How to Transfer Reel to Reel to Computer?

[A Barron]

So, something inside the reel to reel recorder/player just exploded.

I cleaned it a few days ago and then waited until this evening to start digitising the tape. The tape I started with was a recording of "The Man Born to Be King" (1965). About two and a half hours in something inside the reel to reel recorder/player exploded and a small puff of smoke few out; however the reel to reel recorder kept going, playing the tape. I stopped the machine, turned it off and unplugged it. I stopped the recording on the computer.

What do I do?

[RWels]

I don't know this model at all, but could it have been a valve?

That should be replaceable, although you'd have to be able to find which one is broken and what type it is. I've had valve radios, but I never actually had that problem.


Looking at ebay now, I do wish I had not given away all the valves I took from radios I demolished as a kid.

[A Barron]

Dec 21, 2020 23:59:14 GMT RWels said:

I don't know this model at all, but could it have been a valve?

That should be replaceable, although you'd have to be able to find which one is broken and what type it is. I've had valve radios, but I never actually had that problem.


Looking at ebay now, I do wish I had not given away all the valves I took from radios I demolished as a kid.

Thank you, I shall have a look and see. It seems to still work, how bad/dangerous are valve explosions?

[RWels]

Dec 22, 2020 0:23:56 GMT A Barron said:

Dec 21, 2020 23:59:14 GMT RWels said:

I don't know this model at all, but could it have been a valve?

That should be replaceable, although you'd have to be able to find which one is broken and what type it is. I've had valve radios, but I never actually had that problem.


Looking at ebay now, I do wish I had not given away all the valves I took from radios I demolished as a kid.

Thank you, I shall have a look and see. It seems to still work, how bad/dangerous are valve explosions?

It should not influence the moving bits. Valves are the oldest form of amplification, so it simply means the sound won't get through.

I suppose the reel deck is older than I thought. Still, if this is the deck that they were made on, than that's probably best to keep using. A new machine might set you back a bit financially.

You need to be, at the very least, handy with repairing electronic devices to undertake this.


Out of interest, any idea what else is on the tapes? The program you mentioned doesn't seem to be missing.

[Peter Stirling]

Dec 22, 2020 0:23:56 GMT A Barron said:

Looking at ebay now, I do wish I had not given away all the valves I took from radios I demolished as a kid. Thank you, I shall have a look and see. It seems to still work, how bad/dangerous are valve explosions?

They don't normally explode and so not a thing to be concerned about, what you have to be concerned about is valve sets use much higher voltages...so if you are dealing with an old set that has never had maintenance a decaying component could be sending 90 volts into the back of your computer...or worse some have 'live' chassis which means if the plug is incorrectly wired as red on neutral and black on live then you will have 240 volts on the earth sleeve of your output socket.


All this does not mean you cannot use your old machine, just that you do a few simple checks first..Open it up and check to see if there any weeping (decaying) components..make sure the plug has been wired correctly (Red to live Black to neutral).... and a simple £10 multimeter will tell you if there are any stray voltages on the output sockets which should not read no more than about 1 volt.




.

[A Barron]

Dec 22, 2020 11:22:00 GMT Peter Stirling said:

Dec 22, 2020 0:23:56 GMT A Barron said:

Looking at ebay now, I do wish I had not given away all the valves I took from radios I demolished as a kid. Thank you, I shall have a look and see. It seems to still work, how bad/dangerous are valve explosions?

They don't normally explode and so not a thing to be concerned about, what you have to be concerned about is valve sets use much higher voltages...so if you are dealing with an old set that has never had maintenance a decaying component could be sending 90 volts into the back of your computer...or worse some have 'live' chassis which means if the plug is incorrectly wired as red on neutral and black on live then you will have 240 volts on the earth sleeve of your output socket.


All this does not mean you cannot use your old machine, just that you do a few simple checks first..Open it up and check to see if there any weeping (decaying) components..make sure the plug has been wired correctly (Red to live Black to neutral).... and a simple £10 multimeter will tell you if there are any stray voltages on the output sockets which should not read no more than about 1 volt.

I am using a standard British plug, so red (brown) to live, black (blue) to neutral and green/yellow (green) to earth. I shall do some checking with the multimeter, I have to open it up anyway to find what exploded. Thank you.

[A Barron]

Dec 22, 2020 10:02:14 GMT RWels said:

Dec 22, 2020 0:23:56 GMT A Barron said:

Thank you, I shall have a look and see. It seems to still work, how bad/dangerous are valve explosions?

It should not influence the moving bits. Valves are the oldest form of amplification, so it simply means the sound won't get through.

I suppose the reel deck is older than I thought. Still, if this is the deck that they were made on, than that's probably best to keep using. A new machine might set you back a bit financially.

You need to be, at the very least, handy with repairing electronic devices to undertake this.


Out of interest, any idea what else is on the tapes? The program you mentioned doesn't seem to be missing.

I could still ear the sound after the part exploded, could it have been for the built in speaker rather than "EX. AMP"?

I have built machines before, although I am not as familiar with technology this old.

Well "The Man Born to Be King" was the first one I have listened to. Unfortunately all of the notes about what is on each reel were made in pencil fifty to sixty years ago, which has since faded so I am having trouble reading it. From what I have been able to make out there appears to be a lot of classical music and radio plays. Here are the of ones I can read: "Clemenza di Tito", "Walter Scott", "Dylan Thomas" and then some home recordings.

[RWels]

It's possible, I suppose, that the valve was part of the internal amplifier. So then you could still use it to send the signal to another device (like your computer).

It doesn't have a voltage selector at the back somewhere that is set wrongly? Just to make sure.

[richardwoods]

The most likely thing to explode is an electrolytic capacitor. They rely on being used to regenerate the oxide layer between layers of metal film. If the tape recorder hasn’t been used for a long while this doesn’t happen & “bang” they go! That’s why it’s always advisable to use a variac to slowly increase the power going to old circuitry first time it’s used after a long time rather than plugging it in & switching on the equipment straight away. Depending on what the capacitor was for the recorder may we’ll continue to work as some are used for noise reduction, for example on the on / off switch. If the audio is working but hums a lot then a smoothing capacitor from the rectifier circuit has blown.

[richardwoods]

This is very common in old gear

[A Barron]

I have opened it up and I cannot see what exploded at all.

Any ideas where I should check?

I also found a rubber pipe, could it have come off somewhere or do you think it might be extra?

[RWels]

I don't actually know how to spot which valve is bad. If you turn it on, do they all still light up after a short while?

Maybe someone else has more experience with this?

Although I know enough to say that the main capacitor is a likely candidate too. But if there was still sound after the failure... would that make sense?

[richardwoods]

Sounds to me like a noise suppression cap, on the on off switch. It has no effect on performance

[Peter Stirling]

Dec 23, 2020 13:46:24 GMT richardwoods said:

Sounds to me like a noise suppression cap, on the on off switch. It has no effect on performance

Agree with Richard as the most likely suspect..

Do not sniff or handle this component with bare hands if it is burnt, as its internals are often made of a nasty substance like selenium.

Valves unlikely to explode unless you drop something like water on a hot one.

[richardwoods]

Valves are by their nature very tolerant of being run out of limits due to other component failure. Even in the event of catastrophic failure, the internals will glow red until the heater elements overheat & tend to fail, effectively switching off the circuit, (which does stay live, so caution required in this event).

To give perspective on this, I run a modified Leak Stereo 20 Hi Fi amp. About 33 years ago, when the original mains transformer failed, I redesigned the circuit, pushing the envelope somewhat by increasing the HT rail from 300 to 500v to tighten up the sound & deliver a bit more power. All strictly non textbook as the maximum rated HT on EL84 output valves is about 350v. They haven’t batted an eyelid & continue to deliver all this time later. Mind you, the valves have to be decent military grade or vintage western ones, I tried Chinese & Russian new replacements & they just can’t cope due to the inferior build quality.