bought a reel to reel...........

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Andy-831
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Andy-831 »

Lovely looking resto and finished product Ant. Well done!
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Vinyl-ant »

Found another little problem this morning.
I opened it up again as I realised I hadn't oiled the motor. I'd had it on my list, but not ticked it off. I tend to look at a job for a while first thing before I do anything, then write everything down as a checklist these days with the kids being in all the time. Things are too distracting and I get waylaid too easily. When they go back in a week I shall continue to do so. It's easier.

So having pulled the motor out of the back and given it a couple of drops of oil in both of the oil holes (one on each end bell), I just gave it a look over. I'd not taken the back off yesterday, there was no need to, but I noticed some black deposits that weren't there before. The spark suppressor cap has gone.

ImageSony tc 377 failed spark surpressor cap by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Not a particular problem, I'll just cut it out for now and put up with the thump until I get another one. Looks like a 0.1uf job. I can never remember wether I need an x class or an x2 class one to replace it with. I shall look into it
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Vinyl-ant »

I sold this machine last week to partially fund a new bigger milling machine, it was picked up last friday. Milling machine arrived monday so ive got a nice new toy to play with.

This friday, i called in a local charity shop, and they had an akai 4000ds mk2 in.
It came home with me......
After an hour with the hammer and some servisol in all the switches, it works lovely. It wants a little more work, just needs the aluminium control levers and head cover rubbing down and respraying as theres some corrosion under the paint, and a new aluminium cap making for the pinch roller (the plastic bit is there but the cosmetic cap has fallen off) but other than that its very good cosmetically too.
120 quid.
Bargain
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Wonfor14 »

Crickey I had one of those, a great machine, replace the head with Glass Akai heads out in the end wore the others out.
Also built a MPX Modulator and Demodulator so I could get 8 channel and each stereo channel just for fun, it worked to a fashion.
I try and find circuit it must be 40yrs old by now.Using CMOS 4066 chips or was it 4016 I find out.

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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Wonfor14 »

I got tip from my old boss at Godfrey Photographic in Basildon (I was a saturday staff) he used tyre wall cleaner to bring back the spring into old belts, and it worked. Thanks Mr. Mike Goldsmith

He was one of the first shops to take up my Claymore amps, they sold a lot. A good place to work, cameras, Hi-fi, pharmacy, and TV.
Gone now a shame.
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antonio66 (Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:15 am)

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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by DaveyTed »

Wonfor14 wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 1:15 pm I got tip from my old boss at Godfrey Photographic in Basildon (I was a saturday staff) he used tyre wall cleaner to bring back the spring into old belts, and it worked. Thanks Mr. Mike Goldsmith

He was one of the first shops to take up my Claymore amps, they sold a lot. A good place to work, cameras, Hi-fi, pharmacy, and TV.
Gone now a shame.
Godfrey's in Basildon brings back some memories - used to use it for camera equipment - 35mm then. I upset a staff member once when i pointed out the "hifi" he was demonstrating had the speakers out of phase.
I'm sure it wouldn't have been you Colin.
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slinger (Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:30 pm)

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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Wonfor14 »

DaveyTed wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 8:50 pm
Wonfor14 wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 1:15 pm I got tip from my old boss at Godfrey Photographic in Basildon (I was a saturday staff) he used tyre wall cleaner to bring back the spring into old belts, and it worked. Thanks Mr. Mike Goldsmith

He was one of the first shops to take up my Claymore amps, they sold a lot. A good place to work, cameras, Hi-fi, pharmacy, and TV.
Gone now a shame.

"Godfrey's in Basildon brings back some memories - used to use it for camera equipment - 35mm then. I upset a staff member once when i pointed out the "hifi" he was demonstrating had the speakers out of phase.
I'm sure it wouldn't have been you Colin.
IT WAS YOU RAT BAG he he no I would be the then skinny kid about 16 -20yrs old, It was more likely to be George Hoar, the man was as deaf as a post, but like me hated the Beatles, the only good thing, George was like a uncle to me, so was Mr. Rankin, but on my birthdays Mr. G. Senior and his lovely wife, bought me a Zenith E, and another birthday a pair of binoculars. And George and his wife bought me a Regonda Portable TV from Russia. I still have the camera and the bino's.
Then on a Saturday a special day my mum and dad wedding anniversary the film "South Pacific" was on BBC2 in Colour. We like most work folk only had B/W.
I had arranged with Mr G. Junior to take out HP to buy mum and dad a colour Hitachi 19inch TV and to have arrive in secret a hour before the film started, and it was delivered by Martin our van driver, mum rang Godfrey's in tears. A lovely day, mum now is 86 and very frail. Dad died 2010 on Halloween he would love that.

Happy Father Day Dad.

Image

Image

Dad me Mum

Image
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Vinyl-ant »

As you know, I stumbled upon an Akai 4000ds mkii rtr machine in a local charity shop, less than a week after I sold the Sony to partially fund the new milling machine.
after vacillitating for 10 minutes I bought it, then as mi dads house was closest and I'd have to carry the bloody thing from the shop, I deposited it there.
This is what I got.

ImageCharity shop Akai 4000ds mk2 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

I then went and did the shopping I was actually supposed to be doing, and came back to collect it.
Before that, we plugged it into mi dads system to see if it worked, and were greeted by a godawful noise which sounded terminal...... not a good start.
there was however, a little chirp of music when the switches were pressed this way and that in random order to try to coax some life out of it, so there was a modicum of hope.

It was a bit cosmetically challenged, but that was the least of the worries.

Fast forward a couple of hours, I pulled the fascia off it to have a look inside.

at this

ImageCharity shop akai 4000ds mk2 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Its a bit less complicated than the 377, but similar in design. Interestingly, all the rubber parts were in rather good nick, not all hardened like the equivalent Sony parts. The charity shop lady said it had been her grandads, and had been in the living room as long as she could remember so this may have been due to it being in a centrally heated environment for most of its life rather than a loft since 1985.

I wanted to get at all the pots and switches first, and get them all cleaned out with servisol. Ten minute job, followed by much switch clicking to work the cleaner round them. I couldn't get at the pots from the front, but that could come later as the pots are on the record side, I just wanted to see if it played.

I then screwed it back together and tested it. Lo and behold, it played no problem. Tried the first tape which was full of soul, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, plenty of good stuff. Second one was full of Tina Turner.......... Not wanting to be subjected to any more 80's Tina, I didn't play the third one.

I left it alone for a couple of days, and being at a loose end today while waiting for parts for a build came back to it to get at the pots.

The whole mech comes out of the cabinet via 6 bolts, 4 in the back hidden by the feet and 2 in the base. The last one wouldn't come out without being castigated and threatened with the grinder, but I got there with it eventually.

Turns out that for some reason the mech chassis had rusted around where the bolts went through, but peculiarly, not anywhere else or on the inside of the same areas...

ImageCharity shop akai 4000ds mk2 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

So, access was gained to the rec level pots, (nobles of all things :shock: ) and I could check for bulging caps and inspect the belts.
no dodgy caps in sight, and the belts are fine if a little loose. I'll get some replacements shortly.

Nailed it back together, and that done, I tried to record something.

Oh dear.

There were dropouts all over the place, the levels were up and down like a yoyo, and It came out as a garbled mess.......
So I cleaned the heads with my last bit of isopropyl and tried again. Not quite as bad, but it got as bad if not worse pretty quickly.
I then downloaded the service manual to see what that said, and had a read. Coming back to it half an hour later, I noticed that underneath the machine there was a load of nasty looking flakey dust, and that it was reluctant to rewind. Luckily it was stood on top of my A3 weekly planner which is white paper, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed anything. The tape itself was the problem, it was shedding so badly that there was a tide mark on the heads and a load of dropped oxide after recording a two and a half minute song. It was also stuck up to the eyeballs, which is why it was reluctant to rewind. This was the third tape which I hadn't tried

So I threaded the soul tape, played it through to the end of the recorded stuff and tried again.
recorded no problem .
So, it's fully functional. I also resprayed all the bIts that were flakey and nasty with some etch primer then satin black which has tidied it up no end

ImageCharity shop akai 4000ds mk2 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Next jobs are to turn a new aluminium cover for the pinch roller as it has gone walkies and I'm not paying out a fortune for another one, and to sort out the two chunks out of the right hand side of the cabinet.

And to get some more belts, and some more isopropyl to clean the tape path. Then when the belts come I'll fit them and then give the moving parts a good clean, and treat the rubber parts with rubber renue

ImageCharity shop akai 4000ds mk2 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Onwards!
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savvypaul (Wed Jun 23, 2021 2:46 pm) • CycleCoach (Wed Jun 23, 2021 3:41 pm) • antonio66 (Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:19 am) • Wonfor14 (Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:25 am)
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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Geoff.R.G »

Very nice, I have a 1972 Akai 4000D sitting upstairs.
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Wonfor14 (Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:25 am)

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Re: bought a reel to reel...........

Unread post by Vinyl-ant »

Last weekend i did abit more work on the charity shop akai. New belts and a good clean of the rubber parts plus some rubber renue to get them back to something approaching spec.

There was still some pitch instabilty to look into.

To try to sort out the pitch instability i took the feed reel table to bits to have a look at the felt clutch arrangement at has, and have a look at the back tension mechanism.

The reel table clutch is fairly simple, comprised of several washers, a couple of spring washers and a conical spring. It can be adjusted by varying the number of washers, this preloads the conical spring to provide x amount of clutch slip to stop the tape being stretched.

The back tension uses a sprung lever with a rubber bush on it that sits against the side of the reel table drum, and is adjusted by preloading the spring to provide more force against the drum..

The reel table was cleaned and put back together as it was, the felt clutch material seemed fine and not contaminated with anything, and the bearing shaft was greased as it was bone dry.

The back tension mechanism was left as it was, the suspect bit was the rubber bush as it appeared to have some deposits on it and was abit crusty.
So the deposits were cleaned with meths then treated with rubber renue.

While i was at it, i had noticed some dings in the pinch roller when i rubber renued it, so i dressed it back to get rid of the dings and get it back to slightly better condition rubber.

These fixes appears to have sorted the problem, i think the major contributor was the nasty rubber bush on the tensioner, it seemed to grip and slip under load.

I didnt have time to test it having had a busy week, so got round to it today.

So the machine now works lovely, all thats left to do with it is to sort out 2 chunks out of the cabinet veneer, and make the replacement ally pinch roller cover.

Its only cost me for a belt set, so its cost me in total about 135 quid, and about 6 hours work. The recordings it makes are better on 7.5ips, with the eq set to the 3.75ips setting, the 7.5ips eq is abit dull with emitape.

It could be rebiased, but sod that its not worth the trouble.

Sound quality isnt quite as good as the sony was, but its not far off, i marginally prefer the sony in this respect. There is abit more hiss from the akai, i can live with that, its not an obnoxious noise like turntable hum.
However, the akai is more compact, and the sockets are on the rear instead if the side making it easier to site somewhere.

Now ive had both of the established 'enty level' r2r machines in very good condition, i can see why they are so popular.
Easy enough to work on, simple enough to understand how the mechanisms work (for me anyway, a little bit of mechanical aptitude is required), they are not hugely difficult to get running satisfactorily.

A recap would probably be adviseable, but as there are no signs of the caps being on the way out in this one, then its just a longevity consideration.

Oh. The meter back light bulb has just gone. Oh well, a new bulb required...

I want another one to play with :mrgreen:
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Phono stages: cole lcr, benedict audio hothead

Digital: cyrus cd7, wiim mini x2, topping e30, jds labs el dac 2+

Amplification: nelson pass b1, nelson pass f5

Speakers: 15" fane aperiodic wardrobes

Cans: myryad z40, hifiman sundara + deva, fostex t50rp, sennheiser momentum on ear +over ear, b&w p5 and p7

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