Cassette tape cleaner - What, how & why?

[@StarkRG]

Matt, that opening was the absolute funniest thing you've put together yet.

[@theproducertm]

I'll be awaiting his first YTP video soon.

[@nathanlucas6465]

Yup, I troed to hit skip 😂

[@mikeclark7429]

@@theproducertm At the expense of looking stupid, I will risk asking anyway. YTP? Is your name TP a hint perhaps? I hope it's not too obvious. I will claim dementia!

[@theproducertm]

@@mikeclark7429 KZbin Poop, the exquisite side of KZbin.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

'ASMR for the hard of hearing' is the one for me

I'm from the Canary Islands and I remember, when I was child, having to discard many VHS tapes due to mould developing in them. It not only affects the tape it self, it also sticks to the heads of my VHS player, forcing me to open it and cleaning them very often. A few years after the VHS mould issue, way into the CD-R era, I found that mould also likes eating the metallic layer of my precious CD-R I was using to store data for my computer. I remember discarding lots of CD-R disks that looked more like Gouda cheese than actual CD-R. So yes, mould is a big issues in humid places.

[@bethanydavis9023]

Perhaps the machine was made in a humid climate due to the mold issue and it really was sold to consumers.

[@Intelwinsbigly]

Didn't tropical regions have VCDs for that exact reason?

[@whatr0]

@@Intelwinsbigly yup, its why VCD took off on a lot of Asian countries because it solved the mold problem VHS had, while not taking off in the west largely because the humidity problem wasn't nearly as bad and the quality was about the same as VHS

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@whatr0humidity is still a problem, it just wasn’t a popular format overall

[@placeholder22atm]

its a problem here in the US too now that these are all thoroughly antiquated

[@Ragnarok043]

all we need now is a DVD Rewinder review

[@ericbazinga]

@@stephenw2992 The ones I remember were all 50s cars

[@xero110]

@@Great-Documentaries Some shops had their theft prevention labels printer with "Be kind rewind" on them for VHS, and they just kept using them once DVD came out.

[@ericbazinga]

How about a DVD resurfacer (aka cleaner)? The kind that buffs out all the scratches?

[@OrangeHarrisonRB3]

Beat me to it

[@xero110]

Cavey Möth I have a 32x DVD ROM so way faster. I can watch a movie in under 10 minutes, it’s a great way to save time.

[@edsonbrusque]

I live in the south of Brazil. Mold is a big problem here and and I had to constantly clean the heads of cassette decks. I would love to have a device such as this back in the day. I even remember cleaning open reel tapes with a cotton swab... Great content as always. :)

[@Calispeedboi]

“This man is an actor. He has no friends.” 😂

[@TheLtData]

may be not in 'the flesh' but he has close to a million on KZbin!

[@sink899]

hey louis

[@5roundsrapid263]

He looks like the Prime Minister to me..

[@bobblum5973]

@@CricketEngland I would have liked to see the puppet's version of it, but I actually think this way is probably better just because it is real life. Cornier. (Still want more puppets, though!)

[@oliwier000b]

No one has friends nowadays

[@retro-reels5652]

There is actually quite a need a need for a product like this today-I have thousands of cassette tapes that haven’t been played in years. Whilst the tapes don’t have mould, they would benefit from being spooled through before use, and such a device would save wear on my main playback machine.

[@robertcartier5088]

A cheap, secondary player with a piece of facial tissue stretched across the head would probably work for you. A tissue holder could be fashioned to hold the tissue across the tape head without the need for excessive adhesive so you could easily change the dirty ones out...As a cleaning medium, I would explore the tape head cleaners that use a fibrous tape, much like the one in this machine. The wider VHS ones would be easier to manipulate... Just throwing out ideas... ;-)

[@toonman361]

YES. I wrote in my earlier response, "Given that it cleans crud from aging tapes, it is perhaps more useful now than when it was in regular use."

[@BertGrink]

@Retro-Reels What you need is one of these devices: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2momqeJequtpZo

[@robertcartier5088]

@wargent99 So, do you feel better? ;-/

[@BertGrink]

@wargent99 You must be new to this channel eh?

[@funghazi]

Oh interesting, our library had something like that when we still had our collection of tapes. Our patrons tended to take the tapes on international trips so the old protocol was if a tape looked dirty or didn't play, it would be run through the machine. Don't think we have the tapes anymore, nor the cleaner for that matter.

[@porovaara]

Also saw one of these as a store that sold used music.

[@somitomi]

I'm now wondering if video rental places had VHS cleaners alongside the rewinders they most definitely needed every day. (completely off-topic, but hello, fellow Daria)

[@lutello3012]

I read that in Daria's voice.

[@aljowen]

@@somitomi Video game shops used to have machines for removing scratches from disks, I managed to save a few games from the bin through that and they didn't charge a lot for it. Not sure if that is relevant info.

[@funghazi]

@@lutello3012 La la la la la

[@gtoger]

I love the metal construction and the simple 3 button layout. It reminds me a lot of an old ITC cart machine in that regard. I bet it's heavy.

[@MrManniG]

Also the amount of ingenuity that went into developing this device. Im quite shure this was not cheap when it was bought new.

[@fergusontea]

Yes, I thought of the cart machine, too, due to the buttons. I think this is a commercial device, just by how ruggedly it is built with those big lighted buttons.

[@WittyDroog]

"Slightly problematic name..." The soft, straight delivery of that killed me

[@eprillios]

In all honesty, I don’t get the joke. Does somebody care to explain? 😅

[@WittyDroog]

@@eprillios "Japt" is close to "Jap" which was a derogatory term for Japanese people during WWII

[@wristpin38]

Came here to say this! Such a funny line!

[@notforsaletoday1895]

@@WittyDroog I never understood that. “Brit” is not seen as offensive, “yank” is only mildly, no reason “Jap” should be.

[@WittyDroog]

@@notforsaletoday1895 Well, except for good ol fashioned midcentury xenophobia. People were not saying it with neutral inflection when the term was popularized, it was a racial slur used to dehumanize Japanese people as "others" during the war and internment camp period

[@jpkosoltrakul]

I'm from Thailand, and I remember back in the day when VHS still a thing, we have so much problem with fungus. I believe that more than half of the VHS we got back then had those white molds on them. But what we got are the cleaning kits for the player, not for the tape itself (which I think that was not uncommon).

[@drabhijitb]

Hi, I am from Mumbai, this device would have been really helpful here due to the humid conditions. Wish I had one. Fungus accumulates on tapes when not in use. I had 100s of cassettes and this issue was faced by me. The fungus then clogged the tape head when the cassette was played, causing muffled sound. Then the tape head needed some cleaning with alcohol swab and u could see a thick white layer accumulated on the tape head. Quiet simple, handy and useful machine. Similar machine might exist for VDO cassettes also. Would like to have a vdo on that also.👍👍

[@fromfin90]

thats an issue i have never heard of, fascinating, thanks for sharing

[@kg4x5]

Also from India. Am trying to revive my cassette collection from the 90s and most of my tapes have similar problems. I made a makeshift cleaner out of a cheap Walkman imitation that I got on Amazon for 10 bucks. It kinda works but I could very well have done with the tape cleaner demonstrated in this video. Love this channel.

[@mattikaki]

Abhijit Bhalerao The moisture is problem here in Finland because our weather changes quickly. I was a Sony videotape recorder serviceman in TV company and we had odd clogging issues with Sony tapes in our Betacams, but other make tapes were OK. The reason was that when the video head had worn, they had microscopic gobs which collected dust and the Sony tape was very good an smooth, but too smooth. It squeezed the dust very tight and when they were high enough, the tape/head contact got worse. But if we used other make tapes, they were OK because the tape surface was more coarse. I added a sharp edge before the tape path and a cleaning roller which cleaned the head tip automatically. That was similar compared to this tape cleaner. the newer Sony Betacams had those already assembled. Now, i suggest you to add similar sharp edge to your tape recorder. It will remove the fungus and is easy to clean. You also see if it collects dirt. The sharp edge can be of any sharp and well lasting material. Quartz is very good. It must be very sharp edge. I glued them to the erase head and I believe that in your case it is also a good idea.

[@butwait]

Invest in air conditioning.

[@olixbob]

Does VDO mean video in your country?

[@marcin_bruczkowski]

I lived in Singapore in mid-1990s and my entire VHS collection grew a nice, white, furry coat of mold. I then bought a device for cleaning VHS tapes, very similar concept to what you're showing here, although not as solidly built. Maybe one day you can find one and show on this channel.

[@fdsmaster8098]

the chips are off the shelf logic components, easily indentified by the 74 in the number: SN74123 is a multivibrator, it can create a square frequency but here likely is used to eliminate the "bounce" of the pushbuttons, otherwise the logic gates would get triggered multiple times whenever pushing or releasing a button SN74107 is a jk-flipflop it's like a switch, it can be turned on and off and between switching it it holds it's position unlike a transistor SN7400N are NAND gates, likely controlling the flipflop all in all this looks like a crude logic circuit that takes inputs off the buttons and switches on and off the device there are some heatsinked components on the other side of the board, likely powertransistors to switch the motor and a simple rectifyer made of diodes and filter caps as needed in any power supply despite looking rather complicaded because of all the chips this appears to be a very simple circuit made from off the shelf components

[@Darxide23]

It seems overkill to use all those ICs instead of discreet logic for those functions. Kind of odd.

[@fdsmaster8098]

​@@Darxide23 these ICs are pretty cheap and it's very simple and cheap in design as well as production to put something together like this, to build a similar circuit with transistors is way more complicated and expensive. Today it's cheaper to use an entire microcontroller in this situation

[@eDoc2020]

I'm most surprised that the chips are 'vanilla' 74 series and not 74LS or another variant. I don't think I've ever seen a vanilla 74 series part in person, and after a quick online search I'm super surprised TI still makes them. I guess back then it was still cheaper; now TI's SN7400N is $1.60, SN74LS00N is $0.64, and SN74HC00N is $0.39 for singles at DigiKey.

[@BryTee]

@@eDoc2020 I remember having fun building logic circuits in the late 70s and early 80s, and some of the series must have been etched into my mind as today on seeing the board I instantly said "Hey that's a quad NAND gate" when I saw the 7400's. Although I preferred CMOS 4000's series as it operates from 3v to 18v whereas 7400s needed a good 5v supply, but they did operate faster, but I didn't need speed in the circuits I made which mostly were features for my car, such as a 7 segment digital speedometer - yes, I replaced my mechanical one (in the 80s to the admiration of my coworkers - it worked by counting the driveshaft with a magnet zip tied to it, and a sensor), as well as LEDs on my dash (instead of bulbs) to show things like turn signals, headlights, even if the brake lights were working or not, etc. Remember a car operates on 10v to 14v, so I could use the power without the need for a 5v voltage controller. And a few microseconds of delay due to using CMOS instead of TTL was not a problem for me.

[@dashcamandy2242]

I think you nailed it. I'd also guess 1/3 of the board is the 5-volt supply, maybe there's a heatsinked 7805 poking around?

[@darkdoescosplays]

Best TechMoan intro ever. Great voice over cameo from the so-called "Those Annoying Puppets" (please bring them back soon!)

[@RemyNote]

You mean Statler and Waldorf? The critics from the Muppets?

[@medicman4444]

Exactly mum made me ask here where they were she enjoys there little quips about some of the tech

[@s980845]

Please bring back the puppet skits at the end. They always make me laugh!

[@andreaswheeler]

0:56 that wig! i almost spilt my tea...

[@Techmoan]

Wig! How dare you.

[@Matteous_YT]

Also where DO you get your shirts?😁

[@EdwinNoorlander]

He is a actor. It’s not real.... ;-)

[@soragranda]

I know its bad, but I want one! XD.

[@MercenaryBlackWaterz]

The man is an actor w/o friends other than that the wig seems legit...

[@Fluteboy]

Tony from Cassette Comeback would love one of these. All those NOS metal cassettes that come with a generous helping of mould....

[@jeremyclaxton9384]

Did you get an image of the "cleaning tape" after you'd run the mouldy cassette through the machine?

[@Techmoan]

The cleaning tape looked the same after cleaning that mouldy tape as it did before. Then again it was white mould on a white tape, so I suppose that’s to be expected.

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

@@Techmoan Was there any sound difference between clean and dirty tape? I was surprised you didn't go there.

[@Syncopator]

@Salt Salt I think the word you are looking for is "spores" not "seeds." But yeah, they'd likely contaminate the cleaning tape.

[@SimbaSeven.]

I bought a whole box of sealed tapes last year, and the seller didn't know they were moldy. I couldn't calibrate any of them on my XK-S9000 and they've been sitting on a shelf since. I hope someone reverse engineers one of these (maybe a mechanism that pulls the tape out, cleans using Isopropyl, and puts it back in) and builds one. I would definitely back a device like this.

[@stevejones8665]

Just what you need to clean Covid19 from any Cassette tapes.

[@FoulOwl2112]

Never forget something my Dad said when l encountered my first E- clip. "What's this thing Dad"? "Son that's called a JESUS CLIP. Because that's what you scream when it goes flying across the room never to be seen again".

[@SenileOtaku]

Yep, a "Jesus Clip", that's what I remember them being called way back when I was a mechanics assistant (almost 40 years ago now).

[@fordtechchris]

Can confirm.... In Auto school we were told they are "Jesus Clips"

[@Defensive_Wounds]

I call it the Jesus clip too! lol

[@1959Edsel]

AvE calls it a Jeezlus clip. I don't know if that's a Canadian thing or just an Uncle Bumblefuck thing.

[@Is_this_4_reelOU812]

My grandfather taught me to tie a thread around the E-clip and I have never lost one. Threads also work in super small springs too.

[@kennethlee494]

I worked in a video store in the 1980's and we had video tape cleaners. They looked similar to the device in your video but it was for videocassettes, we had one for VHS and one for Beta. The machine had tape guides that pulled the tape out and around a felt covered post. You had to add trifluoroethane to the felt for each cleaning, the felt had to be changed out after five cleanings.

[@nintendolife]

0:53 Tom Nook's branching out.

[@xenosns]

Just noticed!

[@moversti92]

I want that shirt but seems to be available only in hot topic...

[@PandaXs1]

@@moversti92 so? go to hot topic lol

[@justarandomhandlewithnomeaning]

yep XD

[@fabianboris9059]

Wouldn’t the “This man is an actor, he has no friends” line mean that this isn’t Tom? Contrary to popular belief Tom does in fact have friends.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

I paid for KZbin Premium, and yet still got ads. What a rip!

[@leososa6976]

Andrew Barratt Kogo to interesuje?

[@IunahYT]

But you can skip past them or completely cut them away since they are integrated in the video.

[@FroggyMosh]

But you'll get *Premium* ads.

[@IunahYT]

@@FroggyMosh *A D B L O C K*

[@cardboard8073]

Hehe! What a funny joke!

[@ACBMemphis]

With a lot of electronics, you get a "Silica Gel - Do not Eat" packet in the box... I've been saving those and putting them in the cabinet with all my LP's for years.... Not sure it helps or not, but after seeing this video, I will put some into the cassette drawer as well. Thanks Techmoan for alerting us to the cassette mold problem!

[@Kaeltis]

Love the intro, really had the urge to press that "Skip Ad" button

[@AndersEngerJensen]

Yeah, I’ve opted for YT Premium recently and for a split second I was like... dang it, I don’t pay to have those ads here!! 😂😂🤷🏼‍♂️

[@LarryTalbot_1313]

If it wasn't for the fact that's how KZbin make their money (off us actually watching the complete ad) I'd be wearing out a mouse trying to avoid them. But since they help pay for content like this, I force myself to suffer through them! So gag or not, I'm still watching them.

[@walkabout16]

Skip ad just winds the video to near the end LoL

[@ei96byod]

I clicked it even though I could clearly see Techmoan there, so I knew it wasn't real, but I just clicked it on reflex 😆 I'm easily fooled apparently 😄

[@georgeworley6927]

I watch KZbin on my 60 inch TV not my phone or computer and am a premium member so I don't have to see ads so I knew right away that it was a skit. I wonder how many people tried to press the button?

[@andrewscott1253]

I could do with one of those. Like Vinyl, I never gave up on tapes, but over the years many tapes have given up on me developing a white mold. I do not throw them out in the hopes that some day either I will find a way to clean them or maybe build something myself.

[@VideoArchiveGuy]

Interestingly, cleaning data tapes used for backup has been common since the 1980s, with the device scraping off dirt and loose oxide bits with a sharp blade. This was common practice for older 9 track tapes and cleaners continue to be sold for modern LTO tapes such as this one: www.mediaduplicationsystems.com/vclean-p/vc-lto.htm#/

[@mfbfreak]

Wow. That's expensive.

[@Namehack]

@@mfbfreak well for a company its a small price to pay for added longevity and prevention of data loss. Not really for the average consumer.

[@bobblum5973]

Thank you, I was going to mention data tape cleaners! (For once I actually read through the comments _before_ posting a duplicate. 😉)

[@RaymondHng]

I have a nine-track reel of magnetic tape that has a bit of mold appearing at the edges.

[@DesandSam]

Yes, in mid 1980s I worked in a data centre that had 15,000 tapes. The big reel to reels for mainframes. As each tape was being written to or read from, the system would monitor for errors. It would report daily where errors occurred and those tapes were pulled from the library for cleaning. The cleaning machine looked like a reel to reel tape player, but with a cleaning ribbon just like the one in this vid. The tape drives themselves, each about the size of a wardrobe, were cleaned every day. Failure to keep the tapes and the drives clean resulted in a build up of dirt in the machine that would eventually cause the tape to snarl up in the drive (a tape wrap, as it was called) requiring an engineer visit to fix it and lost production time. Who hasn't had a cassette snarl up in a machine? Good tape cleanliness would have helped to avoid that.

[@kawaiigoomy3487]

Lol, KZbin ads are crazy, they're just stock media, robotic voices, and a bad product with unsubstantiated claims. 😅 I loved the first segment, it's so accurate. ❤️

[@apislapis]

Super share Matt. I've posted this on various cassette tape enthusiast forums. If it can remove mould from tapes, this sort of machine may mean that more new old stock becomes available to purchase. You may well make an awful lot of people very happy.

[@WalnutBun]

2:53 the chips visible are a retriggerable monostable multivibrator, a JK flip-flop, and three NAND gates. The *only* potential reason I can think of for their existence is to control the auto-stop mechanism, but I'm not an expert by any means.

[@ChipGuy]

The chips hav datecodes from 1981. All nice discrete logic. Some gates, 2 flip-flops and 2 timers. Back then this was cheaper and less hassle to design. Suitable single chip microcontrollers were probably not even around when this was designed. Today you would find something like a single little 14 pin PIC/AVR etc. in that.

[@Colaholiker]

@@TheDeguello An 8051 would have also been way too big for that. The original 8051 needed quite a bit of extra circuitry around it, (starting with RAM and an EPROM for the executable code...) The highly integrated microcontrollers with a '51 core and integrated RAM and Flash that you can still buy today didn't come to market until much later. I agree to @Chip Guy, today there would likely be a single IC that doesn't need anything but power supply and a decoupling capacitor to do what those ICs did. And probably that one would be bored to death most of the time. ;-) Back in the day that pile of 74 series logic chips was the best way to go, before those were around it would have been a forest of discrete transistors. So that was already a big improvement. Of course, from today's standpoint you'd get all the functionality into a single IC which doesn't need many more pins than one of those that just contain a few logic gates, so this looks like it's overengineered.

[@Colaholiker]

@LueLou Were they mask programmed? If so it would make sense that they were too expensive for something built in limited numbers, but no big deal for a toy that has been produced in huge quantities.

[@ChipGuy]

@@TheDeguello Exactly. In 1981 this novelty MCU would have cost a lot more than those few logic chips together. Plus one would have needed to invest into a development system that would be most likely yet another expensive piece of kit like a CP/M based computer or something special.

[@Spookieham]

Simple logic gates - I spent a lot of time in Uni in the mid 80s learning to draw up Karnaugh Maps and state diagrams so I could design quite complex stuff in discrete logic.

[@ChipGuy]

@@Spookieham Oh yes, the good old times. Nowadays we can use some of that knowledge again in FPGAs, which is fun. I did similar stuff back then. In 1989 I some 74LS273, logic and even a diode array to make a relay array controller. A year later stuff got more complex with display etc. and I had to use a Z80 CPU plus getting a 80286 computer to run the free cross assembler (TASM) on DOS. Nothing you could do in 1981.

[@nwr99nwr99]

Like how you manage to show off the Miele washing machine at 0:27! Lol . Love your videos. Keep up the good work

[@mlippert]

That's my new claim to fame. I own the same washing machine as Techmoan!

[@OzRetrocomp]

0:38 "Slightly problematic name" hahahaha ... if more YT adverts were like this, I'd actually _watch_ them!

[@MarcosColuci]

Last month I was restoring and digitizing some old family tapes with my grandpa playing the accordion... I wish I had one of these in hand! As always, great video!

[@JETJOOBOY]

'Cassette' was one of my favourite Albums. definitely one of 'Tape Cleaners' best early works... Some people say it is a bit repetitive and generic but they are missing the point.. I DO agree they should have done a Vinyl Release..

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

I remember encountering one of these at my local library, I used to borrow a lot of audio cassettes just because I could listen to books while doing other things, long before audiobooks were even a thing. I remember having the exact same thought when seeing the machine, "Why would you ever need to clean a tape?"

[@interwebtubes]

This device brings me back to my days at university, The audio/ visual department had a tape cassette duplicator machine that they would use to make multiple copies of lectures; And I tried to use that machine in order for me to make a copy of one of my consumer pre-recorded band tapes; Boy did the quality of the dupe was really flat; At the time I had no idea about chrome tape formulations; All I knew was I paid a fraction of the costs in order to purchase a blank tape; It sounded terrible in my car; And of course being an university student I was on a very tight budget; So it wasn’t fare that it didn’t sound very good ; You live and you learn; Still an interesting device; Peace out everyone, CHEERS 👍

[@Neffers_UK]

Do you remember the brand of the duplicator?

[@frank234561]

Apparently, this university didn't teach very good English.

[@RustyPetterson]

@@frank234561 I don't usually comment on this type of thing, but that was fucking weird haha.

[@interwebtubes]

frank234561 well I tell you what , It’s definitely very easy to fat-finger on this saltine cracker phone, especially with a houseful of guests chatting away at me; Sad but it’s true, Take it easy buddy and cheers 🍻

[@interwebtubes]

Neffers oh hey buddy, I don’t remember the name of that device, However I recall that it was a greenish color, And for whatever reason I’m thinking that it was called WOLLENSAK ( spelling??; Possibly Rochester New York??;

[@matambale]

The opening ad was the only ad I've ever watched through to its end on KZbin. Only question is who WAS that handsome devil?

[@beamthedeer]

@LagiNaLangAko23 He has no friends.

[@aner_bda]

I grew up in a hot humid country, and I remember more than one of my favourite VHS tapes being ruined due to mould and having to be thrown out. Also meant we had to clean the heads on our player quite frequently. I don't ever remember it happening to an audio cassette tape though.

[@spaced-out-records]

A customer of mine brought A JAPT tape cleaner in for a service a few months ago . Once repaired I took the opportunity to "test" the unit. (Clean all my tapes) :) A great device that makes an audible difference

[@CedricKarlFonk]

Hi Matt. Thank you for this video. Yes i have cleaned a few tapes in the past and the results were astounding but I did it all manually. I had to do it because of.... you said it.... mould. I often bought brand new pre recorded tapes that had mould in them, but they played well after. I wish I came across such a machine, it would have saved me a lot of time.

[@tandy5811]

how did you clean yours?

[@CedricKarlFonk]

@@tandy5811 I cleaned the actual tape, sandwiched between a folded soft cloth dampened with lighter fuel or methylated spirit. You have to do it very carefully and patiently. The feed stays in the cassette and the supply should be stored in a clean bucket so when you wind back the tape manually, it won't get tangled.

[@tandy5811]

@@CedricKarlFonk alrighty thanks

[@SmoothEmJay]

THIS would be a life saver for people collecting old video games that came on cassette and the previous owners had stored them incorrectly for years. Could bring them back to life. Interesting kit for the time though.

[@bookshelffury]

Stuff a cotton swab into a tape deck and hit fast forward?

[@Poolboy001]

Hey Techmoan, just wanna say that your videos have been a more than welcome distraction from all the craziness going on in the world and in my own head. Never lose that enthusiasm.

[@Electrolab1114]

I used to do the electronic servicing for most of the day schools in West Central Indiana in the US. It's amazing how dirty audio, and video tapes can get by people handling them. You may or may not be surprised. What a lot of the facilities did that I worked through, had a very large library of tapes, that they would take out on loan to the schools. And at the time, they were just finishing up having 16 mm films. The main facility that I went through, had two of the videotape cleaners, and one audio tape cleaner. And all of the tapes were run through these machines. Just to keep the performance up, and the chance of sticking to a head to a minimum. However, I would get equipment from the schools, this somebody put their own tapes in, and stuck them firmly to the Head, requiring complete disassembly sometimes. Have fun!

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

Something like this would be really handy, though it's hard enough finding a good tape deck now let alone a deck to clean your tapes.

[@FloridaMan69.]

fart on me please

[@Colt45hatchback]

This would have been handy for the tapes in dad's work vehicle, 5 Neil diamond tapes jammed in the pocket above the ashtray, covered in dust from dirt roads and cigarette ash where he had partially missed the ashtray at times, could always clean the head in the stereo, but never the tape, he used to just record a new one every so often

[@GameHammerCG]

Any heavy smoker environment would likely find this useful, since nicotine is sticky and would capture dirt.

[@pliedtka]

Don't tell me. After the man died everything was covered in brown sticky crap. It took a lot of alcohol, rugs and Q tips to clean it. I even dismounted the boards from the chassis to give them a bath since the residue and the smell was also coming from inside the equipment.

[@deusexaethera]

@@pliedtka: When I smoked, I always smoked outside. Didn't matter if it was hot and humid or below freezing. I always smoked outside. I might have been an addict, but that doesn't mean I wanted everything I owned to be covered with a sticky brown film.

[@deusexaethera]

@@GoogleDoesEvil: I was in my 20s and I biked a lot, so my lungs cleaned up pretty well. Throat doc sees no evidence of smoke damage at this point. I admit I eventually started using a vaporizer though, because my mental health deteriorated after I quit smoking. There is no pharmaceutical antidepressant that acts in 30 seconds, and makes me feel like things will be okay after all, the way nicotine can. I've tried pretty much all of them at this point, none of them quite meet my need for a fast-acting short-term mood adjustment when my brain gets off-balance.

[@phreak761]

@@deusexaethera Cocaine.

[@deusexaethera]

@@phreak761: Nope. Not the same. Too energizing.

[@eggman09]

I work in digitization at a library and have come the mold issue on open reel tapes. To clean them, I saved a junk reel to reel deck (bad heads, good motor) to preform this exact procedure. I bypass the heads, trick the auto-shut off level to stay "on" and let the tape spool from one side to another in FF. I lightly touch the tape with a cleaning cloth as it passes by, it's worked well even in extreme cases. I wonder if they made a machine like this for open reel tapes? Great find!

[@Tiger351]

Interesting to see a product like this was created and where, I know that some late high end VCR's from Japan (mostly Sony brand) had an integral tape cleaner unit built into them.

[@snapsnappist4529]

Funnily enough, this is something that would be of use to me. I got into picking up old cassette albums online and from charity shops a few years back (second-hand vinyl has shot up in price in recent years). Second-hand tapes are always a bit of a gamble, but most of them have been fine, but it depends on the type of tape. Ferric oxide albums issued by Warner and associated labels are generally great but tapes from the Polydor/A&M/Mercury labels were often made on chrome tapes, and these have proven to be less robust than ferric ones. I've lost count of the number of times that I've played an old chrome tape that ended up depositing a load of white crap on the head and capstans. Probably not mould, but some kind of lubricant that has broken down. A machine like this would be an ideal solution. As always, great video. Cheers!

[@walterheukels]

I've learned from LockPickingLawyer that they make special tools to remove those clips easily. Could be worth a look if you run into them often.

[@Techmoan]

Perhaps I should look into it.

[@russellcannon9194]

Back in the day, I used a device to clean 9-track tapes. It had a cylinder of scraping blades that spun around while the tape was dragged across it. A full size reel took about three or four minutes to "clean". Cheers, Russ

[@oldnewstock]

This would be very useful for oxide shedding tape, particularly BASF formulations.

[@real_arbuckle]

3:49 The trick with e-clips is to use a magnet. Press the e-clip towards the magnet and when it releases like a spring the magnet is there to catch.

[@TheHitmanAgent]

I can always count on Techmoan to present an old, fascinating gadget we never heard about. Please, keep it up! 👍👍👍

[@mdempst]

I worked in a library reference department when I was younger... We had a tape cleaner that would do the same but for VHS tapes. I wish I had one now as some of my old tapes mold on them.

[@meechmushrooms]

Just got the notification for this at 5:38 AM EDT... yes I'm still awake. Yes I just watched an entire video about cleaning cassette tapes. At 5:38 AM. That's the REAL #TechmoanEffect.

[@stuartleslie6568]

Hi Matt, 45 years young Just, Many years in IT Support, and you show some nice tech I never had as a kid, keeping us entertained, informed, and laughing with your humour. Loved this one, yep mould on a tape, never had it, but the video saw last night about Digital audio on VHS tape where cassette inserted upside down and showing the pic of the scope type pic on a screen showing audio moving yep that would have been interesting to see that take off, keep going my friend, looking forward to the next video....me personally I found VHS Hifi not too bad for recording back in day, but this was somethig else...

[@BenMclean007]

Love the animal crossing shirt!

[@Claro1993]

Yep, the Nook Inc. Aloha shirt

[@SteveMallison]

Many years ago in the TV broadcast industry we used 2 inch wide videotape. The tape was the weakest link, and sometimes would shed some of its oxide coating which would clog the video heads with disastrous results. If it happened during recording you only found out about it when you attempted to replay. Tape was expensive and was reused when possible. We had a cleaning machine, "Recortec", which was supposed to remove any dirt and loose particles. Some cynic christened it "Wreckatape." This is the first time I've seen one for audio cassettes. I'm always learning something on Techmoan.

[@kushith]

Mold on tape is real in Asia. I once tried to make a DIY tape cleaner by attaching alcohol soaked cotton to a VHS player. It worked great except the plastic cogs in the player mechanism disintegrated after a few uses.

[@Gab_Rezende]

Where I live we had a lot of problems with dirty on VHS tapes, audio tapes I don't remember. I was surprised to learn that it was not obvious to need a cleaner everywhere.

[@retropixelshow]

How often can you "clean" your tapes with a device like this before the magnetic coating is scraped off?

[@00Skyfox]

Considering that cleaner tape looked very similar to the wiping tissue inside floppy disks, and those things rub nonstop as long as the disk is spinning, maybe it has no effect on the magnetic coating.

[@jonglass]

I used to work for a company that rented video tapes in vast quantities. We had two devices that would rewind the VHS tapes, check them for dropouts and also clean them for good measure. And yes, we got back some very mucky (disgusting) video tapes, and mold was also an issue. So, while I've never heard of a cleaner for audio tape, I'm not surprised. :-)

[@wyattkane]

"Slightly problematic name..." I can't stop laughing.

[@ZTK-RC]

Thank you for this gift of a video, I have rewatched the intro half a dozen times now and I love it.

[@alextirrellRI]

1:01 - Nook Inc. Aloha shirt?

[@bricks312100]

These are very much needed if your looking to buy used tapes.

[@ablacknambercat]

Back in the '80's this kind of thing was common for video. I had one when I had a video store and we ran the tapes through it mostly for the rewind function but if you suspected dirt then a cleaning fluid was added and 'clean' pressed.

[@PanduPoluan]

Aaaah yes, I remember I had one!

[@ernievault]

I've been recording on whatever medium was popular since the 60's. I have a huge stack of reel to reel tapes and cassette tapes from my gigs, friend's gigs and my little project studio. When I decided to transfer the cassettes to digital media I found I was constantly cleaning the tape heads. The main problem was not mold but oxide flaking off. It doesn't take much build up on the heads to kill the highs so it's possible for a C-90 transfer to start out OK and be "highless" by the end of one side. I've considered doing a real time "dry run" of the tapes followed by a head cleaning but that would take forever. This unit would be perfect as a way quickly prepping cassette tapes for transfer. BTW: The logic board is probably a state machine. The chips are 7400 - TTL quad two input NAND gates which are probably configured as gates, inverters and flip-flops. These days a manufacturer would use a single, less that $1 PIC or equivalent micro-computer.

[@pointblank2890]

Our man Matt really flexing on us with that Nook Inc shirt and glorious golden hair

[@cp665533]

This would be invaluable for salvaging programmes from old computer cassette that I’ve seen in some states over the years, especially when not rewound and left for years in a box. The exposed area then gets caked in dust and nasties usually meaning the program is lost, sometimes forever if it’s an MIA title.

[@MagikGimp]

"Thanks for washing." is how I heard that outro.

[@MagikGimp]

@@beehivewatchdogroughcut3058 No shit. Um... Thanks for clarifying that?

[@MagikGimp]

@@beehivewatchdogroughcut3058 You talk in a very literal way so I have to assume you're autistic or something. Coincidentally I am as well but don't have trouble with language in the same way (I'm just poor at writing!) To clarify- I did actually hear it as I say I did at the time but of course that's not how it actually is in the video. Still, it fits with the subject which is why I felt it was funny enough to comment on it; and 26 other people agree with me. The expression "no shit" is a shortened form of "no shit, Sherlock" or "you're stating the obvious there, genius". I hope that clears things up for you.

[@MagikGimp]

@DJ TRIX From what? The comments. They never were...

[@alparslanesmer4251]

I needed something like that decades ago. I was studying abroad and had been away for a few years. When I went back home in the early 1990s I checked out my old cassette tapes I bought during high school, but I think there was plenty of moisture buildup on them. When I put them on the deck, the sound got distorted a few seconds into playing. I checked the tape head and there was a visible black residue on it. I really thought about the need of such a gadget to be honest, but throwing the cassettes out looked a lot cheaper option then, as I started to collect CDs.Those devices - although I was not aware as if they have ever existed - were luxury items like tape rewinders or video cassette rewinders.

[@Claro1993]

I’m more surprised when he wore a Nook Inc. Aloha Shirt, than the fake ad at the beginning.

[@MrZenerTech]

I've wondered about this and desperately wished for something like this for decades now. My logic was this. If a tape deck parts get dirty, i.e. heads, capstan, pinch roller, etc.. Then what's to stop that dirt from transferring back to a tape? Particularly if the tape mechanisms has been exposed to dusty or dirty environments. Likewise, one may want to use or test a tape deck that is obviously (or reasonably expected) to be dirty. Similarly, I've seen tapes not well taken care of; that clearly had dust or dirt accumulated on them. I firmly believe many of us subscribers would -very- much like to see some samples of before and after cleaning of tapes. For known dirty, clean, moderately, & very worn tapes. I think it would be relevant to perform the following examinations of pre and post cleaned tapes: Magnified optical views of the tape. Subjective audio playback experience. Spectrum analysis. Artificial/unwanted noise, i.e. hiss, crackle, etc. Also, an examination of signal losses, dropouts, changes in gain, and so forth would be of interest as well. Regarding your service work on the unit in this video; or any tape mechanism... I always run tape mechanisms by hand (power off) to see which parts are engaging, slipping, etc. As well as how well they perform there intended function. This will tell you, for example, right away if a belt is slipping or not, and by how much. Following this protocol will nearly always prevent problems like you demonstrated; "fixing" (necessarily or not) some parts, reassemble, then having to disassemble again because you missed something. Many Thanks for your hard work, dedication to your craft, awesome content and professional style. --- and sense of humor too! ;~}

[@ChipGuy]

Learned some english today: "E-clip". I never knew that. Awesome video!

[@ZGryphon]

I'm having a flash of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, since I first consciously noticed that word, like, yesterday or the day before, on a Forgotten Weapons video.

[@kfalxa]

Yes, E clip or C clip after their shape. I worked repairing car stereos while I was in college (late 70's) and my boss called them "Jesus Clips" because most of the time you popped them off, they went flying (as Mat said) and then you yelled out "Jesus" because you now had to search all over the place for it. 😁

[@shawbros]

I get irritated when I hear someone calling an E-clip a C-clip.

[@AaronSmart.online]

I assumed they were circlips but I'm wrong

[@QoraxAudio]

@@kfalxa I call them circlips or Seegerring (inventor was named Seeger).

[@calebbell5018]

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS OF 2020

[@dacrunch]

Our local library growing up had a similar device to this they used to clean VHS tapes.

[@MisterLettuce]

I've had some pretty rare tapes that were mucked up from flooding years ago and a device like this would have been an absolute godsend to restore them. I'll need to see if I can someday get my hands on one of these.

[@veeamazingtv3994]

0:53 you've got a Tom Nook shirt from Animal Crossing!

[@Olltymer]

Had to pause the vid to say that the intro was pure genius. You, sir, are funny!

[@leon_mnl]

and what about the audio improvement, would have loved some comparing audio samples,does the sound quality also inprove?

[@gavsmith1980]

Id be worried that it actually degrades the audio.

[@uselessDM]

@@gavsmith1980 I was thinking that, to me it seems more likely it might scratch the tape if you catch an actual piece of dirt and drag it over the whole tape.

[@leon_mnl]

gavsmith1980 well,as the tape is ‘dragged’ across the cleaner , it basically does the same as a tape head , ussely you need/use some type of fluid but as the tape contains a metallic layer you probably don’t , but i was wondering more about the electronics, if they magnitize or de-magnatize (like de-gauze a old crt screen) witch would also make no sense as tapes use magnetism to store music

[@darinb.3273]

To be honest a dirty tape would degrade the sound very quickly depending on what type of dirt the tape had such as shed syndrome... thank goodness not many cassette tapes had that problem ... I suppose some would notice a degraded sound if too much shed syndrome occurred anyway just my two cents about that

[@leon_mnl]

Darin B. shed syndrome isn’t a dirt it is a defect of the substance that binds the metal oxide to the plastic tape,but that being said,there are types of dirt that effect these binders,but that is getting even more technical , i was just wandering about the sound quality because i still have a lot of tapes and if it was worth the time and effort to search for one

[@stephena4113]

I loved this video! Extremely informative as well. Didn’t know about the humidity levels affecting tape in other countries as compared to others. Makes perfect sense. You the man!

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

When the tape cleaning tape runs to the end, what do you do? Do you get another one, or is there a way to clean the tape cleaning tape. Tape.

[@firesurfer]

It's like underwear, when it gets dirty, you turn it inside out.

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

@@firesurfer That's only going to buy you another week...

[@firesurfer]

@@paulmurgatroyd6372 I don't listen to that much on cassette. :)

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

@@firesurfer I thought we were talking about underwear...

[@firesurfer]

@@paulmurgatroyd6372 Really? Gee, I don't know where you got that impression. :)

[@magicchord]

When I worked at a broadcast TV station back in the 1970s/80s we had a large tape cleaner for reels of 2-inch-wide video tape. It ran the tape over a spool of abrasive material similarly to your device. Tape of that type being expensive, we used VTR tapes over and over, and cleaning the loose oxide and dust off the tape reduced the number of glitches we got on playback.

[@austfox2170]

0:52 Good to see Techmoan’s son helping dad with his videos...

[@CoryHatfield]

I would love to have one of these. I find a lot of good tapes that are extremely dusty inside from sitting beside roads at flea markets for years. You can rig up a similar DIY cleaner using some old tape deck parts and a drill.

[@revolutronic]

i find myself rarely laughing out loud these days. so thanks a lot for that first minute!!! and as always never heard about a tape cleaner

[@skrattzerat5831]

I remember RadioShack selling both VHS/and tape cleaning kits less than a decade ago

[@GrandDawggy]

Anyone remember "hairy" CDs that where ment to clean the laser in the drive?

[@rjgscotland]

I still have a "hairy" CD from the 90s. I even ripped it and posted it on KZbin to preserve the absolute masterpiece of a soundtrack.. kzbin.info/www/bejne/poe1emunqZmJaqM

[@AaronSmart.online]

@@rjgscotland amazing stuff. I used to have a cleaning disc that just had some competent classical music on it

[@MarkRyanSchulz]

@@AaronSmart.online My CD cleaner had "Four Seasons - Spring" on it.

[@steviebboy69]

@@AaronSmart.online I had or have one somewhere, it played a piece i cant remember maybe Vivaldi? and it had a small brush the width of the laser lens.. at the end it said enjoy clearer sound or something like that. Oh yes I see a comment below "Four Seasons - Spring" that is the one. Where it is I have no idea.

[@frankschneider6156]

@randy s you mean better smear all the smud everywhere

[@SolitaryWolf]

That was amazing. At first I thought you were going to talk about tape head cleaners. I never liked tape head cleaners versus just using a Q-tip and alcohol. But this was beyond expectations. Thank you.

[@lohs117]

What a coincidence, matt! I was just watching this, and I got an ad for it for the EXACT SAME THING, what are the chances? The bloke in the vid wasn't very persuasive though, bit of a frump, really

[@Techmoan]

I keep getting that one too - that and the earwax one.

[@mightybeanstick9872]

@@Techmoan Eh? Pardon?

[@akimshelkov]

@@mightybeanstick9872 You've heard the man

[@mikeb3527]

@@Techmoan The ad that freaks me out is when various toothless people appear on screen and put in their mouths what look like plastic very white teeth. Spooky

[@alexatkin]

@@Techmoan So sick of the earwax one, it inevitably shows up every single time I'm watching something while eating.

[@durrcodurr]

Another reason might be that the read/write heads can scrape off particles from the tape, which then get lodged inside the tape or on the read/write head. Cleaning just the read/write heads was quite common in those days, usually with a q-tip and isopropyl alcohol, but there also were special cleaning tapes, that were wet with some kind of alcoholic solution. I've seen the kind of tape cleaning devices that you reviewed before, but I can't recall how much they cost, probably must've seen it in some kind of magazine back in the day. Since I was a kid or teen, it would've been out of my reach anyways. But another good thing the device does, besides actually cleaning, is winding the tape, which puts the tape back in order. A friend of mine told me a trick he used on his video tapes, and it worked wonders for audio tapes as well: Wind the tape once completely in every direction, from end to end, before using it. After I did this, I never had a tape "eaten" again by an audio or video cassette player/recorder.

[@Netm8kr]

I’d luv to see you do a video on cassette duplicators. There is still quite a community of cassette users and musicians, that sell their projects via cassettes. This use of duplicators would be considered “pro dub”, versus run time copies. Just an idea. Absolutely, LOVE YOUR WORK. Peace...Netm8kr ✌🏾👍🏾 #cassetteculture

[@Asterra2]

I'm happy you found a way to express your dry sense of humor again. Really the biggest reason why I subscribed. But the commercial at the beginning mostly reminded me of how much I miss the puppets.

[@MobiusVideo]

I tried using this machine on a Notorious BIG album and it didn’t flipping work - still loads of naughty words. Not sure what’s wrong with it. Maybe the drive belt has gone. 🤔

[@JT-lq4yd]

I am pretty sure he/she is joking.

[@MobiusVideo]

Samuel Fellows Um...don’t want to be rude, but my comment was a joke.

[@mishmashmedley]

@@samuelfellows6923 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@politesociety]

I enjoy coming across an edited comment thread like this and letting my imagination run wild. Thanks for your hard work, everyone.

[@notanimposter]

I can definitely see this being useful in a machine shop for example where there's metal dust and oil floating around sticking to the tapes for the computers that run the machines.

[@JaquesBobè]

Ah gods, what have you done?! Now get ready for new “audiophile-grade” tape cleaners to hit the market, with a low, low starting price of $1000

[@KanalFrump]

not interested unless it also gives a good scrubbing to my ferromagnetic tape crystals.

[@XANApwns]

You’re not wrong. I don’t know if this is the “Techmoan effect” again or not but there is a single JT-1000 on eBay right now and he’s asking $1000 Canadian for it

[@therealpbristow]

@@XANApwns =:oD

[@danthebikeguy447]

@@KanalFrump You know just as well as the rest of us that tape crystals can only be massaged back into alignment by placing them in the centre of Stonehenge during the Summer Solstice and joining the Wiccans for a good old chant.

[@nelsonglover3963]

Only if it's gold plated to match all my optical cables

[@BogoEN]

Just noticed something after coming back to watch this again once I discovered some moldy tapes in my basement; the font on your Japanese cassette with the mold uses the same exact font as the cleaner itself... which is from Japan 🧐... coincidence?

[@erbro]

"I timed it." LOL Neat watch!

[@FluxCondenser]

Never ceases to amaze me all the crazy and wonderful devices you find. Well done!