cost close to as much as the pancakes - close to $20 including the flanges, hardware and empty box. Used metal reels on ebay look like they are about the same price as brand new ones from US Recording Media. I can't find plastic reels anywhere on the internet, new or used - only from US Media Recording if you buy the tape on them. A few questions. Is there any advantage to metal over plastic reels, if you keeping tape on the same reel?  Is there a place to buy plastic reels? Do people record something with tape and a metal reel, and then take off the flanges and store the pancake - it would seem to be a lot cheaper, but somewhat inconvenient. I guess a pancake could come apart and there would be a real (reel?) mess. Finally, do pancakes come in boxes like the tape on reels, so one could use the pancake box to store the tape after putting on the flanges or moving the tape to a plastic reel, or do you have to buy an empty box?  In the past i've only done recording using the old 7" reels and they only came with tape and reel together. The blank reels were also fairly cheap compared to the tape.

Thanks for helping a newbie in this area.   Larry
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Offline Ben

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Re: NAB Reels and Flanges
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2009, 08:14:34 PM »
The plastic reels I have seen are thicker than metal reels, so I expect
you don't use shims like with the metal ones.
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Offline ironbut

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Re: NAB Reels and Flanges
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2009, 08:55:25 PM »
The only large plastic reels I see anymore are used ones on eBay sometimes. There's really a couple of different kinds. Some are pretty heavy plastic, like Ben was saying, pretty much like the 7" inchers. The others ones look just like the metal reels and are colored to look like anodized aluminum reels. They're usually black,red or gold and on the little eBay ads, they probably look like metal. The flanges on these are not much thicker than the aluminum and if they've been the least bit abused, you'll never get them flat. In the early 80's I had a real nice black one but I had to buy 5 to get that one good one. The thickness of the flanges can sometimes be a problem with the turntable adjustment.
I guess, if it was me, I'd stick with the RMGI reels that USRM has. I've got a couple and they're really high quality.
As far as the pancakes go, can't help you there. But I know some guys in San Francisco that have tons of experience with them. There might even be one of them around here on this forum?
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Offline sound signal

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Re: NAB Reels and Flanges
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2009, 05:10:19 AM »
Besides usually having thicker flanges and, therefore, usually needing a different reel turntable adjustment, plastic reels have another disadvantage.

Their hubs usually have slots in them for threading the tape.  The way the slot is molded into the plastic can sometimes leave an indentation in the first few layers of tape wound on them, which in my experience causes measurable dropouts (though I'm not sure I can hear them).

Recorded tape shouldn't ever be stored as pancakes.  The tape pancakes sold on flangeless NAB hubs are meant for people who throw a lot of tape away, like editing studios and broadcasting stations.  Buying tape as pancakes on flangeless NAB hubs saves them money and space - no leftover empty reels everywhere.  They just take the flanges and screws from an empty metal NAB reel, assemble them onto the NAB hub of the new tape pancake, toss the empty tape hub in a basket full of them somewhere - or in the bin - and off they go.  In Europe those professionals often use the AEG-style hub and single flange, which also makes the tape more accessible for editing work, but also more vulnerable.  But I don't think you can get tape on AEG-style hubs any more, even if you wanted to go that way.
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Offline astrotoy

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Re: NAB Reels and Flanges
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2009, 11:43:38 AM »
Thanks for all your help and advice. Given the amount of time I will be spending on doing the recording, I guess that investing in the metal flanges makes good sense.  Larry
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