GET RICH QUICK! (maybe) - Fix & Flip Cassette Decks
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- Опубліковано 18 лис 2024
- In this video I wanted to touch on and investigate the usefulness of flipping cassette decks, kind of concentrating on UA-cam. I take you through some of the steps I use and techniques i use, with one of my favourite decks - you guessed it - the Sony K611S.
A little bit different this time, with more concentration on the routine than the repair of this individual deck.
Enjoy!
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#architecture #renovation #interiordesign #vintage #design #diy #repair #construction #cars #classiccars #restore #restoration
Your choice of decks is smart and a big help. I have worked on 1970's-1980's decks and they need more dinking around.
The difficulty is finding one at the right price point I think. Three heads is a key point, quartz locked, Nakamichi branding, etc etc. People will pay good money for good decks.
I do it just for the enjoyment of restoring items from my younger days. I wouldn’t consider it as an income stream, its a hobby. My best result was a Denon M44 which I paid £30 for. Overheating, not working and one Level display not working. Studied circuit diagram, did a few checks and predicted the culprit capacitor causing short. Worked out display issue was a chip failure and bought a new chip for £4. Works perfectly now but I haven’t tried to sell it or any of the others I’ve fixed. Just enjoy the satisfaction of fixing classic hifi.
Having repaired casstte decks since the early 70's they kept me in a job,
but not made me rich despite been self employed.
Unless you have the spares and skills to fit them, they can be more trouble than
most other Hi-Fi gear.
Anything with moving parts will wear out, belts deteriate, and plastic gears split,
and the heads become worn.
Good luck to anyone trying it to make a living.
Very optimistic figures! First you won’t find many 611s or 661s for £50 including postage. Average selling price is £70-£80 plus shipping.
Deck tech belts are £7.95
Then you have to wait nearly 2 to 3 weeks to sell a deck too. You won’t be able to sell 10 a week!
Also, selling a 611 at £190 assumes the deck is in excellent condition. I’ve seen so many with missing buttons and scratches everywhere so that price is a bit steep.
It usually takes me more than 2 hours to fully lub and calibrate one of these and the rotary encoder is not for the faint hearted. Also if the repairer has not much clue of the timing of the mech they can be there for hours taking apart and putting it back together. Some sellers have messed up the head alignment and tgats not easy to do unless you have a mirror tape to check the path.
I would say an average of £50-60 profit is doable but split that with the to pack, clean, write listings etc and you end up with £20-£30 per hour.
You also assume you can use the same box. Most of my Sony decks that come off eBay always come in a small box just about bigger than the deck itself with usually a thin piece of bubble wrap so I need to re package them.
Unless you diversify in more than these 3 heads then you won’t be able to generate this kind of income.
However going to the auto reverse ones and some cheaper Sonys and they are so flimsy and rubbish that’s not worthy I guess.
That's why i don't do many cassette decks on ebay. I make a decent full time income selling all hifi equipment. There's a lot more money in other stuff with FAR less work involved. I agree with some of what you said but if you learn certain decks and do enough of them, like Paul clearly does, then 1 hour is very achievable for a full service and calibration.
Ditto here. I don't even work on a tape deck if I don't clean it first, very deep cleaning. I need to dust it off real good with compressed air, which I could still re-do once I get the transport out and the rear panel disassembled. And I don't play my test tapes on it until I clean the heads shiny and I don't mean my calibration tapes, I mean... my trusty D test music or my transport activation cassette which is tape from one reel to the other, or even my tape path verification tape which is what I use 99% of the times when I align a cassette deck rather than risk my 150 bucks mirror cassette.
There is one theory that says you should also set your playback levels with a continuous test tone at 200 nWb/m which is Dolby level, only after that step you should go ahead and set your recording levels.
There is no money justification for the time we spend restoring decks and by experience the margin is much tighter. You'll barely manage to intercept a competent market and you'll still have a high return rate.
Those push button switches will eventually re-oxidize quickly, they need to be replaced. Once they gone they gone.
If somebody asked me I'd say don't restore tape decks for a living: it will make your life a misery and in the end you'll also be poorer as you trade valuable personal time for a meager amount of money.
Good to see what to check on some decks. I fixed a Denon CD/Cassette deck recently and continuing working on a Sony TC-177SD. All fun to work on. I should keep away from cassette walkmans though!
Damn...........Talk about thorough, liked the ZZ Top test. Cannot believe your re-sale $$$$$$$$$, cassettes are pretty hated here in the States. Scottish or maybe Irish accent.
Great video and well explained .....oh and make sure if you sell on E-Bay that the buyer has the money to pay..
You must be one of the most specialised person on this deck at this point. Great video!
Wow, thanks!
Excellent job, Paul. I am glad that you demonstrated how to replace the pinch roller because I needed to learn that procedure.
Sarcasm possibly detected! Don't know! 🤠
@@pwrestoration No sarcasm intended, Paul. I recently had a professional restore a JVC DD-7 because I know that I didn't have the tools or the confidence. I haven't had to work on any of my previous JVCs because I had two left in storage where they self-destructed. I did remove the transport and heads from the KD-A77 just in case the heads fail on the DD-7.
Don't know if it's been mentioned, but if you could do 10 a week, you'd spend 800 minutes doing them, which is 13 hours a week, or about 2 days of working hours. So with that average salary (seeing that we're talking hypothetically), you'd earn an average wage, and have 5 out of every 7 days free! The problem would be finding those 10 decks to service and sell on....
I think that's the problem, finding that amount of decks and then that amount of buyers
Awesome deck! Poor flock of seagulls have been running for over 40 year years they're probably tired!lol
I keep buying them to sell on but I ended up keeping them it gets a bit addictive
I'm surprised you use spectroid app , to set speed , instead of a dedicated frequency counter app.
Ive found it's by far the best option.
It's a good idea - considering they are not made anymore - wish you all the best
sorry, I did notice that the controls started to work once you took it off " Timer - Rec " or was that just coincidence ? and I also think that knowing that the service is done properly , that may also add to the re sale value
Paul. Can I book a deck in with you? It's a KB920s. The transport has become slightly noisy over the past few weeks. Not excessive, but enough to get it serviced and calibrated. Let me know. Cheers.
Yes absolutely pal, my email is pw.watchmaking@gmail.com 👍
As long as they power up, I buy them!! (For the right price of course...)
Very nice work servicing the mech. Please stop using a spectrum analyser to set speed it's the wrong tool. Use a frequency counter or buy a copy of Nak T100 which will allow you to measure wow and flutter. Someone else mentioned about a proper level tape to set playback levels and read service manual procedure. You need an AC millivolt/dB meter to set levels.
From what I saw on the scope when you recorded the 3k tone - wow and flutter figure likely horrendous. Would need investigating.
Or use DSO perhaps? I don't see that horrible wow&flutter.
@@m80116 At 30:38 he switches between monitor and tape recording a 3k tone and you can visibly see excessive frequency variations. Yes DSO (calibrated) that can read off mV I guess would be fine - anything that can measure mV accurately and has at least audio bandwidth, which rules out most multimeters.
I tried I sell one for $30 on Facebook marketplace and eBay and nobody wanted it.
I would have! 👀
Don’t forget to tell the tax man your making loads of money 👍
🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼 the tax man bloody scammers 🤬🤬
He'll know already if you sell over £1k over a year
DOn't encourage this, there's enough badly refurbished crap out there without suggesting to people they do it as a moneymaking hobby. eBay is already full of refurbished sellers ruining otherwise fixable equipment (mostly cassette decks and turntables) with cheap crap parts or bad workmanship. Some of the refurbished stuff I've had to repair is shockingly poor. My advice would be do it if it's something you enjoy and you know what you're doing, and don't consider yourself a refurb seller until you have some experience and can do a decent job.