Quit eatin' everybody's tapes!
July 3, 2006 9:39 PM   Subscribe

How do you fix a tape player that 'eats' tapes?

Eats meaning it unravels the tape from the cassette. I have an old Portastudio that I'd like to give to a friend, but it eats tapes instead of reading them. ;( I'm of the CD generation, so I dont know much about this problem... Is there a particular piece that is usually to blame? a doo-dad that needs to be bent? a part that can be ordered/replaced? thanks!
posted by Satapher to Technology (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Take a q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol and gently clean all of the spinny parts (wheel, spindle, etc). I usually do it while the motor is engaged so as to ensure all gunk is cleaned off.

It could also be that your tape is gunked up. I've cleaned dirty tapes using the same method as above.
posted by zerokey at 10:03 PM on July 3, 2006


Er..by spinny parts, I mean the spinny parts at the bottom of the tape, not the spinny gears in the center.
posted by zerokey at 10:12 PM on July 3, 2006


Clean the pinch/capstan rollers.
posted by majick at 11:19 PM on July 3, 2006


Check that spindles are spinning. Maybe the back spindle is pushing tape forward, but the front spindle is not taking up the slack, in which case you prolly need a belt.
posted by wsg at 12:59 AM on July 4, 2006


Response by poster: thank you guys!
posted by Satapher at 10:59 AM on September 5, 2006


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