Tape Project Forum
Tape Machines => Reel to Reel Tape Machines => Topic started by: ironbut on May 09, 2009, 09:54:13 AM
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Hello my fellow Technics owners in Tape Projectdom. Actually, this tip applies to many different machines.
I noticed the other day that when I stop my machine from play that the tape lifters (those little arms that lift the tape away from the heads at stop, rewind and fast forward) weren't lifting the tape as far as they should (or used to). I fooled around with the stopper mechanism which sync's the brakes, reel motors, lifters and pinch rollers when the machine play is engaged. If I'd thought about it, this is an adjustment that shouldn't ever go out (but it is something that I've tweaked a good deal in the past) so I was barking up the wrong tree on that one.
Upon further investigation, I realized that this symptom was only occurring about one out of five times of stopping from play so I checked the brake tension. Sure enough, the brake tension was higher than it should be with about the same frequency as the lifters misbehavior.
Duh,.. when was the last time I cleaned the brake drums? Maybe 2 years ago!
Ok. So here's the deal, because of the machines lid air venting just over the brake/reel motors, dust gets in there. It gets on the brake drums and while the pads/brake strap (depending on the machine) cleans this off for the most part airborne contaminants also mix with this dust and will eventually cause points of higher friction on the drum (sticky spots). These cause the brakes to grab at those points with much higher brake tension. This is the etiology of the symptom with our lifters.
The cure is very easy and should be part of a yearly maintenance program. Remove the back and top (if it's a Technics) and look in at the reel motors. The black, outermost part (that spins) are the brake drums. The brake pads are on the very bottom. What you need to do is to clean that black drum with alcohol. The brake pads are attached with glue so you don't want the alcohol to get on them or it could ruin them.
Put a piece of adhesive tape to hold down one of the tape tensioners to trick the machine into thinking there's tape on it (well technically there is, I mean magnetic tape!).
Get yourself a couple of cotton swabs and some alcohol.
Put the machine in play (the taped down tensioner will keep it in play till you hit stop when you're done)
Dampen a swab with the alcohol (don't drown it or it will drip into places you don't want it to) and hold it against the now spinning black brake drums. Repeat this until the swabs come up white and you've held it against the spinning drum all the way across.
Now use a dry swab just to be sure that the all the alcohol is cleaned off.
Let it air dry (running a couple of minutes), stop the machine and pull off the adhesive tape.
When you do this, bear in mind what you're cleaning off. This shouldn't take much time, maybe 10 minutes total so don't be getting crazy and try and clean the anodized paint off of the drum (as if that could be done with mere alcohol) but it should be done as regular maintenance.
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Oops, forgot to say that if your brakes are still grabbing after this then it's time to pull the reel motors out of the way so you can examine the pads themselves. They may just need cleaning or it could be time to replace them. The stock pads (Technics) are made of felt. They can be cleaned by lightly patting them with a swab which is very lightly coated with dry cleaning fluid (Energine). If you soak the pads with this stuff, the adhesive will let loose so take your time and if you need to repeat this, let the pads dry completely before re applying.
Also look to be sure one edge or the other hasn't lifted and curled so the adhesive backing is touching the brake drum. If this is the case, sometimes you can trim that curled up bit with an exacto knife.
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Just a thought... another replacement for the felt pads was found to work well. ?" cork with self adhesive. Can be found at craft stores, or so I've heard. YMMV.
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I have not had that much luck with cork. Jeff Jacobs uses it and seems very happy with the result. 1/4"" would be much thicker than the stock pads. I would suggest more like 1/16".
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I know this is an old post but would like to mention that this are incredible good tips for people like me that do not have all the knowledge need it two know all about our machines but want to learn. Is possible to put together a thread with what is consider a regular mantainance rutine for this decks? maybe I could ask for more, what about some videos of how this work has to be done? "the reeler" do that in his blog and is a very good way to learn. just my 2cts.
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Hi jorsan,
Although there aren't any videos (just writing some of these tips can be pretty time consuming), take a look at the "Beginner's Guide" and "Reel to Reel Links" stickies at the top of the "General" forum. I think you'll find enough there to keep you busy for a while.
BTW The Beginner's Guide is meant to pick up where your owners manual leaves off so having both the owners and service manual for your machine is important to applying the more general info found in the guides to your particular machine.
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Thanks Ironbut, will follow your advice.
Jorge