I have never seen any type of tape with that amount of mould on it, I have used a scrap VHS recorder to clean tapes successfully, your idea of using a scrap miniDV camcorder is probably the best option. It would be interesting to try it, but as you point out, it would be a lot of work & probably the tape would still not be recoverable.
Hi Colin - I believe I have your name correct...(?!) You sent me a box of VC/LVC tapes some years ago.. My reply here, if it's of any use with the moldy tapes is that years ago, I too had moldy MiniDV and 8mm camcorder tapes that were just a mass of picture static when I first tried to play them.. At the time, I had something I had built that did work successfully for awkward tapes of all sizes.. A dehumidification unit. Basically, a large plastic box with two 9V dehumidifiers sat in the base, wires through the box and sealed air-tight with silicone rubber sealant. The box had a rack fitted within it on which I sat my tapes. An air-tight, hermetically sealed lid meant no additional air could get in or out of the unit. At only 18volts, I would leave this for upto five days. The air within would be processed and reprocessed through the tapes, super-heating the air molecules in the box. After five days, it had sucked the air and tapes warm and dry. The previously no picture/no sound MiniDV tapes now had both picture and crystal clear sound. I did eventually disassemble the unit when I bought an Andrew James Food Dehydrator - and have since used just that for all my tape baking..
I have an idea. Since miniDV and CVC use 6mm tape, why not spool the miniDV tapes into a CVC shell and clean them using a CVC machine in FF/REW mode and a piece of rag soaked in IPA? That shouldn't hurt the machine since it fast forwards and rewinds with the tape unlaced.
There wouldn't be much room to set that up. However I am wondering about spooling the tape onto 1/4" audio reels and winding through using the Ferrograph tape deck. The problem though is setting up a IPA dispense and cleaning pad replenisher.
A low speed drill with wood or cardboard gears to adjust the speed ratio for a controlable pace. A holding frame setup with a long bathing trough for soaking and lots of time, patience and hope.
On the Rank Cintel mk 3 telecine there was a cleaning device that had two rolls of tissue paper running around a couple of rollers that the film was dragged between as it was shown. The tissue paper is fed automatically from a small roll constantly but slowly to clean the film. If you could get hold of one and rig up a way to feed the tape though in a motorised way it would probably work. Might need a few passes. It's not like the film cleaner in the video.
Maybe some aggressive household cleaner would have delivered some better results, but then the residue of the cleaner would have needed to be cleaned off as well. Another question comes to mind, there has always been that debate about wet and dry lubricants on MiniDV tape. I could imagine the mould and/or cleaning the mould makes the lubricant not work anymore, or takes it off the tape. Maybe that was why the tape after cleaning stalled the head drum? It was however quite interesting to see how the mould on that one tape made the path of the video heads across the tape visible.
I would actually try an open reel in play speed. Or its about time someone fabricates a table top cleaner with variable speed capability. I have the idea of design perhaps I can share it with you.
In the process of building a multiformat tape cleaning deck.. Got a couple of decks when I get more time to build them. Got a motor and a variable speed controller attached and working.. Just need to build it all onto a box..
In short, the customer found someone with a DV TapeChek machine. We had the tapes run through that, but the results were hardly any better. So it stopped there, they cannot really be improved from this point.
Remove tape completely from spool, submerge in an ultrasonic cleaner with proper cleaning solution added, let the power of cavitation remove mold, respool and enjoy. Like making a delicious miniDV tape noodle dish.
I’ve found that regular old white vinegar (the extra strength stuff if you’re feeling fancy) is an extremely effective mould remover - maybe this might also help here?
I just have done 15 moldy vhs tapes. Just by playing them first on a trashed machine. If it has played once, repeat with fast forward. a few times. But as sad in the video: depends on the severity of mold on the tapes.
This is a fantastic video and goes to show how much work you put into this stuff as opposed to most transfer outlets. Many of them take one look at a tape that's even remotely dirty and scream bloody murder for daring to darken their doorstep with an imperfect tape. At my workplace we use a rather interesting piece of equipment thats borderline handheld (and quite reasonably priced) for putting materials back onto a roll when they've been fully extended. I think this could be used to do much of the manual "desticking you do". It will certainly need a little bit of modification otherwise it will "reel up" MUCH too fast but I think it would automate the job you do for this. Would you mind if I sent you an e-Mail with a link to a youtube video of it and my idea?
Wonder if there's some element of lubrication on the tapes which is being attacked by the mould, and the cleaning process, that you could somehow replenish?
exercise in madness LOL :) Loved the process and your determination.. I have had to invent a similar rig for Film cleaning - many good books back in the day how to build your own rigs ect. Had a good little business for several years in the early 90s cleaning all those super 8 films people wanted to transfer en masse
If the mould is not too severe, I tend to run it through a sacrificial VHS machine before playing it. If the tape is really bad, a tape polishing machine such as a TapeChek may help. There is another possible source of a more flexible machine that the TapeChek and I may be buying in such a machine next year.
Anyone know any other way of cleaning the heads on one of the VHS players I have without using special cleaning solution or a head cleaner tape?. I've been trying to clean the heads on a machine I have which I recently bought in December to digitise alot of tapes to my computer, but now (probably due to dirty and badly worn tapes) I can't seem to clear up the image on playback. On the other video I have, which is a Panasonic DMR combi recorder (though the tape mechanism has jammed so unable to use at the moment) I've just used a piece of paper to carefully wipe the head, and everytime it has clean the heads after a few attemps , but with this machine (which is a basic Bush 6 head video) using this method doesn't seem to clean the heads. The inside of the machine and head drum is very clean, almost like new, so I don't understand why the heads won't clear up, maybe it's not the heads or they've been damaged.
They may be damaged. Looking at the heads under a X10 or stronger magnifier in strong light is the way to check. Try to get the head tips to "glisten" in the light, then you can see if one is damaged or contaminated.
I was wondering if alcohol defect the tape or not. , because I have mould in my vhs tape and some one told me that use distilled water for removing mould , safe and not react with tape rather than alcohol that will effect on tape .. so , u are the master who ask him in any old technology😊
This is a metal tape formulation, alcohol is OK in moderation on this. But on oxide tape like VHS, it could possibly take the oxide coating off the tape.
Even if all the mould is removed it's a pure Metal tape. If the coating protecting the Metal is breached, the metal is oxidised and the recording is lost. I believe Metal tapes dont survive moisture or flood contamination nearly as well as Oxide tapes as I guess Oxide tapes are already oxidised and more chemically stable.
I heard concentrated hydrogen peroxide cleans mold better than rubbing alcohol but they are only available through chemical suppliers. If someone knows how to 3D model, pretty sure they can design something simple with motors and can run the tape continuously across a cleaning pad.
Why not go back to basics? Something like an old reel to reel machine, but with conical centres do tat all reels can be supported. Then, to clean the tape, 2 or 3 contra rotating sponges on pinch rollers, using a pressure plate on the other side, like in an audio cassette. The rollers could sit in a bath of ipa, which would provide the cleaning. You could also add a dry sponge to remove the excess ipa.
This guy has a process for cleaning VHS mould - no idea if there is a DV player that could open like that - I'm suspecting not, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. ua-cam.com/video/hudU0uVHJPc/v-deo.html
This is a wild off-axis idea, but since the mould is biological material, and the tape and coating are not, why not try soaking the tape in a bio laundry washing-powder (or liquid) solution (the kind with enzymes that digest the dirt in your clothes). Try a bit and soak it for several hours and see if it can selectively digest just the mould and leave the rest intact. If it actually works, you then have the engineering problem of long-soaking the entire tape, but I can imagine that is not an engineering impossibility. Hard yes, but not impossible. The first stage is to find an effective cleaner and I think maybe bio enzymes might just be the answer. Or I could be barking up the wrong tree altogether.
![[How To] Best Way To Clean Tape Heads On Any Camcorder](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wfKcMoWL0pU/mqdefault.jpg)
I have never seen any type of tape with that amount of mould on it, I have used a scrap VHS recorder to clean tapes successfully, your idea of using a scrap miniDV camcorder is probably the best option.
It would be interesting to try it, but as you point out, it would be a lot of work & probably the tape would still not be recoverable.
Hi Colin - I believe I have your name correct...(?!) You sent me a box of VC/LVC tapes some years ago..
My reply here, if it's of any use with the moldy tapes is that years ago, I too had moldy MiniDV and 8mm camcorder tapes that were just a mass of picture static when I first tried to play them..
At the time, I had something I had built that did work successfully for awkward tapes of all sizes.. A dehumidification unit. Basically, a large plastic box with two 9V dehumidifiers sat in the base, wires through the box and sealed air-tight with silicone rubber sealant. The box had a rack fitted within it on which I sat my tapes. An air-tight, hermetically sealed lid meant no additional air could get in or out of the unit. At only 18volts, I would leave this for upto five days. The air within would be processed and reprocessed through the tapes, super-heating the air molecules in the box. After five days, it had sucked the air and tapes warm and dry. The previously no picture/no sound MiniDV tapes now had both picture and crystal clear sound.
I did eventually disassemble the unit when I bought an Andrew James Food Dehydrator - and have since used just that for all my tape baking..
These tapes have been baked already. The mould over the surface needs cleaning off, it's a very unusual problem for miniDV.
I have an idea. Since miniDV and CVC use 6mm tape, why not spool the miniDV tapes into a CVC shell and clean them using a CVC machine in FF/REW mode and a piece of rag soaked in IPA? That shouldn't hurt the machine since it fast forwards and rewinds with the tape unlaced.
There wouldn't be much room to set that up. However I am wondering about spooling the tape onto 1/4" audio reels and winding through using the Ferrograph tape deck. The problem though is setting up a IPA dispense and cleaning pad replenisher.
A low speed drill with wood or cardboard gears to adjust the speed ratio for a controlable pace. A holding frame setup with a long bathing trough for soaking and lots of time, patience and hope.
On the Rank Cintel mk 3 telecine there was a cleaning device that had two rolls of tissue paper running around a couple of rollers that the film was dragged between as it was shown. The tissue paper is fed automatically from a small roll constantly but slowly to clean the film. If you could get hold of one and rig up a way to feed the tape though in a motorised way it would probably work. Might need a few passes. It's not like the film cleaner in the video.
Maybe some aggressive household cleaner would have delivered some better results, but then the residue of the cleaner would have needed to be cleaned off as well. Another question comes to mind, there has always been that debate about wet and dry lubricants on MiniDV tape. I could imagine the mould and/or cleaning the mould makes the lubricant not work anymore, or takes it off the tape. Maybe that was why the tape after cleaning stalled the head drum? It was however quite interesting to see how the mould on that one tape made the path of the video heads across the tape visible.
I would actually try an open reel in play speed. Or its about time someone fabricates a table top cleaner with variable speed capability. I have the idea of design perhaps I can share it with you.
In the process of building a multiformat tape cleaning deck.. Got a couple of decks when I get more time to build them. Got a motor and a variable speed controller attached and working.. Just need to build it all onto a box..
It's now more than 2months of this video and I am eagerly waiting to know have you received the solutions
In short, the customer found someone with a DV TapeChek machine. We had the tapes run through that, but the results were hardly any better. So it stopped there, they cannot really be improved from this point.
Remove tape completely from spool, submerge in an ultrasonic cleaner with proper cleaning solution added, let the power of cavitation remove mold, respool and enjoy.
Like making a delicious miniDV tape noodle dish.
I’ve found that regular old white vinegar (the extra strength stuff if you’re feeling fancy) is an extremely effective mould remover - maybe this might also help here?
That was my thought too. Vinegar and an ultrasonic cleaner.
I would suggest running through a UV light . The question would be on duration and intensity of the light. A cheap UV LED Nail Lamp maybe ?
it would kill active mold but would not remove physical traces
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 It maybe start of a process that also requires addition steps after.
I just have done 15 moldy vhs tapes.
Just by playing them first on a trashed machine.
If it has played once, repeat with fast forward. a few times.
But as sad in the video: depends on the severity of mold on the tapes.
This is a fantastic video and goes to show how much work you put into this stuff as opposed to most transfer outlets. Many of them take one look at a tape that's even remotely dirty and scream bloody murder for daring to darken their doorstep with an imperfect tape.
At my workplace we use a rather interesting piece of equipment thats borderline handheld (and quite reasonably priced) for putting materials back onto a roll when they've been fully extended. I think this could be used to do much of the manual "desticking you do". It will certainly need a little bit of modification otherwise it will "reel up" MUCH too fast but I think it would automate the job you do for this. Would you mind if I sent you an e-Mail with a link to a youtube video of it and my idea?
Wonder if there's some element of lubrication on the tapes which is being attacked by the mould, and the cleaning process, that you could somehow replenish?
exercise in madness LOL :) Loved the process and your determination.. I have had to invent a similar rig for Film cleaning - many good books back in the day how to build your own rigs ect. Had a good little business for several years in the early 90s cleaning all those super 8 films people wanted to transfer en masse
Could this be applied safely on video 8/hi8 tapes?
Have tried dishwasher detergent mixed with hot water in higher concentration?
a small bath at the beginning of the tape path with some iso in?
Do you have a video to clean moldy VHS tape. Thank you
If the mould is not too severe, I tend to run it through a sacrificial VHS machine before playing it. If the tape is really bad, a tape polishing machine such as a TapeChek may help. There is another possible source of a more flexible machine that the TapeChek and I may be buying in such a machine next year.
Anyone know any other way of cleaning the heads on one of the VHS players I have without using special cleaning solution or a head cleaner tape?. I've been trying to clean the heads on a machine I have which I recently bought in December to digitise alot of tapes to my computer, but now (probably due to dirty and badly worn tapes) I can't seem to clear up the image on playback. On the other video I have, which is a Panasonic DMR combi recorder (though the tape mechanism has jammed so unable to use at the moment) I've just used a piece of paper to carefully wipe the head, and everytime it has clean the heads after a few attemps , but with this machine (which is a basic Bush 6 head video) using this method doesn't seem to clean the heads. The inside of the machine and head drum is very clean, almost like new, so I don't understand why the heads won't clear up, maybe it's not the heads or they've been damaged.
They may be damaged. Looking at the heads under a X10 or stronger magnifier in strong light is the way to check. Try to get the head tips to "glisten" in the light, then you can see if one is damaged or contaminated.
Can use UV light for clean
Maybe window cleaner spray may do the job with a very soft cloth
hi good video why do people let there tapes get like this so easy to put them away right
I was wondering if alcohol defect the tape or not. , because I have mould in my vhs tape and some one told me that use distilled water for removing mould , safe and not react with tape rather than alcohol that will effect on tape .. so , u are the master who ask him in any old technology😊
This is a metal tape formulation, alcohol is OK in moderation on this. But on oxide tape like VHS, it could possibly take the oxide coating off the tape.
can I use distilled water to clean vhs mouldy tape
I doubt that would help much with mould but you could only try. Don't get the tape too wet or it may curl.
I really need some kind of machine to clean a VHS tape which incorporate Wed and Dry Slow cleaning
TapeChek build such machines, but they are hugely expensive.
Pure isopropanol, or water solution?
I had some success with 100% IPA.
What you need is a "Wet-gate" video playback system ;)
What about warm water, sometimes we forget the simple stuff can work.
Even if all the mould is removed it's a pure Metal tape. If the coating protecting the Metal is breached, the metal is oxidised and the recording is lost. I believe Metal tapes dont survive moisture or flood contamination nearly as well as Oxide tapes as I guess Oxide tapes are already oxidised and more chemically stable.
I heard concentrated hydrogen peroxide cleans mold better than rubbing alcohol but they are only available through chemical suppliers. If someone knows how to 3D model, pretty sure they can design something simple with motors and can run the tape continuously across a cleaning pad.
Why not go back to basics? Something like an old reel to reel machine, but with conical centres do tat all reels can be supported.
Then, to clean the tape, 2 or 3 contra rotating sponges on pinch rollers, using a pressure plate on the other side, like in an audio cassette. The rollers could sit in a bath of ipa, which would provide the cleaning.
You could also add a dry sponge to remove the excess ipa.
This guy has a process for cleaning VHS mould - no idea if there is a DV player that could open like that - I'm suspecting not, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. ua-cam.com/video/hudU0uVHJPc/v-deo.html
This is a wild off-axis idea, but since the mould is biological material, and the tape and coating are not, why not try soaking the tape in a bio laundry washing-powder (or liquid) solution (the kind with enzymes that digest the dirt in your clothes). Try a bit and soak it for several hours and see if it can selectively digest just the mould and leave the rest intact.
If it actually works, you then have the engineering problem of long-soaking the entire tape, but I can imagine that is not an engineering impossibility. Hard yes, but not impossible.
The first stage is to find an effective cleaner and I think maybe bio enzymes might just be the answer. Or I could be barking up the wrong tree altogether.
Leaving the uncoupled tape to soak in an isopropyl alcohol solution bath overnight then attempting the cleaning process
bitte keine 4K !!!
All my recent videos are 4k but you can lower your playback resolution the settings for the video.