New tape material for pre-recorded cassettes

Discussion in 'Cassettes' started by Analogtape, Apr 14, 2025 at 10:02 AM.

  1. Analogtape

    Analogtape Member

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    Hi,
    a few weeks ago, I made a DIY cassette rewinder and presented it here: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/diy-simplified-nagakoa-ct-406-hand-winder-3d-print.10207/
    (Would be better in the Cassettes section and not in the Boombox & Ghettoblaster section).

    After all I can use the rewinder. Many of my prerecorded cassettes do no more play accurately; mostly due to degraded tape material .

    So I asked the company in Germany that assembles the cassettes for the 3 ??? (in German: Die Drei ???) and many more famous series for a roll of raw material. They were kind enough to sell me a roll of 3'800 m of Type I tape for a very fair price.

    I used the 3D printer to construct a small tool. The printer is limited to 256 x 256 mm, so it was necessary to split it in different parts. The colours are random because I used leftover filament.

    Bildschirmfoto 2025-03-30 um 19.08.12.png Bildschirmfoto 2025-03-30 um 19.07.42.png Bildschirmfoto 2025-03-30 um 19.07.17.png
    IMG_9916.JPG

    The counter is used to match the length of the tape to the play time of the tracks on the A/B side.

    The pinch roller comes from an entire drive mechanism that I bought in China for a ridiculously low price (about 3 EUR for the whole unit including playback/recording head, motor and belt -see picture). The drive looks suspiciously similar to that one used in a model that was new introduced some years ago. I hope the similarity is only in the way it looks and not in the quality…).
    Walkman drive-unit.jpg

    This little tool allows to rewind new blank tape material on pre-record cassettes and then re-record the content without having to sacrifice blank cassettes just for the tape material. 3.8 km of tape will last for a while
    I prefer a cassette that is not 100% original rather than a 100% original that is bad in sound or even no longer playable.

    If anyone is interested in the .stl or Fusion files, let me know.

    Btw: I am still looking for tape material to splice the tape. Does anyone have a source or a recommendation for this?
    -thank you
     
    Valentin likes this.

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