 |
 |
Just a hypothetical response: plastic is an insulator, which means that it will not heat up as quickly as metal. Therefore, where the tape is contacting the flanges and hubs, it will not heat up as quickly. The result might be non-uniform heating of the tape pack where areas exposed to air will heat more quickly (and be more baked) than those exposed to the reel flange/hub. Whether this non-uniform heating of the tape pack has any real impact on the results of the baking is another question. From David's comment, any non-uniform heating has been a non-issue. If you are baking for a long duration, obviously the plastic reel will come up to temperature. Assuming a good quality tape pack, the pack should be able to resist any small dimensional distortions caused by initial non-uniform heating. FWIW, I use a scientific oven (Yamato DH-42) with a controlled temperature ramp up and ramp down that minimizes any potential problems with non-uniform heating. I've profiled the oven, and it is accurate to +/-1.0F throughout the oven space, so there are no localized hot spots. The scientific oven may or may not be overkill. It's really a question of how much latitude there is in the baking process (duration and temperature). Eric Jacobs The Audio Archive -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of David Seubert Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 9:40 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] baking tapes Why are metal reels necessary? Anything hot enough to melt plastic reels would be damaging the tape too. We bake tapes on plastic reels and U-Matic videos in the cassettes all the time with no problems. David Robert Hodge wrote: >Hello > >Baking your reel to reel tape requires the following: > >1- VERY IMPORTANT !!- Put the tape on a metal reel. When >transferring the tape to the metal reel, don't allow it to rub against >guides or heads in the tape machine as it will cause the sticky shead to >build up in clumps randomly on the tape, and make it all but impossible >to remove. Wind the tape loosely on the reel. Reels should be evenly >spaced with an empty reel between each full one. > >