About Sticky Shed Syndrome & Baking Reel to Reel Tapes With Gene Bohensky of Reel to Reel Warehouse

[@massapower]

I've had my 1/2 Inch Reel BAKED 2 times, bc the 1st one the dude who was transferring my tape, his 8 Track machine heads were not properly aligned. Sounded muddled.. Fast forward a year later, i went back to the dude who does baking Analog tapes and this time he amazingly had an 8 Track Reel to Reel machine... Came out CRYSTAL CLEAR. Amazing after 40 years, the recording sounds like it was done yesterday. The dude said tape is in great condition and you should have no problem with another BAKE.. I swear. ANALOG BABY 😛👍🏻

[@jeffreyfarley-dd5wu]

Thank You!!!

[@dwsheffer]

I looked but didn't see where you've made a video regarding general care and storage of reel to reel tapes. That would be helpful to the masses....

[@sampalermo9472]

Very well done and thanks for not having people throw tapes out- there are other methods to fix a tape besides baking and I have used machines for 50 years and never own a dehydrator. The question is how are companies making present day tape without whales? Are they using Tuna oil?

[@fadetoblack.-]

Outstanding video thanks for the information.

[@BadChizzle]

Fascinating topic. Thanks.

[@speakeasyarchives8764]

Many of the ideas will work on video tapes as well. But a cool down of an hour or so is needed. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

Good point. It takes some time for the tape binder to reconstitute during cooling.

[@ballaratboy1]

Thank you so much for this information.

[@newhampshirevideo]

At least when it comes to audio, there's less of a tape path and components to clean, helical video heads are tedious.

[@ppeterso22]

Outstanding Video! You made me go dig up my 30 some reels of Ampex 478, 3M 809, 996 and try some baking. I also would like to try my Scotch Classic reels as well. I bought the cheap 5 tray digital food dehydrator off Amazon and am having a ball. Not sure how 478 will work out but we shall see...

[@duncan-rmi]

loads of 478 here, ampex & quantegy. back-coat binding has broken down- not baking it because the carbon is stuck to the oxide surface, so what I've been doing is running the tape back-&-forth through a cotton wool pad soaked in naphtha. tapes I did this way ten years ago have stayed good. takes about seventy minutes to do 2500', in fast wind on a 'utility' deck (an A77) missing out the heads & guides.

[@suriyoki]

My quantegy tapes are already infected, it is gonna be cured if it is baked by the food dehydrator?

[@ColocasiaCorm]

What are your favorite new blank tape companies and formulations

[@СергейСмолл-ц9х]

Gene, thanx for video! Second from the bottom in the baking machine is Maxell. What the reason to baking Maxell tape? Is this tape with SSS?

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

No Maxell tapes don't require baking.

[@willmaes4253]

140 celcius or farenheit ? Thanks ! 😊

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

140 F (60-65 C)

[@ppeterso22]

How has your experience been with 3M 809? I had good results initially in July (2024) but some are squealing now 2 months later.

[@animalcorvair]

i just put my akia 635d on line an my ampex tape is doing that ,,my tdk tape is ok

[@geosystemstechnology3497]

When baking the tape on a plastic reel, is there a rick of the reel melting?

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

As ling at the temperature is under 140 F the reels should not melt.

[@WolfDieterHaselsteiner]

May be I missed it: are you talking about 140 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit?

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

It's Fahrenheit, maybe I did miss that! 140 C would be very bad for the tapes.

[@stnt2540]

Hi Can anyone recommend the best sounding tapes that are free of SSS on TEAC machines particularly X series?

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

Use late generation Maxell UDs / UD-XLs or XL-1s. The best for that machine.

[@bahromtajihan5547]

Is there any way to fix squeaky tape? Will baking tape help?

[@nayumicraig5248]

Squealing tape is sticky tape. Buy a fruit dehydrator or junk it. You will need to clean your tape path NOW if you played a squeaky tape. Lorne.

[@ltsrecording]

classic shedding tapes squeal when being played STOP....bake tapes for 2-3 hrs at 60 degrees C cool and play

[@animalcorvair]

what model of food dehydrator is that???

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

I am not sure of the brand. Just find one on ebay with a diameter big enough to fit the NAB reels.

[@animalcorvair]

@@ReeltoReelWarehouse got one on ebay it came in broken have to send it back...

[@bobsbits5357]

note i know this sound nuts had to use a gas oven and with a heat watching it was set at low as it would go 55c for 8 hr take all 8 2nch tapes out let them cool down ampex 456 24 hrs later they were 100% all right i have a old a tellinge tapes are bad i have a soundcraft 820 that is not right re moved head block the motor i can fine power them to move the tape round om spool to spool with a light you can see the tape is not come away from the rest of the tape on the spool note 5 years on the tapes are ok i got hold of alot of basf 2 inch note the boxes for the tape are bad so i had to make tape rack to hold them in i stopped using 1/4 tapes gone over to betacam sp liner audio as there's alot of betacam new sealed tapes

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

That's important information - if baked tapes are still usable after 5 years that is a good sign the tapes are good to be reused.

[@nayumicraig5248]

I wonder. Has anyone tried building dry storage for their tapes? When I was young I saw in a welding shop, an old refrigerator that was being used to store welding rods. To keep them from absorbing water. Too long ago now to be sure but I think it may have had a larger light bulb set up to be permanently on to heat the fridge. I have wanted to try getting one of the glass doored commercial fridges. That way I could run some sort of dehumidifier scheme inside the fridge. Plus it would make a nice display unit for my tape. Lorne.

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

Unfortunately sticky shed happens even in low humidity environments, and remember plastic bags are not water vapor barriers; eventually the RH inside the bag will equalize to the RH outside of it.

[@nayumicraig5248]

@@ReeltoReelWarehouse What are your feelings on preemptive baking? I have to go through a large collection here and I'm tired of cleaning tape paths. Wondering if I should just bake everything to start with. Also what do you know from a safety stand point. Does the baking process give off any chemicals that we should be overly concerned with? Lorne.

[@bobsbits5357]

HI NOT ON ZONAL TAPES 1/2 inch and 1 inch

[@ReeltoReelWarehouse]

Zonal tapes have no known sticky shed problems

[@johnplightning]

AMPEX 20/20 back coated tapes are among the worst offenders! DO NOT BUT THIS JUNK! NOS tapes will be unusable.

[@lukewarm5356]

Save the whale, go digital!

[@mjg263]

Very interesting topic, I had no idea that whale oil was used in the production of recording tape. I use a very similar food dehydrator when I have to bake tapes for someone. The worst part of that task is having to listen to the contents as it gets copied onto another format. Last time I did it I had to sit through two 1800’ reels from an amateur opera club 🥱😴