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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@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.

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

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

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

@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

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

@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.