Re: [AMIA-L] Umatic 3/4" Tape Problems (need to re-affix tape to the reel)

[James Lindner <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Umatic tapes the magnetic tape is not attached directly to the reel of
more properly said the hub. The magnetic tape is attached to clear plastic
leader which in turn is attached to the hub. In most cases the attachment of
the leader to the reel is not with splicing tape at all. The reason for this
is that with many umatic tapes the rewinding and fast forwarding was
"stopped" by an electronic circuit that was broken when the clear leader
allowed the light to shine through to a photocell. The brakes were then
applied - frequently too late and as a result applied significant force to
the connection between hub and leader - splicing tape was not strong enough
to handle the pressure.

In my experience - the attachment between the leader and the reel rarely
broke - and if it did it is a simple matter to reattach it - no splicing
tape is required. There is a clip assembly that holds it in. What DOES break
in older tapes in particular is the splicing tape that attaches the magnetic
tape to the leader. These splices were often  aluminized mylar splicing tape
and frequently the glue dries out and no longer will hold - particularly if
there is any pressure applied when rewinding at high speed.

IF that is your problem - I would suggest snipping a small amount of
magnetic tape because there is almost always a glue residue and a new splice
may not hold with the old glue there. Then resplice using the tab splices
mentioned by Peter in his email. Audio splicing tape is usually not strong
enough for this specific application over a period of years and has its own
issues in terms of residue over time.

If this is happening a great deal - I would also suggest that you check your
deck to make sure that the circuit is functioning properly and actually
stopping the tape transport - sometime they fail and as a result put
tremendous pressure on leader and tape as well as the tape heads full speed
to the end and then is jarred to a stop not by the brakes but by the tape
reaching the end - ouch!

Also - I am hoping you are using a reasonably "new" umatic deck. The "top
loader" decks were notorious for horrible tape handling and were extremely
rough with leader at the end of the reel. IF you are using one of these
decks  - my very strong recommendation is to take it immediately out of use
- perhaps keep it as an interesting artifact to look at - and use a more
modern machine that was more capable with tape handling. They are plentiful
enough - head to ebay.

Jim Lindner

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-----Original Message-----
From: Association of Moving Image Archivists [mailto:AMIA-L@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Paul Goldowitz
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 1:20 PM
To: AMIA-L@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [AMIA-L] Umatic 3/4" Tape Problems (need to re-affix tape to
the reel)

Dear esteemed colleagues,

I'm working in an archive which has a number of 3/4" video-tapes from
the early 1980's.

My problem is this:

Many of the Umatic tapes were "reloaded" tape of questionable brand.
Some Scotch, some Sony, some generic or unknown.  Some of  the tape
inside the Umatic casing have come apart from the reel, rendering the
tape unplayable.

I was wondering if there was any special adhesive, technique or way to
reglue the tape to the reel, so I can attempt to dub these precious tapes?

Do I just use splicing tape for audio tape?  Or glue?  Or special video
splicing tape?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul