David,
Some lubricants work some of the time, but there is no room in the
matrix for the tape to take them up, so they just hang around on the surface.
Although we''ve been calling the tape squeal "loss of lubricant" it
isn't as what is assumed to be the original load of lubricant still
appears in the chemical analysis. It is no longer enough since the
properties of the binder have degraded.
Relubrication, overall, has a poor track record. Another restorer and
I had really hoped we could get it to work and we tried some really
nifty lubricants, with marginal success. The best relubrication
results have been with isopropyl alcohol as Marie O'Connell wrote
about and I published at http://www.richardhess.com/notes/ (just
search for Marie in the dedicated search box and you'll soon find it).
Cheers,
Richard
At 09:55 PM 9/18/2006, you wrote:
>Radio Shack used to sell a head lubricant, a couple of decades ago.
>I found that it
>worked at the time, although the SSS problems were much smaller and less
>widespread. Seems to me that it was good on squealy non-backcoated
>tapes, but I
>can't remember how often you'd have to apply it or if it would work
>for an entire
>reel, especially at slow speed.
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.