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RE: Lapping RTR tape heads and aligning them

Posted by Marantzguy (P) on September 28, 2007 at 11:11:31

In Reply to: Lapping RTR tape heads and aligning them posted by jtkarma on September 27, 2007 at 11:19:24:

Hi, jtkarma:

Believe it or not, I have actually relapped heads in a ReVox A-77 and even done this in an old Advent 201 cassette deck.

This is NOT rocket-science.

It requires unsoldering the head housing, removal of the head from the shield and very careful steps when WET sanding against a piece of crokus cloth laying on top of a sheet of plate glass. It is important to keep the back and forth grinding strokes even at all times and rocking back and forth as you proceed.

There is information on the subject on the web somewhere.

The most important aspect is to constantly inspect the progress and not go too deep. Polishing can be done in various ways, including the use of various forms of metal polishing rouge or even the use of common toothpaste against a fabric surface on the same piece of plate glass.

Reinstall the head in its hum shield casing, re-attech the electrical connections with an UNMAGNETIZED screwdriver and then perform a complete realignment.

When ReVox tape recorder heads got to be more than $100 each, it was normal for technicians to do a relapping. Unfortunately, if the heads were deeply worn or profoundly flat across the gap, it was often impossible to adequately relap one to "as new" condition. There was only so much gap depth left on those heads.

Compare this with standard "deep-gap" heads used by AMPEX on their pro machines! You could relap those many times and still have enough gap depth left for the future.

I often wonder why people are so mystified by something which is so theoretically simple to begin with.

Just my opinion, naturally, but I have BEEN THERE.

Richard Links
Berkeley, CA

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