The Sinclair QL Forum

I bodged this up today. All it does it spin a cartridge at the normal 5v speed, but without the head in place so there is access to the moving tape. My thought was that some iffy carts (that dump with non recoverable bad sectors) may have mould or other contaminates on the tape and that I might be able to clean it off by spinning them past a cotton bud dampened with a solvent/cleaning fluid.

It may do more harm than good because it may adversely affect the binder and/or the lubrication but if it helps liven the tape up for just one error free dump it'll be worth it! For video and audio tape, isopropanol seems to be good at removing mould.

Any other suggestions for the solvent/liquid? I've also read that some use white vinegar. I will obviously experiment with non important carts.

This article from 1965 suggests „Spiritus“, so I guess your IPA is a good option (it‘s my standard go-to option for everything anyway Some say a 70:30 mix with water improves the cleaning effect). http://www.magnetbandmuseum.info/pflege ... -1965.html

mk79 wrote:This article from 1965 suggests „Spiritus“, so I guess your IPA is a good option (it‘s my standard go-to option for everything anyway Some say a 70:30 mix with water improves the cleaning effect). http://www.magnetbandmuseum.info/pflege ... -1965.html

I use isopropanol for everything too these days, including regular wipes of the drive heads. I may well mix it 70/30 though, it'll make it go further and we have excellent quality tap water hier im Erzgebirge .

But I'm going a step further here, I intend to clean the actual tape. I had a cart that would not dir and would not format. Whizzed it round a few times with cotton bud pressure and IPA and now, well, it still won't format or dir! I did discover though that the rubber roller on my 'whizz rig' wasn't pulling the tape around very well and have just replaced that.

Chr$ wrote:But I'm going a step further here, I intend to clean the actual tape.

Yes, I understood and that is what the article is talking about later on. Not too easy finding articles about actual tape cleaning

mk79 wrote:

Chr$ wrote:But I'm going a step further here, I intend to clean the actual tape.

Yes, I understood and that is what the article is talking about later on. Not too easy finding articles about actual tape cleaning

Oh yes, so it does, sorry. I also have some Ethanol here so will try that too.