All my capstans are feel rather hard (I think because the rubber is pretty thin), and do not feel sticky either. The finish is matte. But they are not powdery at all, they would not leave any residue rubbing your finger on them, so something looks odd with yours. When the tape is threaded but the power is off, they grab the tape well enough that turning the bottom reel by hand will move the capstan easily, without any slippage. Marc
-----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis via cctalk Sent: Monday, September 04, 2017 9:17 PM To: CCtalk Subject: HP 7970B Capstan? 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. Any ideas? Thanks, Chuck
