[TriLUG] OT: music hardware geeks - Roy, Jim and the like - reel to reel stuff

[Peter Neilson]

Steve Litt wrote:
[Info about tape recorder repair.]

I did this professionally as well, back in the dark ages. All Steve's 
info is correct. An additional source of slowdown could be the brake on 
the supply reel. If it's not properly disengaged, the decreasing torque 
under constant tension, as the supply diameter decreases, could stall 
the reel.

I would not be surprised to find that parts for Teac, Ampex, etc. are 
still available, and (via internet) probably easier to find now than 15 
years ago.

Be careful when disassembling:

: Label parts as you set them aside. Those two identical springs aren't.

: Work in an area where you won't have bad help. Bad help includes 
"Oops" the curious, who will pick up one of the parts you have removed, 
and drop it or break it; "Toddly" the young, who will pocket the part 
because it looks neat, or will tip over your workbench; and "Insenso" 
the smoker, who will use your little tuna can where you're storing all 
the removed nuts and volts to drop ashes or extinguish his cigarette. 
Insenso, mostly gone now, was a big problem back in the dark ages.

: Understand which screws to NOT unscrew. The most distressing sound a 
repair tech can hear is that ghastly "ping" as an inner nut falls off 
the screw that shouldn't have been loosened. It goes somewhere into the 
gizzards of the machine. Repair effort increases by an order of magnitude.

If you cannot find parts at all you may have to build them. This is a 
tall order, but not impossible. After all, they were built originally. 
Simply find someone who can mold rubber and machine metal, all to great 
precision. My buddies who rebuild player pianos (pneumatic 88-channel 
paper tape readers, for you computer historians) remanufacture stuff out 
of wood, leather, glue and brass.