The flatiron test

Today, I ironed out Frank's "wrinkles" and the thought hit me to do a
test on the demagnification effects of using an energized electric
flatiron to do this job. I always heat the iron up to 225°, then
unplug it just before I hit the tape...something I learned when
working with damaged ¼" and ½" masters back when I did studio work.
But, I'd never really considered what really would happen IF I left
the power on, and I know this effect would vary from iron to iron,
depending on how their nichrome resistances are laid out.

I took one of my many "garbage" carts (they keep piling up...so many
are just trash), bulked it, and ran off some 10 KHz tone 10 dB down on
2 tracks and some 1 KHz on the other two. Then, I ran it back and
watched my monitor VUs on the patch panel (better/easier to view than
the little ones on the deck) for obvious dropouts. Of course, the 8
track format is riddled with dropouts when looking at high frequency
steady state tone, but these were fairly consistant and there was no
indication that tone would simply disappear for any length of time.

After verifying that the test tape was good (reasonably, anyway) I
popped it open and selected a segment to "iron" right after the splice
with the iron's elements off, then spun forward a few feet, and ironed
it again with the iron on. Reassemble and pop in the deck to check.
Voila, I was right! In the case of using this iron, anyway, ironing
the backing with the iron's elements energized acted just like a weak
bulk eraser, knocking the 10 KHz tone down almost 30 dB, while the 1
KHz was down around 5 dB. One would expect this to be about the same
thing as passing the tape past a badly magnetized head, and I've
gotten quite a few cartridges (and cassettes, really) with this exact
problem. However, the segment ironed with the elements off ALSO
exhibited some loss, but not much...about 3 dB at 10 KHz, nothing at 1
KHz. Of course, I NEVER iron on the oxide side, since that's not
what's crinkled...the backing is.

What this shows is that the heat of an iron at 225° is enough to
change the magnetism of the oxide particles alone, even without the
exposure to the field generated by the iron's elements. Confirmation
was to get a magnetometer near the iron while it was both on and off;
there was no residual magnetism with the iron off (of course not;
aluminum face on this one) but tripping the thermostat on pegged the
needle, even at a distance.

Years ago, I was taught that ironing was a "last resort" (which it is)
when trying to use a ruined master because of denigration of the top
end, and this simple test proved it's true. Thus, ANY time you iron a
tape, power on or off, you're going to lose a LITTLE bit of the top
end, although at 3 dB in that range, it's barely noticeable to the
human ear. The important thing is the important information around 1
KHz is perserved well enough.

Anyway, I popped the "flattened" Frank Sinatra cart into the 'Sak and
let it play the effected area. It went from the usual garble and
jumble or the usual kind of jam kinks you find in an 8 track to just
sounding as if the drummer missed a cymbal hit for one
beat...certainly nothing to worry about on a lousy media like 8 track!
What's interesting is that I also noticed the ever-present tape hiss
declined just perceptably in the ironed potion, showing that they were
using a pretty noisy tape somewhere in the duplication chain.

So remember...heat up to 225° (water should just start boiling pretty
fast when you spray the iron with water), shut the power off, and iron
immediately. These tests show removal of power is pretty much a
necessity, if you want to preserve whatever top end's there.

dB

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:59:47 -0800, DeserTBoB
wrote:

Today, I ironed out Frank's "wrinkles" and the thought hit me to do a
test on the demagnification snip

LOL! Obviously, this should be "demagnetization", but the spell
checker ate it! I also caught "denigration" for "denegration."
Damned spell checkers!

dB

DeserTBoB wrote:
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:59:47 -0800, DeserTBoB
wrote:

Today, I ironed out Frank's "wrinkles" and the thought hit me to do
a
test on the demagnification snip

LOL! Obviously, this should be "demagnetization", but the spell
checker ate it! I also caught "denigration" for "denegration."
Damned spell checkers!

dB


yo, Dad, WTF are you trying to kid with that "studio work" bs story ?
everyone knows your way outclassed here and just doing what trippin'
told ya to do, to get wrinkles out of tapes. Your really making an ass
out of yourself now, stop it, your boyfriend is getting embarassed and
the whole family is mad at you now. nothing spectacular with ironing
wrinkles out of tape, why start a long boring thread over it, then
answer yourself ? i'm so embarassed your pathetic, you need to go to a
rehab for people addicted to Foolsnet.

BOB SCARBOROUGH, JR. wrote:


DeserTBoB wrote:
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:59:47 -0800, DeserTBoB
wrote:

Today, I ironed out Frank's "wrinkles" and the thought hit me to do
a
test on the demagnification snip

LOL! Obviously, this should be "demagnetization", but the spell
checker ate it! I also caught "denigration" for "denegration."
Damned spell checkers!

dB


yo, Dad, WTF are you trying to kid with that "studio work" bs story ?
everyone knows your way outclassed here and just doing what trippin'
told ya to do, to get wrinkles out of tapes. Your really making an ass
out of yourself now, stop it, your boyfriend is getting embarassed and
the whole family is mad at you now. nothing spectacular with ironing
wrinkles out of tape, why start a long boring thread over it, then
answer yourself ? i'm so embarassed your pathetic, you need to go to a
rehab for people addicted to Foolsnet.

--
i have an 8 track mind

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:50:02 -0500, 8 tracker from hell
wrote:

yo, Dad, WTF are you trying to kid with that "studio work" bs story? snip

LMAO! Noodles...keep changing ISPs. My IP collection is growing.

i'm so embarassed your pathetic, you need to go to a
rehab for people addicted to Foolsnet. snip

Look who's talking! LOLOL Go douche yourself, you wacked out wet bag
of ****.

dB

DeserTBoB wrote:
On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:50:02 -0500, 8 tracker from hell

wrote:

yo, Dad, WTF are you trying to kid with that "studio work" bs
story? snip

LMAO! Noodles...keep changing ISPs. My IP collection is growing.

i'm so embarassed your pathetic, you need to go to a
rehab for people addicted to Foolsnet. snip

Look who's talking! LOLOL Go douche yourself, you wacked out wet
bag
of ****.

dB


temper temper, Daddy,

I'm not "changing" ISP's.

It's a proxy server, every post comes from a different IP
automatically.

I'm really trumping your "Foolsnet" Newsreader software- this is
hilarious...

So much for daddy's 'puter wizardry...just like his cart skills, they
are nil, and his listening skills, he's deaf

"ROTFLMAO" !!

but I still love you dad, and the foreign scumbag too...

ject: The flatiron test
From: "DesperateBob Jr."
Date: 1/1/2005 7:02 AM US Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: . com


DeserTBoB wrote:
On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:50:02 -0500, 8 tracker from hell

wrote:

yo, Dad, WTF are you trying to kid with that "studio work" bs
story? snip

LMAO! Noodles...keep changing ISPs. My IP collection is growing.

i'm so embarassed your pathetic, you need to go to a
rehab for people addicted to Foolsnet. snip

Look who's talking! LOLOL Go douche yourself, you wacked out wet
bag
of ****.

dB


temper temper, Daddy,

I'm not "changing" ISP's.

It's a proxy server, every post comes from a different IP
automatically.

I'm really trumping your "Foolsnet" Newsreader software- this is
hilarious...

So much for daddy's 'puter wizardry...just like his cart skills, they
are nil, and his listening skills, he's deaf

"ROTFLMAO" !!

but I still love you dad, and the foreign scumbag too...

Hahahahahahaha


oh man, this is funny sometimes

On 14 Jan 2005 23:14:49 GMT, (Fx199) wrote:

Hahahahahahaha


oh man, this is funny sometimes snip

Yes...Noodles is "funny peculiar."

dB

What usually happens if your fingers get in contact with the tape? Does
the tape quality really degrade significantly, and could it be
prevented by wearing latex gloves?

On 16 Jan 2005 05:25:17 -0800, "Jonny the 8-Tracker!"
wrote:

What usually happens if your fingers get in contact with the tape? Does
the tape quality really degrade significantly, and could it be
prevented by wearing latex gloves? snip

Fingerprints on tape is generally a no-no, since the finger oils
permeate the oxide. Depending on the formulation, you can get either
nothing, or the oxide will start to shed precipitously in that area.
In any event, the skin oil will help gum things up.

Latex gloves sounds good, but the problem with them is that most have
talc on them to facilitate putting them on. I use white cotton
"inspection" gloves to handle tape, and it works well enough. If you
can find talc-less vinyl gloves that fit well, those work even better.

Some folks think it's OK to handle the tape with fingers and then just
clean it all off with isopropynol...WRONG! Use of isopropynol strips
the whale oil lubricant from the oxide, and also softens and strips
the graphite lubrication backing on cartridge tapes. The only place I
use isopropynol on tape is where I'm doing a splice on cart tape,
since getting rid of some of the graphite and whale oil helps to
better secure the splicing tape and foil. Also, most people don't
take the time to get 96% isopropyl alcohol and try to use "rubbing
alcohol" as found at most any pharamcy or drug store. Another no-no.
70% rubbing alcohol contains 30% water by volume and has about 3%
glycerine in it...both bad things for tape and tape heads! Ask your
drug store or pharmacy for 96% isopropyl alcohol. Most carry it, I
know Sav-On does out on the floor, but some Rite-Aids do and others
don't. Usually the former Thrifty Drug Stores that Rite-Aid took over
(and destroyed) on the West Coast carry 96%, but you have to ask for
it at the pharmacy counter, since they have to use it to mix certain
prescriptions.

Another caveat: don't use isopropynol to clean an old foil splice.
The alcohol will dissolve the adhesive and it'll probably break on the
first play or shortly thereafter. If a foil splice looks physically
good but is covered with oxide and gunk, use a pencil eraser to clean
the foil itself and wipe it with a clean paper wiper. If there's
evidence that the foil's starting to peel, it's time for a new splice,
anyway.

dB