Cassette tape cleaner - What, how & why?

Ever feel the need to clean the tape in a compact cassette?
Back in early ‘80s Japan you could buy a machine that did just that.

Chapters
00:00 Stupidity
01:08 What?
02:20 Repair
04:31 How? (Demo)
06:35 Why? (Reasons to clean a tape)

---------------SUBSCRIBE------------------

-------------Merchandise-----------------

-------------SUPPORT---------------
This channel can be supported through Patreon
*******Patrons usually have early access to videos*******

----------Outro Music-----------

------Outro Sound Effect------

NOTICES:
SPECIAL THANKS to Tomas for pulling this one out of the skip.

[StarkRG]

Matt, that opening was the absolute funniest thing you've put together yet.

[edsonbrusque]

I live in the south of Brazil.

Mold is a big problem here and and I had to constantly clean the heads of cassette decks. I would love to have a device such as this back in the day.

I even remember cleaning open reel tapes with a cotton swab...

Great content as always. :)

[Ragnarok]

all we need now is a DVD Rewinder review

I'm from the Canary Islands and I remember, when I was child, having to discard many VHS tapes due to mould developing in them. It not only affects the tape it self, it also sticks to the heads of my VHS player, forcing me to open it and cleaning them very often.

A few years after the VHS mould issue, way into the CD-R era, I found that mould also likes eating the metallic layer of my precious CD-R I was using to store data for my computer. I remember discarding lots of CD-R disks that looked more like Gouda cheese than actual CD-R.

So yes, mould is a big issues in humid places.

[Calispeedboi]

“This man is an actor. He has no friends.” 😂

[retro-reels]

There is actually quite a need a need for a product like this today-I have thousands of cassette tapes that haven’t been played in years. Whilst the tapes don’t have mould, they would benefit from being spooled through before use, and such a device would save wear on my main playback machine.

[funghazi]

Oh interesting, our library had something like that when we still had our collection of tapes. Our patrons tended to take the tapes on international trips so the old protocol was if a tape looked dirty or didn't play, it would be run through the machine. Don't think we have the tapes anymore, nor the cleaner for that matter.

[WittyDroog]

"Slightly problematic name..."
The soft, straight delivery of that killed me

[gtoger]

I love the metal construction and the simple 3 button layout. It reminds me a lot of an old ITC cart machine in that regard. I bet it's heavy.

[darkdoescosplays]

Best TechMoan intro ever. Great voice over cameo from the so-called "Those Annoying Puppets" (please bring them back soon!)

[andreaswheeler]

0:56 that wig! i almost spilt my tea...

[drabhijitb]

Hi, I am from Mumbai, this device would have been really helpful here due to the humid conditions. Wish I had one.
Fungus accumulates on tapes when not in use. I had 100s of cassettes and this issue was faced by me. The fungus then clogged the tape head when the cassette was played, causing muffled sound. Then the tape head needed some cleaning with alcohol swab and u could see a thick white layer accumulated on the tape head.
Quiet simple, handy and useful machine.
Similar machine might exist for VDO cassettes also. Would like to have a vdo on that also.👍👍

[Fluteboy]

Tony from Cassette Comeback would love one of these. All those NOS metal cassettes that come with a generous helping of mould....

[fdsmaster]

the chips are off the shelf logic components, easily indentified by the 74 in the number:
SN74123 is a multivibrator, it can create a square frequency but here likely is used to eliminate the "bounce" of the pushbuttons, otherwise the logic gates would get triggered multiple times whenever pushing or releasing a button
SN74107 is a jk-flipflop it's like a switch, it can be turned on and off and between switching it it holds it's position unlike a transistor
SN7400N are NAND gates, likely controlling the flipflop
all in all this looks like a crude logic circuit that takes inputs off the buttons and switches on and off the device
there are some heatsinked components on the other side of the board, likely powertransistors to switch the motor
and a simple rectifyer made of diodes and filter caps as needed in any power supply
despite looking rather complicaded because of all the chips this appears to be a very simple circuit made from off the shelf components

[jpkosoltrakul]

I'm from Thailand, and I remember back in the day when VHS still a thing, we have so much problem with fungus. I believe that more than half of the VHS we got back then had those white molds on them. But what we got are the cleaning kits for the player, not for the tape itself (which I think that was not uncommon).

[Kaeltis]

Love the intro, really had the urge to press that "Skip Ad" button

[marcin_bruczkowski]

I lived in Singapore in mid-1990s and my entire VHS collection grew a nice, white, furry coat of mold. I then bought a device for cleaning VHS tapes, very similar concept to what you're showing here, although not as solidly built. Maybe one day you can find one and show on this channel.

[FatNorthernBigot]

I paid for YouTube Premium, and yet still got ads. What a rip!

[FoulOwl]

Never forget something my Dad said when l encountered my first E- clip.
"What's this thing Dad"?
"Son that's called a JESUS CLIP. Because that's what you scream when it goes flying across the room never to be seen again".

[jeremyclaxton]

Did you get an image of the "cleaning tape" after you'd run the mouldy cassette through the machine?