Hi all,
Well, in the past two years of this hobby I think I have done everything one can do to some Q8's, including taking a tape out completely and rewinding it back. I did use a horizontal open reel-to-reel deck, empty reels, pencils and plastic tools and I do wear gloves whenever I need to touch a tape or re-splice it etc.
One thing I have not yet solved, is that a few Q8-tapes I have (The Sly & family Stone Greatest hits and Pink Floyd's WYWH for instance) have an annoying amount of flutter and wow. It occasionally gets a bit better and sometimes really good, if I slightly wiggle the cartridge, give it some push and wedge it more tightly against the deck (Akai CR-80D SS) , but then also the pressure may be too much and the tape speed slows down a bit, which is another nuisance. Although if I make a digital copy, changing the playback speed is of course a piece of cake. but getting rid of wow and flutter is not!
I am pretty sure it is because the pressure rollers are out of true, they are worn or damaged.
These two cases (pun intended) are EPIC Q8 EAQ 30325 from ca.1972 and Columbia Q8 tape cartridge CAQ 33453 from 1975.
Both look fine and have their cardboard covers and lables, the Sly tape was flipped and is bit tight, but the PF runs fine, except that it has this constant wow and flutter.
I know some of you folks in the US have a vast amount of stereo cartridges you can just use for spares etc. but over here, there are none. And if we find some, even though they would be useless and the contents would be available anywhere anyways (regular stereo mixes on CD and iTunes, Spotify, etc.) people would still consider them "exotic" and "vintage" or even "antique" which equals money.
So can anyone give advice on the pressure rollers?
Are there spare ones available somewhere?
Can they be restored?
I have noticed most are hard plastic, some had a chrome like coating (peeling off), most are uncoated plastic, a few are like conventional pressure rollers in tape decks, plastic covered with rubber. So I guess the rubber could be replaced if it's worn and hard, right?
I can get tape deck pressure rollers in various sizes and I think from nylon I could make plastic rollers with a lathe, but if spares could just be bought from somewhere that would of course be a whole lot easier.
Still any good advice regarding how the rollers could be restored or replaced would be appreciated.
Cheers!