Sony SLHF400 Betamax tape jammed inside

[@UrielX1212]

I spent 8 hours drawing up the original gear and I will give it a go on 3d printing. Edit: 3d printed part works like a champ on my SL-HF900. Second design will focus on reinforcing the tooth that seemingly always breaks.

[@sunspot42]

Could you make a mold of the gear in clay or something and then fashion a replacement out of epoxy?

[@dalemettee1147]

I was thinking that a 3 D printer might be the answer here. I mean all kinds of things are now being made on this extraordinary machine. A fortune could be made here with all od the machines that seem to need this part.

[@sunspot42]

@@dalemettee1147 I think the resins they use aren’t very strong. And you’d need a CAD model of the gear or a high-quality 3D scan. You can make silicone molds of gears and then create resin copies, but you’d need an intact gear (or maybe you could super glue the original back together for the process) and a vacuum pump to get any bubbles out of the mix. Huge PITA. There’s a video of it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npmTn3adoLSHqas

[@UrielX1212]

@@sunspot42 They have a glass filled nylon resins which is very strong. There are solutions out there but someone needs to make the CAD file to get them fabricated. If my SL-HF400 fails in the same matter then I am game though.

[@Monza62000]

@@dalemettee1147 my boy has new ones on ebay now

[@Cyberbronco]

File down half the gear and overlay a thin carbon fiber piece and file it to the same shape as the gears. Remove it, cover with resin and place it back over the original gear.

[@gavincurtis]

Perhaps a strongly focused thought-ball will manifest a gear out of metal?

[@ge0brick]

To fix the gear, consider using the adhesive called "Bonidic" to build out the broken tooth on the nylon gear. It's a UV cured adhesive and the ads I've seen on KZbin make it seem like a good solution.

[@toddascher7259]

Same problem. Replaced gear and the loading mechanism works fine, but now video playback on all tapes is extremely noisy with lots of red color. Maybe alignment (?) but I never touched heads or drive mechanism. Ideas? It was playing back fine before the repair.

[@rwdplz1]

My SL-HF900 has the same problem. It works if you load the tape manually and hold it down with your hand, but that's not much fun. Been hoping someone will start 3D printing or machining new parts, but not much demand for Beta stuff. Showing how to re-time the mechanism is helpful.

[@UrielX1212]

I designed one, had it 3d printed and tested it and it works good. I am working on a second design that will reinforce the tooth that seemingly always breaks. Message me if you are interested in one.

[@rwdplz1]

@@UrielX1212 I bought one from you on eBay, just installed it and it works perfectly! THANKS!

[@UrielX1212]

@@rwdplz1 Perfect! Thanks for the feedback

[@D725U]

Is the loading mechanism on the 400 the same as the SL-HF900? My 400 has a working loading mechanism - my 900's has a broken gear

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

Yes. Both machines use the 711B2 chassis. Mechanical parts are interchangable.

[@D725U]

@@crashbandicoot4everr Cool. Thanks.

[@D725U]

@@crashbandicoot4everr So I swapped the loading mechanism from the 400 to the 900. The right bottom bracket on the 400's loading mechanism is slightly longer than the 900's. I had to cut it off to get it to fit. Even after all that, the 900 still struggles to load tapes with the 400's loading mechanism. I wonder if there's a motor or capacitor that's on its way out. My 900 sounds quite tired when attempting to load tapes. Oddly, the 900's loading mechanism works perfectly in the 400, and there were no mods required to any of the brackets

[@waynesharp1690]

Any type of epoxy resin that could be used to fill the area and then file the tooth back in. Only guessing as I've no idea if that would work.

[@12voltvids]

Tried that 30 years ago. Didn't work then.

[@Shadepariah]

Seems like a major design flaw to have one gear holding the whole deck down all the time

[@Watcher3223]

Considering how long that geartrain lasted before failure, not really. Nothing lasts forever, but this thing held out for decades before it finally broke. Remember, the SL-HF400 was a model that was first introduced in 1985. This VCR is over 35 years old.

[@Shadepariah]

He's talked about replacing these gears in the distant past and not just now. It's just that they don't make the parts anymore. No idea what the average lifespan of one of those gears was, but based on how it's constantly under pressure it must have failed every time someone tried to jam a tape in the machine too hard..

[@adamrosas]

I have been lucky, and all my gears have failed at the shaft, I just machine a sleeve out of aluminum and epoxy it in place, they make an epoxy that is formulated for nylon, maybe put a blob of it where the old tooth was and fashion a new tooth with a file once cured.

[@AMJSKATESHOP]

Hi, I have a DSR-PD150. Would you mind if I put the link to the video I just uploaded here on youtube of what it is doing? Maybe you have seen this or have an idea of what the problem is.

[@zx8401ztv]

What a shame, it looks like a good vcr otherwise. Bloody weedy plastic gears 😞

[@Monza62000]

my boy just had the gears made plutonius x made them stronger too.. the sony is now on my bench playing ,,,it loads an unloads like new,,,,he has them on ebay now... he offered one free to you...guess you dont care but a lot may need them ..i watch you all the time ..keep it up

[@rwdplz1]

Ditto, works great in my SL-HF900

[@Monza62000]

@@rwdplz1 glad it saved your sl-hf-900 to good to trash

[@hagopsivazlian7416]

Great video with all the explanation very helpfull. Thank you 🙏💯🥸

[@aenoymotors]

So if you want a workhorse Beta machine to archive tapes it almost seems like finding the nicest top loader you can find might be the best bet but I don't know if the top loaders ever got Super Beta or Hi-fi.

[@markshellard5894]

Well that sucks it’s so simple yet unfixable

[@mikeb8638]

Michael McDonald in the house

[@metingokbulut837]

🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷💯💯💯💯👍👍👍👍