I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. How can I clean it?

Here is the condition of the drum: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/tapehead.jpg

alcohol and cotton

wrote:
I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. How can I clean it?

Here is the condition of the drum: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/tapehead.jpg

"WOLF SLAYER" wrote in message
...
alcohol and cotton

wrote:
I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. How can I clean it?

Here is the condition of the drum:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/tapehead.jpg


It's been a long time since I've worked on a VCR, but I use strips of clean
white paper dipped in alcohol. Press firmly against the drum and rotate,
being careful to hold the paper still so you don't break the head chips.
Repeat with new paper until they quit getting dirty.

I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. How can I clean it?

alcohol and cotton

AACK. Everything I have ever read, warns against attempting to clean
a VCR drum or heads with cotton (*especially* not Q-tips!). There's
far too much chance of snagging the (fragile) head subassemblies with
the cotton, or leaving a few fibers in the space around the heads. A
displaced, ripped-out, or otherwise destroyed head and thus a ruined
drum are all too likely.

The procedure I have seen recommended, and have used successfully, is
to use electronics-grade isopropyl alcohol, and either a flat-head
chamois-tipped swab, or a non-woven electronic cleaning pad such as a
Chempad (these are presaturated with isopropyl). Hold the
alcohol-dampened swab or pad flat against the side of the drum, with
*gentle* pressure, and use one finger of your other hand to *slowly*
rotate the drum in its normal direction of rotation. Rotate it three
or four times, stop, remove the pad or swab, switch to the clean side
of the pad or swap (re-moisten if necessary) and repeat. Do this with
fresh swabs or pads until you get no further residue from the drum or
heads.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Apr 15, 1:07*am, (Dave Platt) wrote:
I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. *Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. *How can I clean it?
alcohol and cotton

AACK. *Everything I have ever read, warns against attempting to clean
a VCR drum or heads with cotton (*especially* not Q-tips!). *There's
far too much chance of snagging the (fragile) head subassemblies with
the cotton, or leaving a few fibers in the space around the heads. *A
displaced, ripped-out, or otherwise destroyed head and thus a ruined
drum are all too likely.

The procedure I have seen recommended, and have used successfully, is
to use electronics-grade isopropyl alcohol, and either a flat-head
chamois-tipped swab, or a non-woven electronic cleaning pad such as a
Chempad (these are presaturated with isopropyl). *Hold the
alcohol-dampened swab or pad flat against the side of the drum, with
*gentle* pressure, and use one finger of your other hand to *slowly*
rotate the drum in its normal direction of rotation. *Rotate it three
or four times, stop, remove the pad or swab, switch to the clean side
of the pad or swap (re-moisten if necessary) and repeat. *Do this with
fresh swabs or pads until you get no further residue from the drum or
heads.

--
Dave Platt * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: *http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
* I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
* * *boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

I've tried to clean it, but nothing is coming off.. Not even the
slightest bit.

It's as if it's caked on there pretty good.,

wrote in message
...
On Apr 15, 1:07 am, (Dave Platt) wrote:
I got a VCR that was in a house fire, and it's video drum has smoke
damage.

It doesn't feel smooth, but isn't rough enough to where it seems to be
damaging tapes. Matter of fact, it records and plays just fine.

But I want to clean the drum. How can I clean it?
alcohol and cotton

AACK. Everything I have ever read, warns against attempting to clean
a VCR drum or heads with cotton (*especially* not Q-tips!). There's
far too much chance of snagging the (fragile) head subassemblies with
the cotton, or leaving a few fibers in the space around the heads. A
displaced, ripped-out, or otherwise destroyed head and thus a ruined
drum are all too likely.

The procedure I have seen recommended, and have used successfully, is
to use electronics-grade isopropyl alcohol, and either a flat-head
chamois-tipped swab, or a non-woven electronic cleaning pad such as a
Chempad (these are presaturated with isopropyl). Hold the
alcohol-dampened swab or pad flat against the side of the drum, with
*gentle* pressure, and use one finger of your other hand to *slowly*
rotate the drum in its normal direction of rotation. Rotate it three
or four times, stop, remove the pad or swab, switch to the clean side
of the pad or swap (re-moisten if necessary) and repeat. Do this with
fresh swabs or pads until you get no further residue from the drum or
heads.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

I've tried to clean it, but nothing is coming off.. Not even the
slightest bit.

It's as if it's caked on there pretty good.,

reply:

I've found kitchen oven-cleaner very effective at removing heavy tobacco
smoke staining from parts.
Go sparingly, squirt onto copier-paper, and then use that on a test area
first, below the tape path and don't use near the tape-heads as it may be
too corrosive on the winding enamel etc, no need as by your account not
affected there anyway. Remove any remainder with some meths or alcohol,
again soaked into paper.
No cotton buds/balls at any stage, chamois is ok.


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

N_Cook wrote:

I've found kitchen oven-cleaner very effective at removing heavy tobacco
smoke staining from parts.
Go sparingly, squirt onto copier-paper, and then use that on a test area
first, below the tape path and don't use near the tape-heads as it may be
too corrosive on the winding enamel etc, no need as by your account not
affected there anyway. Remove any remainder with some meths or alcohol,
again soaked into paper.
No cotton buds/balls at any stage, chamois is ok.


If it went through a house fire the aluminum is pitted from the
acidic smoke. It has to be polished back to it's original finish which
is nearly impossible to do by hand. If you have some old tapes you don't
need, try running one of them for 24 hours. You used to be able to buy
special 'lapping' tape to polish tape heads, but I haven't seen any for
sale in 25 years. The old 1/2" R-R computer tape was abrasive enough,
but would have to be spliced into a cassette.

Lapping was done to studio recorders to extend the life of the tape
heads. Nortronics and several other tape head OEM offered the service
which was about 25% the cost of a new head.

That oven cleaner will cause more pitting in the aluminum. Lye (which
is in most oven cleaners) is used to etch aluminum parts to give it a
non reflective surface. Lye is used in oven cleaner to turn the baked
on fats into a crude soap.


--
aioe.org is home to cowards and terrorists

Add this line to your news proxy nfilter.dat file
* drop Path:*aioe.org!not-for-mail to drop all aioe.org traffic.

http://improve-usenet.org/index.html


Use any search engine other than Google till they stop polluting USENET
with porn and junk commercial SPAM

On Apr 14, 9:49*pm, wrote:


I've tried to clean it, but nothing is coming off.. *Not even the
slightest bit.

It's as if it's caked on there pretty good.,

If Xylene won't take it off, it doesn't need to come off. Xylene was
the official recommended head cleaner of Ampex on their commercial
VTRs. Texwipes or the chamois swabs do well. Ampex specifically warned
of alcohol as it leaves a "persistent film". I tought it was silly
until I cleaned a machine with Xylene and saw to power to spin the
drum drop by a factor of 10. Now I'm convinced.

GG