Gen X, this is your time to shine.
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@afewbugs The milk has lactose in it which will stick to the tape. You could rinse with water. The problem will be keeping the tape from sticking in the spools. If you’re REALLY careful, you could unspool the tape and let it air dry, and then REALLY carefully wind the spools again. The real risk is creating creases in the tape that will cause sound when moving over the reader. Tape is magnetic, so it should be fine.
@graymattergrcltd @afewbugs if you think milk may have penetrated between the layers on the spools, I'm thinking maybe submerge the cassette in distilled water then use a pencil to carefully run the entire tape from one reel to the other, rinsing every inch of it. That would be safer than unreeling the whole tape at once.
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@graymattergrcltd @afewbugs if you think milk may have penetrated between the layers on the spools, I'm thinking maybe submerge the cassette in distilled water then use a pencil to carefully run the entire tape from one reel to the other, rinsing every inch of it. That would be safer than unreeling the whole tape at once.
@graymattergrcltd @afewbugs Alternately, one could carefully wipe off the cassette to remove any sign of what happened, place it briefly on a large magnet, return it to its original place, and express innocent puzzlement when one's partner complains it doesn't work.
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@graymattergrcltd @afewbugs Alternately, one could carefully wipe off the cassette to remove any sign of what happened, place it briefly on a large magnet, return it to its original place, and express innocent puzzlement when one's partner complains it doesn't work.
@msbellows @graymattergrcltd you're a fesshole contributor aren't you? 😂
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@afewbugs just make sure you have this special tool on hand.
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@bipolaron @afewbugs Number 2, of course!
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Gen X, this is your time to shine. My friend has spilled a cup of tea (containing dairy milk) on their partner's limited edition Bob Vylan cassette, of which there are apparently only 200 in existence. I am providing desiccant beads, but is there anything else that needs to be done and will the cassette still play?
@afewbugs I'd wet a sponge in distilled water, then use a hexagonal pencil to re-spool the whole tape over the wet sponge and a dry towel, both sides. But I have also melted tapes by leaving them in a car under hot sun with the windows up. As long as the magnetic medium still sticks to the plastic tape, it'll still play, so delamination is enemy # 1, and layer-to-layer adhesion # 2. As long as you clean it before the tea dries, it'll be fine.
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@afewbugs I'd wet a sponge in distilled water, then use a hexagonal pencil to re-spool the whole tape over the wet sponge and a dry towel, both sides. But I have also melted tapes by leaving them in a car under hot sun with the windows up. As long as the magnetic medium still sticks to the plastic tape, it'll still play, so delamination is enemy # 1, and layer-to-layer adhesion # 2. As long as you clean it before the tea dries, it'll be fine.
@log thank you, this is less scary than dunking the whole thing in water so we'll try that. Turns out the water only soaked in to about 1/4 of one of the spools of tape
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@log thank you, this is less scary than dunking the whole thing in water so we'll try that. Turns out the water only soaked in to about 1/4 of one of the spools of tape
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@msbellows @graymattergrcltd you're a fesshole contributor aren't you? 😂
@afewbugs @graymattergrcltd I did submit one fess. They didn't accept it. Unsure whether that means I'm not horrible enough or way too horrible even for them.
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@afewbugs The milk has lactose in it which will stick to the tape. You could rinse with water. The problem will be keeping the tape from sticking in the spools. If you’re REALLY careful, you could unspool the tape and let it air dry, and then REALLY carefully wind the spools again. The real risk is creating creases in the tape that will cause sound when moving over the reader. Tape is magnetic, so it should be fine.
@graymattergrcltd @afewbugs Distilled water - mineral deposits on the tape can cause problems.
Also, rinse, don't soak. Unspool a little tape, run through a water bath, carefully lay out to dry.
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Gen X, this is your time to shine. My friend has spilled a cup of tea (containing dairy milk) on their partner's limited edition Bob Vylan cassette, of which there are apparently only 200 in existence. I am providing desiccant beads, but is there anything else that needs to be done and will the cassette still play?
@afewbugs Opening the shell to clean out excess liquid isn’t too hard so long as you’re gentle and make sure you don’t lose the metal and felt bit that goes under the spot where it meets the player head. Back in the day I transferred tape reels into new cases a few times because I was a disaster and cracked them. It’s probably a good idea to do that to get the bulk of the liquid out, then reassemble it to clean the tape itself like others have described (maybe by gently running it through a couple cotton pads and isopropyl alcohol), then take the case apart again to get rid of any lingering residue. You can do this!
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Gen X, this is your time to shine. My friend has spilled a cup of tea (containing dairy milk) on their partner's limited edition Bob Vylan cassette, of which there are apparently only 200 in existence. I am providing desiccant beads, but is there anything else that needs to be done and will the cassette still play?
@afewbugs
Have you tried installing linux? -
@afewbugs
Have you tried installing linux?@jamesb I actually cackled out loud at this
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@afewbugs ⬆️ perhaps also a question to #makers and #repair or @Maker_of_Things
@NatureMC @afewbugs
Ugh, messy, and fiddly.Hopefully it is a cassette that can be opened up.
I would carefully unspool the tape so that it can be washed and respooled after the cassette insides have been cleaned.
If you have a sacrificial cassette, you can transfer the wet tape, while it is still tightly wound, to a spare case, while the original is being cleaned.
You can then pull out the tape in manageable lengths to wash, dry, and respool, before moving onto the next section.
When it is cleaned, it can be put back in the original case.
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Gen X, this is your time to shine. My friend has spilled a cup of tea (containing dairy milk) on their partner's limited edition Bob Vylan cassette, of which there are apparently only 200 in existence. I am providing desiccant beads, but is there anything else that needs to be done and will the cassette still play?
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@jamesb I actually cackled out loud at this
@afewbugs
The fediverse is nothing but predictable...
Personally I'd give the tape an IPA bath or two, followed by distilled water to try and get rid of the tea residue. It shouldn't affect the sound itself but it might gum up the tape and mechanism. -
@afewbugs
The fediverse is nothing but predictable...
Personally I'd give the tape an IPA bath or two, followed by distilled water to try and get rid of the tea residue. It shouldn't affect the sound itself but it might gum up the tape and mechanism.@jamesb the tape has now been briefly rinsed and put in a Tupperware full of desiccant beads overnight. It's in the hands of the gods now
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@jamesb the tape has now been briefly rinsed and put in a Tupperware full of desiccant beads overnight. It's in the hands of the gods now
@afewbugs
Got an air fryer? -
Gen X, this is your time to shine. My friend has spilled a cup of tea (containing dairy milk) on their partner's limited edition Bob Vylan cassette, of which there are apparently only 200 in existence. I am providing desiccant beads, but is there anything else that needs to be done and will the cassette still play?
@afewbugs 1. *Don’t* put in in a car cassette player. They are guaranteed to eat any tape you care about and will require disassembly.
2. Any player is likely to eat any tape that has even a tiny speck of anything sticky. Cleaning required first.
3. If you’re lucky, the liquid didn’t enter the shell. If it did, I see others described transferring it to a clean housing.
4. The exposed bit of tape can be gently extracted and cleaned with distilled water and or isopropyl alcohol. Rewinding is accomplished with the proverbial pencil.
5. Some old tapes begin to lose their rust. There are literal baking procedures described online, but this is beyond my expertise. If it’s shedding dust, you really need an experienced archivist. -
@afewbugs
Got an air fryer?@jamesb no I'm going to deep fry it, air fryers just blow the batter off
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