Hello and thanks to everyone who has responded so far to my post -

I'm intrigued by the dehydrator solution.  Richard, could you tell me what temperature you are setting the Nesco unit to, when you bake 24 - 48 hours?   Is it the lowest setting?  If so, I'm wondering if the dehumidification process is less stressful / radical than traditional convection oven heating (higher temp for a shorter period of time) - letting the tape layers relax into place more naturally/gently?  Or, does this matter?  Anyone done a study?

For those of you using the dehydrating solution - do you have a temperature/time ratio that you generally use, that you would share?  Will you tell me the model you are using, with the temp/time?

How have your tapes held up post - dehumidification?  Is it similar to baking - where you only get a few plays before the tape needs processing again?  Will they bake again if necessary?

Thanks so much -

Allison

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Allison A. Smith
Archivist, Wisconsin Public Radio
821 University Avenue, Suite 7151
Madison, WI   53706-1497
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-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 04:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Recommendations - Convection ovens for baking tapes

Hello, Allison,

Many of us use the American Harvest food dehydrators from Nesco. I have had and used the same one for over 10 years and it still checks out OK. 
I would suggest checking the temperature dial from time to time with a nice thermocouple thermometer, especially since the out-of-factory calibration could be better, but the stability is about in a 2 °C window which should be fine. The fast airflow removes the moisture and other volatile products, though a white filter over the air outlet has never become discoloured in my testing.

I would, however, recommend using this with outside exhaust in a commercial application due to the possibility of someone saying they got sick because of it...stranger things have happened.

I like this as each 10.5-inch reel fits on its own slotted shelf, no spacers required.

The convert-a-tray shelves remove for laying in non-NAB hub reels.

I have both the older unit with the fan in the base and this one. This one is my "moldy" machine which is kept in the garage for tapes that I do not want to contaminate my main one with. These URLs may get split...

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Dehydrators/FD-60-Snackmaster-Express-Food-Dehydrator/

Also available in gray

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Dehydrators/FD-61-Snackmaster-Encore-Food-Dehydrator/

convert-a-tray kits:

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Add-a-Trays/Convert-A-Tray-Set-of-2-White/

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Add-a-Trays/Convert-A-Tray-Set-of-2-Speckled/

These will take reels up to 12.5 inches in diameter.

If you have 14-inch reels, the large one takes the tape pack but is about 1/4-inch shy for the flanges...

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Dehydrators/FD-1010/

and the add-a-trays to allow baking 1" tape--these are not adaptable, so I cut out the inner screen on four trays, making them just rings.

http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Add-a-Trays/Add-A-Tray-FD-1000-1010-1020-1040-Set-of-2-White-15-1-2/

I have probably processed over 1000 reels of tapes through my various dehydrators and all have worked well. In one month, I ran 114 10.5 inch reels of 1/2-inch tape, each tape being baked for 48 hours because a 24-hour bake was not enough. One reel was sent back for re-baking and ran through four 48-hour cycles and then played fine...it was Scotch 226, the others were all Ampex 406, if I recall correctly.

I used the large oven to bake about a dozen instrumentation tapes containing seismometer signals of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption from 1980 and a few 14-inch reel master tapes.

Obviously, many of the other scientific and production tools mentioned are fine, too. These are a very inexpensive, small, and fit-almost-anywhere solution that I and others have used with great success and no reported damage.

Cheers,

Richard



On 2014-02-21 11:36 AM, Smith, Allison wrote:
> Hello ARSC members -
>
> We are in the market to purchase a new convection oven for baking tapes with sticky shed.  While we realize there are other methods for dealing with this issue and are exploring them, we have to work within a budget and timeframe that requires baking.
>
> The oven we currently use is not very good at accurately regulating an even temperature, so, we are looking at some of the professional brands, which can get quite expensive.  Can anyone recommend what they are using, and let me know the make / model?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Allison
-- Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask] 
Aurora, Ontario, Canada                             647 479 2800 
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.