Tape Project Forum
General Category => Prerecorded Tapes => Topic started by: Gkar on November 13, 2010, 06:46:26 PM
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Howdy, I have a couple of tapes that have some kind of adhesive on a portion of the tapes, you can see the tape "pull" as it is moving off the reel. In one instance, the tape pull will cause the machine to stop. Also, in another tape, it looks like the splice was put on the side facing the tape head, should I remove the splice and put it on the other side? On that same tape, someone put a reversing tape with the reversing tape facing again into the tape head, and it is a little sticky as well. This is about 7 seconds from the end of the performance, should I cut that tape and leader it at that point (this particular tape is relatively valuable 2 track RCA...)? thanks!
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Sounds like someone used some bad splicing tape. Usually the tape drys out and falls off. In this case it sounds like the adhesive turned to goo. Where it's possible, I'd splice it out.
As far as the tape on the oxide side, unless it's gotten sticky, you might just leave it be. The adhesive will most likely pull the oxide off of the tape. With the other "sticky" spots, you can try something that will remove the adhesive. If there's no splicing tape visible at that spot, it could be something that's water soluble.
First, use a magnifier and a good light to get a good look at what you're dealing with. You'd be surprised how many times I've gone after something sticky on a tape and blindly tried to clean it off without even being sure where and how big it is. Also, be sure and look closely at the adjacent layers of tape. It isn't unusual for the sticky stuff to have migrated from another layer.
If it doesn't appear to be water soluble, try using a bit of scotch tape to "pull" the sticky stuff off. Use clear tape so you can see if you're pulling oxide off. It's a good idea to try this at the leader. Sometimes you can also "roll" adhesive off the tape with your finger.
If the adhesive is on the oxide side, I've never found a solvent that doesn't effect the sound. Of course, I haven't had that problem on more than a couple of tapes which I was able to replace.
If it's on the back, carefully clean it off with a tiny bit of alcohol on a swab. Be careful not to let the alcohol flow around the edge to the oxide side. If it does, don't try and wipe it off, just let it air dry.
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Thanks, Steve, as always your help and experience is a big plus here, and for me as well!
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Steve, got my 2 track cleaned up, adhesive from placing a wonky piece of sensing foil on the inside (head side) of the tape, had to clean up the adhesive in several spots, then the splice had to be removed, once again the material (splicing tape) was on the inside, and adhesive was leaking around the edges, cut that part out and put in a new splice, not much more music lost than a typical tape dropout. I next went to tackle reel 1 of Wagner's Die Walkure (solti) I thought I had several adhesive spots that was causing the tape to pop, in fact, on the 1500 it would actually cause the machine to stop! But it wasn't adhesive, instead, it was poorly slitted tape, it was running wide at several areas and catching in the guides and the tape reel itself, first time I have ever seen that! And obviously this reel is unusable. Thank the gods for my Otari MTR-10, it make working on tapes so easy...
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I'm not sure how this would affect tape but I've used Rubber Cement thinners/solvent from Bestine to remove sticky stuff from many things like book or album covers. This is a Neptane formula.
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Just googled Neptane. Dead end. Do you maybe mean naptha?
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I would have guessed heptane.
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In any case, any of those solvents will almost surely remove the oxide. If you're going to do that, you might as well just splice the sticky part out.
There's other, water based adhesive removers like GooGone but when you're working on the oxide side of the tape, just keep in mind that it's an adhesive that's holding the oxide to the backing. If you want to try and preserve the oxide, you need to be real careful.