Gen X, this is your time to shine.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

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?

#ask_fedi

[hedders@mas.to]

@afewbugs As long as the tea wasn’t hot enough to melt the tape, it should still play once it dries out.

[mythlfrythtyg@mastodon.social]

@afewbugs Maybe @ai6yr has any kind of idea. Either direct tips what to do or knowledge of whom to ask.

[statsguy@mas.to]

@afewbugs I'm afraid my Gen-X knowledge of fixing cassette tapes is limited to what you can achieve with a pencil, which, while it has served me well on many occasions in the past, I suspect wouldn't be much use here. I hope your friend finds a good solution.

[naturemc@mastodon.online]

@afewbugs ⬆️ perhaps also a question to #makers and #repair or @Maker_of_Things

[graymattergrcltd@infosec.exchange]

@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.

[drj@typo.social]

@afewbugs clean affected parts gently with cotton buds and isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol). If the contaminants are inside, i dunno. But you should be able to clean the tape by slowly winding through with a pencil.

[slowtiger@berlin.social]

@afewbugs
There are services out there who deal with that. But probably expensive.

1. let it dry. Really good.
2. open cassette, carefully lift spools and put on pre-arranged (carboard) disks with an axis. Maybe you can convert a broken cassette player for that.
3. clean cloth and destilled water: slowly wind the tape while you let it run through wet cloth. Rinse that regularly.
4. again, thoroughly drying.
5. reassemble cassette.
6. digitize!

[mloxton@med-mastodon.com]

@afewbugs
If liquid got into the cassette, then you are going to need to unspool it before the water, (sugar?), and lactose cause the layers to adhere and then delaminate.

Unspool, clean, let it dry, and then re-spool.
TP-35 alcohol can be used to clean

[bit101@mstdn.social]

@afewbugs just make sure you have this special tool on hand.

[msbellows@c.im]

@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.

[msbellows@c.im]

@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.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@msbellows @graymattergrcltd you're a fesshole contributor aren't you? 😂

[bipolaron@scholar.social]

@bit101 @afewbugs what's the part number on digikey? (kidding)

[bit101@mstdn.social]

@bipolaron @afewbugs Number 2, of course!

[log@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@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

[tops@im-in.space]

@afewbugs maybe, worst case, you will end up with a Norman Collier remix @log

[msbellows@c.im]

@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.

[drwho@masto.hackers.town]

@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.