Spooling Pancakes of Tape; Newbie Question

[Becsprich]

I just bought a batch of Quantegy 456 tape for my mx 5050, and need to spool the pancakes of tape onto reels. I read that there is a device sold specifically for spooling - like a 'half' reel, where the pancakes can be slotted in and then spooled to the other Reel mechanically. I just wondered what this is called and if it is still possible to source them, and where? Many thanks. Sorry for newbie question. Rebecca

[docb]

All you need is a couple of flanges. Set a flange on the turntable and set the pancake on top of it, making sure the dimpled holes in the flange line up with the holes in the pancake hub. Set another flange on top of the pancake hub and make sure it is lined up similarly. Then lock your spindle clamp over the whole thing. The clamp will hold the temporary reel together while you move the tape to the reel you want it on.

If the pancakes are the right size and the hubs have the same hole pattern as the reels you plan to move the tape to you could just move the flanges from the empty reels to the pancakes instead.

Be sure to pay attention to the way the tape moves as you spool it. Watch for jerky or slow winding, squealing noises and sticky oxide buildup on the guides. Some 456 is notorious for "sticky shed" where binder and oxide come of the tape and gunk up the tape path. Luckily the Quantegy version will be somewhat less likely to do this than the older Ampex branded stuff.

[ironbut]

Hi Rebecca,
Welcome to the forum.
If you don't have the empty reels already, you can buy the flanges and the screw sets from US Recording Media.
As long as the hubs that the 456 is spooled onto are stock Ampex/Quantegy, the holes line up with the RMGI flanges perfectly.

http://usrecordingmedia-store.stores.yahoo.net/takupreeland.html

Speaking of which,.. Doc, have you found some place that sells the screws and barrel bolts for a better price than US Media's ($21 for 36 screws and bolts)?

[docb]

Speaking of which,.. Doc, have you found some place that sells the screws and barrel bolts for a better price than US Media's ($21 for 36 screws and bolts)?

Not unless you want to buy 10,000 at a time. That's pretty much how it goes with these oddball screws. It's the same with some guitar pickup screws. I know that Tom Jones (TVJones) has custom screws made for his pickups and he usually gets a minimum of 10,000 made.

[ironbut]

Now that I think about it,.. $21 is very reasonable!

[Becsprich]

Thank you very much for replying so quickly and with enough detail for me to try this - thank you. Great to be on this forum! (if any one wants to go halves on 10,000 screws and bolts... ;D )

[Gkar]

Now that I think about it,.. $21 is very reasonable!

I assume that is a joke, Steve?  After all I can occasionally find whole reels, flanges, screw and tape, for around $10-15 each....

[ironbut]

A little tongue in cheek for sure Randy. I guess it really depends on how many you really need. Of course, it's the barrel bolts that you really need since the screws are pretty easy to buy.

If you keep an eye out for metal reels, you can pick up some great deals if you're willing to wait and do a little hunting.
I picked up 50+ reels of sticky (and I mean, really sticky) 456 for $100 bucks not that long ago. I took the reels apart, removed the tape and cleaned the flanges and hubs and now I have a good supply of empty aluminum reels.
It was a little sad since it was all from a local production company that went belly up a while back and the notes and cue sheets were included. Each time I cut the tape off the hubs and tossed it in the trash, I thought about all the blood sweat and tears that went into making the music on it. It was almost a relief that the tape was so sticky that it would've been kinda iffy if it ever would've sounded decent.

The guy threw in a few U-matic (betamax) tapes that they used for a while. I wanted to save them with some dat tapes I have just for fun but you could see that it was molded through the inspection window. Into the trash they went!

[Gkar]

Steve, right with ya there!  got a dozen ampex 406/407 SSS reels, had to cut the tape off, now I have a dozen empty reels that I can put new tape on.  I also use the empty reels to splice up reels of pre recs where one side is bad (edge ripple, bad/unbalanced channels) and make up a good, one-sided tape, getting a collection of empty 7" reels and boxes left over now...