[rescue] Sun 3 Workstation

[Alan Perry]

On 1/4/23 10:19 AM, Jonathan Chapman via rescue wro
>
>> Considering their age, it's likely those tapes are in bad shape. A 
>> lot of times the magnetic surface on the first block will stick to 
>> the band. Or the drive band will snap or be unable to hold proper 
>> tension and the whole thing will end up a tangled mess.
>
> Yeah, you're not going to be running those tapes without at least a 
> new band. Unless of course you mean 1/2" open reel.
>
> I started doing Plastibands for new QIC tape bands once the "boil NOS 
> later generation 3M bands" stopped producing good results. It works 
> pretty OK, though I've found the clear plastiband-alikes lift oxide 
> off the tape if you let them sit (the green actual Plastibands don't 
> seem to). The drives also all need service at this point, at least 
> cleaning and lubrication. It's fairly common, especially on older QIC 
> drives, for the capstan roller to turn to goop. Sometimes it even 
> looks and feels OK until you start running the drive...I had a ftape 
> QIC for an AT&T 3B1 UNIX PC do that to me a few months ago. Often 
> hoses the tape.
>
If the OP decides not to keep the tapes, he can send them to me :) 
Someone gave me a 3/260 a few years ago and I have started accumulating 
Sun 68k and VME stuff since then. I have a few boxes of QIC tapes to 
image when I get to them.

I think that I bought the last of the green Plastibands. They came in an 
assortment pack with something like 5 or 10 green ones in a pack. I have 
50 green bands now. The vendor that I got them from no longer has any of 
the assortment packs. I also have some of the clear bands, but I haven't 
installed any in a tape yet.

After I substituted the green bands, on a few tapes I had a problem with 
the oxide coming off of the tape as it rounded the metal posts inside 
the cartridge. One solution that I have seen is to cover the posts with 
plastic sleeves that can rotate, but I haven't tried it yet. Also, I 
retired a toaster oven to use to bake the tapes (if you are unfamiliar 
with this, look up "sticky shed"). I haven't tried that either and, 
after I set aside the toaster oven, someone told me that baking doesn't 
accomplish much on QIC tapes. But I still see people baking them, so I 
will try it at some point.

Somewhere I have a link with excellent info on what can go wrong with 
QIC tapes and how to mitigate those problems. Just need to find it.

alan

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