Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes

Subject: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 06:00 PM

Have a friend who wants to restore reels of tape that are now fragile and in need of baking to reduce moisture and allow the content to be saved in a digital format. We have done a little research and have found recommendations for using a dehydrator. Anyone have experience using these things. Seek link to a recommended unit.

Dehydrator

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 07:41 PM

Member Deckman has extensive experience with old reels... he may be along to suggest something.

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 09:45 PM

I have considerable experience with RTRs...

Back in 1954-56 I taped MANY HOURS off of AFN Kaiserslautern and Berlin..

Some REELS were still good after THIRTY years, but eventually, as the tape passed thru the Capstan and Pinchroller, the NOW CLEAR plastic tape kept winding around the Take/Up Reel as the MYLAR dropped off the side in a neat pile...

PFC ALVIN MARTIN, are you STILL out there somewhere, did you keep backup copies of your broadcasts???

Gene

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 10:03 PM

If you believe the problem to be humidity... 72 hours in an oven with only a pilot light will work.

For fluxed, steel welding rod ... a simple "bread - box " with a continuous 40 watt bulb works grand in the worst of humidity.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

My personal "nightmare" has been the double rollers on either side of the magnetic and their tendency to become "sticky"....and continually "roll, and roll."

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Deckman
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 11:10 PM

I agree with the suggestions from Gargoyle. It was my good fortune to never have to resort to this extreme, but I would have if necessary. Most of my R/R recording were of a much earlier vintage and the integrity of the tape material was quite solid. Best Wishes ... bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 11:19 PM

I have stacks and stacks of reel-to-reel from my dad's house. I'll trace this and follow up later.

SRS (Maggie Dwyer)

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 05:56 AM

Find an archivist who specialises in this stuff. There are a lot of materials out there with their own needs and requirements. Trust me, there's no worse feeling than knowing you've just destroyed something like this.

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 07:56 AM

poppy records - aka Adrian - he knows a lot and does it for well respected institutions here in the UK. The stories he tells me of heating old dictaphone machines to smooth-out the bands, are pretty off the wall but these type of things are necessary.

I did hear about the baking of old VHS tapes that were pretty commonly in the recording industry for digital archives.

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 03:30 PM

Thanks for the comments. I was involved in a project in which we built a plywood box that was heated by a light bulb several years ago that worked pretty well. A change in management resulted in everything being shut down and the box was lost. The latest I have read recommended convection ovens or dehydrators which supposedly get good results. A dehydrator has been ordered. Anyone interested in the reel tape problems can get quite a bit of information from this article:

Sticky shed syndrome

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 09:02 PM

Here is a link to a good article on the subject:
http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html
I do tape preservation for a living, and use a Nesco Snackmaster 500 for baking.
I bake at 130F for 12 hours, and let the tape cool for another 12.
One thing to remember is to never bake acetate tapes, as this will destroy them. Sticky shed did not become a problem until the mid-70s.
-Matt Sohn

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 13 - 08:05 AM

What appears to be another good description of the problem is at:

Baking" Magnetic Tape To Overcome The "Sticky-Shed" Syndrome

A reasonable explanation of what the common problem is and what causes it is given.

There are also comments on what kind(s) of ovens to use (and what not to use), and on currently accepted temperatures.

It may be noted that this article also mentions the "lubricant migration" difficulty that sometimes also occurs with old tapes, how to tell the difference, and what to do about it.

Not mentioned in this or the preceding article linked by GUEST is the loss of plasticizer, causing embrittlement of the carrier tape. Plastics of the kinds used on more recent tapes include a fairly volatile component that, in this case, makes the plastic more flexible, and the plasticizer can also "evaporate." No accepted remedy has been seen, so you can ignore the possibility or look up some appropriate language references (probably colloquial) for when you run into it. Usually other problems intervene before this would be an expected problem.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 11:26 AM

John and Matt, thanks.

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: GUEST,vectis
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 06:51 PM

I have a oad of reel to reel tapes that were recorded at 1 7/8 and hasver just repaired the tape recorder and digitised the data.

All came off OK without baking the tapes and they are still playable. The recording quality is no worse than it was due to too slow a speed for music and song.
They were recorded between 1971 and 1975.

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Effsee
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 10:01 PM

Has anyone solved the problem of "pre-echo", "print through", or " cross talk" on single track recordings?

Subject: RE: Tech: Baking old reel to reel tapes
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 05:14 AM

My industry uses these people, who have decades of experience recovering data from magnetic media that's old, or been stored badly etc:

Ovation Services

In the UK they trade as:

DPTS

They have purpose-designed baking facilities and have recovered data for me in the past that I was sure was totally beyond redemption. Not cheap, but what price your recordings?