Cassette tape “flanging”

BlazeES

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#21
You're a gentleman & a scholar!
Effective video. Thank you

I'm going to propose that you are seeing the effects of temperature warp-age or stretch. More likely to have occurred during the manufacturing process than years after the fact. Tape is created in a sputtering process, so the substrate (the base tape without the magnetic layer(s) ) could have been exposed to heat and/or uneven tension stress during the mfg process or the final packaging process. I've seen some low-cost tape look like that, freshly unwrapped. My brain is crusty but I do distinctly recall buying/finding Certron tapes that were wavy as ^%$# !, looked that bad & worse and rendered pretty much useless from the get-go. I also recall dime-store budget cassettes having creases in them, running the entire length - just like yours there - and recognizing it was that way before an entire side had even been played or recorded on... Translated: It came from the factory in that state.

It's good you showed the whole spool pack in a cross-sectional manner. That tape was originally spooled in a defective state. And that much lack of uniformity of the spool 'lay' or wind was probably originally recognizable through the cassette window - with good lighting mind you.

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I understand the concern about spending serious coin on NOS and then finding out, sometimes a long while after you made the purchase - that a sealed specimen could end up looking like that. But having dealt with and currently own a s h ! t ton of sealed NOS... it's statistically uncommon with most major brands of the time to be that effed up. That said, not all tape is created equal - as not all substrates are (were) created equal. So I concur with my Elite-ist friend - that's a super low budget cassette and at best - highly 'sketch' ... in the parlance of Millennial speak ;)

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Funny side note. Remember when compact cassettes came with Lifetime guarantees? It's printed right on the wrapper.
So much for that ... huh?


I think TDK, Maxell and Sony should be credited for the 'original Fake news'
L M A :laughing8:
 
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MarkWComer

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#22
Thanks for the video. Is it possible the slitter used in cutting the cassette pancake might have cut it slightly too large for the shell? Were there slip sheets between each side of the cassette pancake when you took it apart?

Nando.
Yes, slipsheets are there, the tape passes smoothly through the shell, pressure pad mounted to spring steel, a shield behind the pressure pad, blah, blah, blah- everything about the shell looks good, even for a nondescript generic one.

It's just crummy tape inside, the spooler may have been too close to the edge of something and warped the edge, or it was produced at the end of third shift on Friday.

Just a bit leery, waiting on USPS to deliver some TDK SA-90s from flea bay, of course they're NOS!
 

MarkWComer

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#24
@BlazeES:

Thanks, mind at ease, and I won't buy Certron tapes...

Speaking of substrates, 16mm film stock often used acetate instead of polyester- and I had an entire 1600' reel dump onto the floor because the takeup reel was so unbalanced that it wouldn't spool the film. You either watch the movie or the machine- so this happened while I was focused on the screen. Acetate based ribbons are horrible and deteriorate miserably.

I used to buy Denon cassettes back in the day (date hint: my last deck was a Realistic SCT-33! I've been out of the "tape loop" for that long). Catching up on a lot of time and glad to add your knowledge to mine. Thank you!

Actually, thanks to all who have straightened me out here...
 

BlazeES

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#25
The Realistic SCT-33 was kind of a 'sleeper', flag-ship machine way back when.

Just gonna put this out there. If you get to a point of not tolerating the eBoy pricing and/or don't land on any really good deals and you are still interested in well stored, quality NOS for the sake of the hobby - like getting your hands on some Denon tape for instance - PM me.
 
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pennysdad

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#29
Well, all good information, good maintenance tips, good methods to practice when maintaining and preparing to record, but…

WHAT CAUSES THE “FLANGING” OF THE TAPE?

Why has one edge of the tape stretched? How is it prevented?
I've noticed it improves after the capstan idler rubber has had a good scrub and clean. Once they get shiny, and lose their 'gription', funny things happen. Once it's hardened, then the tape gets pulled through unevenly.
 

Skywavebe

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#30
Well, all good information, good maintenance tips, good methods to practice when maintaining and preparing to record, but…

WHAT CAUSES THE “FLANGING” OF THE TAPE?

Why has one edge of the tape stretched? How is it prevented?
I think the white tapes being duplicator grade and a cheap shell may have had defective slip sheets in them that allow the tape to wonder all over then when a tape is like that it is prone to have deformations. Your Maxell and TDK tapes do not have that problem because the shells were made correctly and with some precision. I have seen reel tapes do that as well but some of it is caused by bad threading in that the hub has a irregularity in it that propagates through the entire tape making a cyclic drop out. That is caused by human error- cassette tape being so thin has little resistance to warping at .5 mil.
 
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