On 09/04/2017 11:16 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
I've got an HP 7970 tape drive here that's a little dicey on its reading
(haven't tried writing yet). One thing that I noticed today was that
the surface of the capstan is a bit powdery--wipe it with an alcohol
swab and you get a lot of black schmutz.
It wasn't very soft and it occurred to me that it might be slipping, so
I cleaned it off and treated it with some methyl salicylate (oil of
wintergreen). It's a bit softer now, but I'm wondering, for those of
you who still have functioning drives, how soft or "sticky/grippy" is right.
Some spring-arm drives had really bad problems with tape
slipping. I know some Pertecs had circular grooves in the
capstan to prevent an air bearing effect. On one of our
spring-arm drives, I cut thumbs out of latex gloves and
stretched them over the capstan. This TOTALLY removed the
slipping problem until the latex wore out.
Jon
