Moldy reel to reel tape rescue- How I save Mouldy old tapes that I can't bring myself to throw away. 

i invested in a powerful handheld UV light that i scan over records tapes etc for mold sunlight is also very good i would take a somewhat firm dusting brush and brush all the lose dust off as well you may want to run that tape on to another reel and give that one a good clean in some soapy bleach water 👍👍

You're a good person for taking the time and effort to clean these reels of tape. It seems like the R2R fans need to be resourceful and consider some DIY solutions to use vintage tape. Just as people clean dirty moldy vinyl, these tapes are still useable. Thanks for sharing!

I just discovered the use of Hoppe's 9 Gun and Reel Silicone cloths to relube old tapes that have dried out. I have one master tape, rare stuff that was unplayable but now plays and sounds great. Uploaded some of the tape [Free Jazz] earlier today.

rewind the tape and then the spool you can wash in soap, dry and then respool the tape back.

...fantastic idea. Thank you.

I give 10/10 for this restauration.

That's so crazy! I don't have any moldy tapes but this is good to know once I finally get a reel to reel. Really cool video. Thank you.

Great tip dude thanks.

Ha, ha..I love it!!!!..I was kind of hoping for some Bill Evans or Miles Davis...I'm just getting into resurrecting some old Ampex tapes at the moment to play on my old Teac machine.

Good work

This may be good for those tapes uniformly wound but for those that are not this would be damaging the tape and folding over the edges. Scotch 150 is really only good for brake tests now. I would suggest winding it in a paper power on both sides of the tape in a peroxide solution onto a reel that can be taken apart so you have better access. A second pass onto a fresh reel while the other soaks in mold killing solution, then you can play it on a machine to allow it to pack well. A peroxide exposure and then Denatured alcohol second clean can give you a pretty clean tape. I would save tapes that are worthy such as Scotch 207. Lower grade tapes you can put forth effort if the recordings are important but how would you know unless you played them and had already treated the tape? I don't give up on good tape easy and the Nu Finish has restored Scotch 807 tape here.

Good for you, Don't listen to those bad apples I'm proud of you!! Those people are rear ends !!

Bought a bunch of 7" reel tapes off eBay last week - mostly Scotch and Realistic brands. One tape had thick specs of some whitish residue on the reel and tape. Plus the oxide coating on the tape felt very sticky or gummy. So I put the tape on my recorder without threading it past the heads and held a pad of toilet-paper soaked in isopropyl alcohol around the tape during fast forward. Then I cleaned the empty reel and rewound the tape back on it - this time using a pad of dry toilet paper. The white-sticky is gone and so far it's not dragging through my recorder. However, my biggest gripes with buying used tapes online is when the tape is ancient acetate, and so brittle, it's virtually unplayable, or the tapes have been mixed up and don't match the boxes. Like a 2400" Scotch or Realistic box will have only 1200" feet of some other brand on the reel. OTOH - I got a Maxell reel in a Scotch bx, and used it to respool one Maxell tape I had, that had been stored in a Maxell box, but on some generic "7 reel. PLus the tape that had been on the Maxell reel was decent stock. So I respooled it on an empty Scotch reel, to replace it in the Scotch box.🙂

Thanks for sharing! Greets from Marcel The Netherlands Europe 👍🙂👍

i have been looking for a video to show how to clean dirty cassette tapes ; maybe this will be cross-applicable. i just never got in the habit of putting hem back in the case

I bought a bunch of old tapes about 8 years ago and there were some that were at least kinda dirty-looking. No idea if it was actually mold but it could've been. I had no way of knowing. As there were only a few tapes like that, I'd unravel the entire tape into a box or brown paper shopping bag as I wiped it off with a damp paper towel. I did it in the living room. Just to be sure I got all the crud, I'd do it in reverse, too (as I was rolling it back onto to reel). If it was mold, it never hurt me, at all.

Great idea for 7 inch reels! I prefer hydrogen peroxide (per Ampex's Tom Neuman) for moldy tapes. Instead of a vinegar soaked cloth, I used the technique with hydrogen peroxide wipes with excellent results.

I tried this on two tapes and it worked on one tape. The other was just too far gone. Thanks for showing us how to do it.

I have a Johnny Thunders Tape on Reel to Reel that I recorded live in 1980.Best Guitar I have ever recorded on Tape.It ran great for yearsssss.But the Tape stayed on the Reel to reel tape deck and my Brother had a FIRE in his house and the Tape Deck was nowhere near the fire but think maybe a tads of smoke got on the tape.When I recently try to listen to it the Guitar was a lot lower and Not as Clear as it was.I tried to clean the heads and Not sure if I did a very good job because it still sounds a lot duller as it was the last time.I am thinking maybe a good head cleaning might solve the problem since the first one a year ago was a quick one...The Outside of the tape looks good and no mode........

Great stuff it works like a dream, have you tried vinegar and water on mouldy lacquer acetate records I am afraid to try it on my rarities for fear of damaging them ?

The scotch tape you’re working with is known to have problems it could have soft binders syndrome or sticky shed syndrome and both can damage or destroy the heads of your machine

I was able to fill up the kitchen sink with dishsoap, warm water and a little bleach...Immerse for a few minutes, agitate, let dry.. Works great.

I have a 2 TEAC X-2000R Reel to Reel one black face and one silver face. I used TDK / MAXELL / SONY / AMPEX / BASF / FUJI / SCOTCH / and the worst tape is the Scotch Tapes. They tend to stick to each other so I need to bake them for a while to get rid of sticky tapes and it works well.

Very insightful! I'l have to give this a try on some of the moldy reels I have. Did you find mold still in between the actual footage?

Nice 👍 💪

Brilliant video a simple operation with great results, did you find any of the old tape gets sticky and needs baking?

I got one, or two. How much water and vinegar.?

Scotch seems to be one of the brands that really lasted. Some of the high performance professional brands turned to sticky mush and all you can do it bake them and hope for the best.

This may take care of the mold on the edges of the tape, but won’t do anything for “sticky shed-“ the deterioration of the binder and lubrication that causes horrible squeal and head wear.

Nice

I've always just soaked a rag in rubbing alcohol and run the tape on FF while pinching the tape between my fingers, with the rag. Every few seconds move to a new section of rag.

Looking for mold...hmm not seeing it... but it's probably lurking.. but just in case, I'll be ready. Thx for the insight

Muy buena manera de limpiar la humedad. También se puede hacer FF or RW Y con un trapo seco se aprieta suave la cinta. También contarles que algunas cintas viejas, de 40 años, se descascaran.se sale parte de la cinta y se pierde el sonido grabado.

If you go in the direction of the tape, you may have less tape spoil.

I use old moldy tapes ... just rewind them while wiping the tape at the same time, wash the reel and wind the tape back on ... no big deal...

I jave over 750 reels of audio tape that are from the early 50s And the method I use is it put an open face 10.5" reel on take up, fast FWD the tape onto take up. Just go reel to reel, do not thread it! I use felt pressure pads to wipe both the front AND back of the tape soaked in FreonTF (hard to get) I apply light pressure with the pads as well. Each 7" reel of tape uses 6 pads to clean it. A 10.5 reel takes 10 pads. Then I bake the tapes before playback. My tapes have lots of splices which open up most of the time. So have a splicing block and tape handy

How did this work out for you in the long run? Did the tapes ever get moldy again? Are the tapes listenable /undamaged now? Just picked up some reels with mold and don’t want to toss em just yet. Thanks!

watch out for sticky shed some Scotch tapes suffered from that

Is that actually mould (as in mushroom stuff grown from moisture) or White Powder Syndrome? This is where the binder is drying out (the opposite of SSS where the binder absorbs moisture) and leaves a white residue.

have you been baking your tapes? Would hate to see that oxide start shedding. Thanks for the mold tip; I've got one "bad" one here....

Super

I would think the moisture on the rag would be pressed down between the layers of tape and, not having a chance to air dry, would damage the tape. No?

Hi vwomer. Can u advised yo get reel tape splicing (tape)

Where you live,Oregon?

Well that's one reason why you got 50 tapes for $14...

You gave the tape much pain, so it whines

Does anyone here realize that mold and fungus consumes tape... Like actually eats away at it. Fungus and mold on vintage camera lenses actually etches glass!

Why can't you unspool it clean the tape and re spool it

Why not just un spool it

Amateur work. Just dip it into a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and distilled water and let it dry.

You don't know what you're doing. Put reel on deck and bypass heads. Put sponge with cleaner both sides of tape and play.