Cassette Repair Equipment
In the process of digitizing my old archive of ancient audio cassettes, I've run across several which were in need of repairs of some kind or another. To accomplish the repairs up to now, I've been cannibalizing other old audio cassettes I had used in the 80's/90's to make copies of my LPs/CDs onto at the time, to fix the more important tapes I have no other source of. Since I'll eventually be digitally ripping the LPs/CDs somewhere down the line also, I no longer needed the cassettes I've been destroying to fix the others.
Only bad thing about that method of repairing tapes is the fact it is rather time consuming. For the most part, after some internet searching, I now have tools to make the job a bit easier. The only way I'll need to cannibalize another cassette now will be if the housing is glued together instead of screwed together. If glued, I usually have to literally BREAK the housing to get to the tape inside. If the halves of the housing is screwed, I can just take the tape apart and reassemble it, and with the new tools, I won't even have to do THAT unless the tape itself is broken. If it's just a rotten pressure pad issue (which seems to be the most recurring issue so far), I can just loosen the tape enough to access the metal strip the missing/rotted pad was glued to, and apply a new one, instead of the old way I was fixing the problem, by pulling an entire pressure pad strip from another cassette.
A) Cassette tape splicing block, to easily line up the ends of a broken tape to piece back together.
B) A roll of cassette splicing tape, used in process "A".
C) Needle nose plastic tweezers for holding new pressure pads for application to the metal strip in the cassette housing.
D) Replacement pressure pads.
Only bad thing about that method of repairing tapes is the fact it is rather time consuming. For the most part, after some internet searching, I now have tools to make the job a bit easier. The only way I'll need to cannibalize another cassette now will be if the housing is glued together instead of screwed together. If glued, I usually have to literally BREAK the housing to get to the tape inside. If the halves of the housing is screwed, I can just take the tape apart and reassemble it, and with the new tools, I won't even have to do THAT unless the tape itself is broken. If it's just a rotten pressure pad issue (which seems to be the most recurring issue so far), I can just loosen the tape enough to access the metal strip the missing/rotted pad was glued to, and apply a new one, instead of the old way I was fixing the problem, by pulling an entire pressure pad strip from another cassette.
A) Cassette tape splicing block, to easily line up the ends of a broken tape to piece back together.
B) A roll of cassette splicing tape, used in process "A".
C) Needle nose plastic tweezers for holding new pressure pads for application to the metal strip in the cassette housing.
D) Replacement pressure pads.