Friday, May 6, 2016

Save your VCR with these fine products



Save your VCR with these fine products




I’m going to combine these three products together in one review because I used them together to repair 3 VCR’s in our home. Yea we still use them mostly for old home movies which I’m in the process of converting to DVD. I needed the best quality for the computer transfer so I picked our best VCR and it wouldn’t play any tape that was viewable, squiggly lines and weird patterns. I went to Amazon and found 3 products I thought would do the job. First up is the VCR head cleaner. You must use the proper chemicals, substances like isopropyl alcohol leave a residue or destroy the delicate heads. The capstan and pinch roller is the culprit when VCR’s or tape decks eat tapes in my experience. (Refer to the diagram picture) I first used a new swab with the head cleaner (foam tipped cotton leaves fibers and can damage heads) to delicately clean the mechanical components of tape residue.  A new swab was used to scrub residue from the audio and erase headsThis is all the metal and nylon coated bearings in the tape path, I used the same swab on the capstan and pinch roller, these required vigorous scrubbing as there was a lot of residue. I used a new swab with the rubber treatment chemical, to coat the roller several times. Over a few minutes, the rubber looked brand new and wasn’t tacky but softened and free of contamination. A new swab in the head cleaner was used to delicately clean the head. There are 4 magnetic pickups on my model that are very delicate and need cleaning. The whole drum assembly must also be free of dust or tape residue, (black spots.)  Use a good light source to inspect and ensure that its clean and shiny all around. Don’t touch this area with your fingers of course. Everything completed I inserted a good quality tape and tested it, perfect picture and sound, success!! The few screws returned the cover and I started my project, now 10.48 hours of video done and still perfect, so we’ll keep an eye out.
    Cleaning the delicate parts this way rather than a wet tape method is safer, does less harm to the delicate heads, and just does the job right immediately. I recommend these three products highly as they perform their jobs without issue. The swabs are solvent safe and useful on cleaning printers as well, my next project 3 inkjet and a laser printer.

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