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We're back from vacation, checked with a mold/eco person in town and mold was confirmed. The tapes are in the garbage. I cannot tell how wrenching it was to toss some 15,000 feet of 35-180 tape, but I did it anyway.
Now - any advice on just what needs to be done to clean the tape deck? Can one do a general vacuuming and tape path cleaning, or should it be opened up and given some serious vacuuming/alcohol/vinegar/hydrogen peroxide/something else treatment?
Follow Ups:
Could they not have been baked to kill the mold and then be cleaned? I used to do it years ago with records after a bad experience and they ended up none the worse. It was harder to clean the covers. I just bought replacement sleeves so I did not deal with that issue.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Baking was discounted early on. Everything I read and everyone talked to said the same thing - if it's mold put it in the garbage and meticulously clean the deck and room.
For the record, the entire deck cleaning was performed on the front porch. No risk of blowing spores all over the house was taken.
And thanks to everyone who took time to answer.
The short answer is "no". Tape "baking" is best done at a fairly low temperature, around 133 degrees F. That's not high enough to kill the mold.
I'm glad DRam got the stuff checked. Good on you, DRam! It could have been innocuous stuff, which would have meant a simple cleaning. But by KNOWING what it is, more appropriate action can be taken. Sadly, it turned out to be the worst case scenario.
On a related tangent... All too often in audio, people are reluctant to actually analyze a problem, preferring to "save money" and spend untold hours guessing at remedies which may or may not work. (That is the shortest rant I've ever written!)
:)
Thanks everyone. Not as daunting as I had imagined.
The pain is gone, I'm watching for tapes again. At least I have four empty reels to use if a pancake shows up. Thoroughly decontaminated, of course.
Condolences, DRam :-(
You'll recover!
Vbr,
Sam
Bummer on the mold.
But I try and take a "make lemonade" attitude on these kinds of things.
I suggest opening up the machine and using some canned air, blow the dust out. Pay particular attention to any place you can see daylight from the back of the faceplate.
Probably a good time to do a general tune up of brakes, belts, switches/pots and tension (if you have the right tools and the service manual).
Then, vacuum the outside of the machine and wipe down all the metal surfaces you can easily reach with hydrogen peroxide then high percentage alcohol. Be careful not to soak any rubber sleeves, rollers, washers with the alcohol. Clean the rubber last with something like 409.
Then, vacuum the room thoroughly. If you have a shelves of tapes, I'd unload them and vacuum that area than the tapes boxes last.
If you're like me, most of this stuff (except for the peroxide bit) are things I've put off,.. forever? So I don't feel like it's that big a deal and I can forget about it for another decade.
I would only add that, when you blow out the tape deck, do that outside.
:)
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