A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to finish
her project. She said the one they were using was showing all sorts of
error messages and sending up messages about it needing a cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

Patric D'Eimon
Anchorage, AK

Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to finish
her project. She said the one they were using was showing all sorts of
error messages and sending up messages about it needing a cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

No--but HEET is nearly pure methanol, so I don't see any real problem.

Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to finish
her project. She said the one they were using was showing all sorts of
error messages and sending up messages about it needing a cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

No--but HEET is nearly pure methanol, so I don't see any real problem.

In article writes:

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work?

Most of those gas-drying additives are just methyl alcohol so I
suppose it wouldn't do any harm as long as they were handling the
heads correctly and not using cotton swabs that leave threads behind.
I suppose it might be instructive to look at the label on the can and
see what's in it.

Drug store rubbing alcohol works most of the time, but you need to be
sure you buy the right flavor. Some is as little as 70% alcohol (water
added) which isn't very effective (though it doesn't cause the deck to
rust), but some has a lubricant such as lanolin added, and that can
gum up the works.

I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

What's in the Electro-wash? I guess "residue-less" is good, depending
on how they define "residue." If it leaves a lubricant behind (because
that's what it's supposed to do) then that's bad. Again, read the
label.

If the label doesn't tell you enough to be sure it's a straight
solvent, and a type that won't dissolve the stuff that holds the head
together, then it's best to use something you're sure of. In a pinch,
straight vodka will work (but stay away from that lemon stuff).


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article writes:

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work?

Most of those gas-drying additives are just methyl alcohol so I
suppose it wouldn't do any harm as long as they were handling the
heads correctly and not using cotton swabs that leave threads behind.
I suppose it might be instructive to look at the label on the can and
see what's in it.

Drug store rubbing alcohol works most of the time, but you need to be
sure you buy the right flavor. Some is as little as 70% alcohol (water
added) which isn't very effective (though it doesn't cause the deck to
rust), but some has a lubricant such as lanolin added, and that can
gum up the works.

I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

What's in the Electro-wash? I guess "residue-less" is good, depending
on how they define "residue." If it leaves a lubricant behind (because
that's what it's supposed to do) then that's bad. Again, read the
label.

If the label doesn't tell you enough to be sure it's a straight
solvent, and a type that won't dissolve the stuff that holds the head
together, then it's best to use something you're sure of. In a pinch,
straight vodka will work (but stay away from that lemon stuff).


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article , Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to finish
her project. She said the one they were using was showing all sorts of
error messages and sending up messages about it needing a cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

HEET is methanol. It's, well, it's not a very good grade of methanol.

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article , Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to finish
her project. She said the one they were using was showing all sorts of
error messages and sending up messages about it needing a cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET! The
gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

HEET is methanol. It's, well, it's not a very good grade of methanol.

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to
finish her project. She said the one they were using was showing all
sorts of error messages and sending up messages about it needing a
cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET!
The gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

I've used it for years on VCR's and fixed audio heads. It's just
alcohol.....

jak

Patric D'Eimon
Anchorage, AK

Patric D'Eimon wrote:
A friend of mine just called wanting to borrow my DAT machine to
finish her project. She said the one they were using was showing all
sorts of error messages and sending up messages about it needing a
cleaning.

She told me the owner of the Deck was cleaning the heads with HEET!
The gasoline additive, popular here in Alaska for "Drying out" our gas
tanks. I have never heard of this. Does it work? I use lint free
swabs and residue less Electro-wash from and electronics supply house.

Anyone ever hear of using HEET to clean rotary heads/

I've used it for years on VCR's and fixed audio heads. It's just
alcohol.....

jak

Patric D'Eimon
Anchorage, AK

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.

You can also get high purity methanol in the range of 99%. The problem is
that nasty solvents like benzine are used to achieve that purity.

Rob R.

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.

You can also get high purity methanol in the range of 99%. The problem is
that nasty solvents like benzine are used to achieve that purity.

Rob R.

Rob Reedijk wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.

You can also get high purity methanol in the range of 99%. The problem is
that nasty solvents like benzine are used to achieve that purity.

Those solvents are just fine for tape heads! What isn't fine are salts and
gums and heavy oils and varnishes that leave a film behind after the solvent
evaporates.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Rob Reedijk wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Cleaning heads with methanol is not too bad a thing, although isopropanol
is probably more effective. But I would be worried about the amount of
additional crap dissolved in something of that low a grade.

You can also get high purity methanol in the range of 99%. The problem is
that nasty solvents like benzine are used to achieve that purity.

Those solvents are just fine for tape heads! What isn't fine are salts and
gums and heavy oils and varnishes that leave a film behind after the solvent
evaporates.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."