Why are metal reels necessary? Anything hot enough to melt plastic reels would be damaging the tape too. We bake tapes on plastic reels and U-Matic videos in the cassettes all the time with no problems.
Hello
Baking your reel to reel tape requires the following:
1- VERY IMPORTANT !!- Put the tape on a metal reel. When transferring the tape to the metal reel, don't allow it to rub against guides or heads in the tape machine as it will cause the sticky shead to build up in clumps randomly on the tape, and make it all but impossible to remove. Wind the tape loosely on the reel. Reels should be evenly spaced with an empty reel between each full one.