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Hi Karl, Especially if more than one person is doing the cleaning, I'd consider the possibility of human error. I used to regularly service cassette decks from a recording facility and often I found cotton caught in the pinch roller, and wound around the capstan shaft, obviously from less than careful cleaning. Tapes weaving at the capstan shaft and roller could be caused by a few different things including a faulty pinch roller but also incorrect pinch roller pressure, incorrect take up tension and back tension. Once tapes start riding up or down the capstan, a permanently damaged tape is often just about to happen. Cleaning of cassette deck tape paths can be easy to almost impossible depending on the deck. Tascam 122 decks can be dreadful for access. Years ago I made up a dummy cassette to fool the deck into engaging the pinch roller so it would rotate for cleaning purposes although access was still difficult. I don't think the interval of cleaning the tape path can easily be stipulated. Basically it's when it needs cleaning, which can depend greatly on the tapes being played. Cheers Tim. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List" <[log in to unmask]> To:<[log in to unmask]> Cc: Sent:Wed, 3 Jul 2019 19:10:48 +0000 Subject:Re: [ARSCLIST] How often do you routinely clean your rubber capstan rollers , with what and why? Thanks for sharing your experience, Shai. I've been warned off of IPA in the past, being told it could prematurely dry out rollers. Not hard to imagine if used a lot. It is valuable to hear you've had success at your rate of use, Shai. By the way, as once advised by a trusted mentor, I have successfully used 90% or higher IPA mixed 50/50 with water, for rare cases of stubborn cleaning. I didn't say it well earlier, but the thing I grow concerned about is the combination of fluid AND frequency. I am concerned that the water I chose to use may be drying rollers out faster now that we have been cleaning more often. I may be overthinking it, but I quote someone in our book conservation department, "For Conservation use, DI is so pure it’s aggressive and will strip paper (documents, book pages, etc) of valuable components. So in conservation treatment, additives are added back in. " Granted I am using Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Distilled - maybe not as aggressive as Deionized (DI) - and paper and rubber are rather different. But maybe my having chosen RO or distilled may already be overthinking roller cleaning and inviting issues if it is not much different than DI. Is tap water typically just fine for folks out there? The problems we have had, by the way, are namely tape not tracking well, i.e. slipping side to side as it goes past roller/capstan. I wonder about a reduction in roller suppleness and size. I know that symptom can be related to capstan drive belt too though. I've been waiting for months for new drive belts to experiment with too. A final note: CAIG makes a rubber reconditioner for printer rollers. I've had success with that, getting paper to pass through a printer more reliably. Anyone tried it on cassette deck rollers that are suspected to be too hard? -Karl ________________________________ From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Shai Drori <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, July 3, 2019 11:54:47 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] How often do you routinely clean your rubber capstan rollers , with what and why? Hi Karl I clean whenever it’s needed. Reel to reel about twice a week. Cassettes about 1-2 a month. I use technical grade IPA On Wed, 3 Jul 2019 at 6:20 Karl E. Fitzke <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Time for another check in on this subject. > > > I used to clean my casptan rollers once a week unless noticeably dirty. > Life was good. Others began doing it every morning on our cassette decks > and now and the decks seem to be more problematic lately. I'm starting to > think you can over do it. > > > Maybe another factor is advantages/disadvantages of tap water vs reverse > osmosis vs distilled vs deionized? > > > Thanks in advance, brain trust. > > > -Karl > -- Cheers Shai Drori Expert digitization services for Audio Video 3K scanning for film 8mm-35mm Timeless Recordings Music Label www.audiovideofilm.com<http://www.audiovideofilm.com> Audio Video Film - Digitization, Tranfering Old Videos, Convert Slides To Digital<http://www.audiovideofilm.com/> www.audiovideofilm.com Audio Video Film digitization and reformatting at archival quality. 20 years experience. Broadcast, home movies, institutional, archives, libraries, Universities. [log in to unmask] Tripadvisor level 6 contributor, level 15 restaurant expert ------------------------- Email sent using Optus Webmail