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<DIV>Allan,</DIV>
<DIV>Long time, no speak! Good to hear your e-voice. </DIV>
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<DIV>I always had mixed feelings about Recortec, but at the time we bought it it was the only commercial solution available. The "reverse cheese grater" always made me nervous, but not as nervous as a straight single blade. I liked the idea of all of the guide surfaces being rolling, because every stationary surface can pickup oxide and binder residue and scour the tape like sandpaper. On any cleaner, every stationary surface should be cleaned before each pass. Our machine had two rolls of pellon on tiny clockwork motors that slowly advanced the roll against both sides of the tape.</DIV>
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<DIV>The autoreverse mechanism was an interesting concept, but poorly executed. Ours never worked right until we unscrewed one corner of one electric eye and tilted it about 15 degrees. It obviously put a lot of stress on the motors and brakes, particularly with a 96 minute reel. I also feel that the Recortec moved the tape too fast. If I were designing a cleaner from the ground up, I would limit it to no more than 60 fps. The other issue I had was that the vacuum chamber needed to be easier to clean. Oxide and binder residue would get into the corners and were almost impossible to clean.</DIV>
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<DIV><BR><BR>>>>on 7/29/2008 Allan McConnell wrote<BR>Steve, <BR>I'm anxious to read the responses to your question about cleaning videotapes. Here in the NAVCC, National Audio Video Conservation Center, we are hoping to resume transferring 2" quad tapes in the very near future. I never liked, and do not approve of, those older harsh methods for cleaning quad tapes. Sure would like to find a more suitable solution to the problem. And in addition to the dirty tapes was the problem of migrating glu and adhesive from inside the tape library care boxes as the foam liners decomposed! AM<BR></DIV>
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<DIV>Steve Greene<BR>Archivist<BR>Nixon Presidential Library and Museum<BR>(301) 837-1772</DIV></BODY></HTML>