> Ordinary rubbing alcohol is 70% isopropanol, but many stores > (grocery stores or drug stores) also have 99% isopropanol. > If you have a near by chemistry lab you can get reagent grade, > which is probably 99.99% or so. (Not counting the water that > will get in as soon as you open the bottle.)
I was able to locate a source for quart jugs of reel-to-reel cleaning fluid, which contains the flouroethyline additive (in addition to the alcohol). Apparently, radio and TV stations still buy the stuff in quantity w/o permits, and still use it for the pro-grade equipment. > Are you warming the heads? I have heard over the years that > it the favorite way to reduce flaking. The first time I heard > that one was an article in Popular Science about a video tape > recorder that used 0.25in tape linear recording at 120in/s. > (Many years before Beta, or even U-matic.) Warming the heads > was necessary to prevent scraping the oxide off even of new > tapes at that speed. Several people have suggested this. The problem at this point is that the tapes are already so damaged that most of the techniques just can't help -- we're beyond that point. The oxide is already literally falling off the backing. Nota bene: Inquiring about purchasing industrial chemicals in the Washington DC area gets various people *really* paranoid. Counting police cars in the area has shown a marked increase, and I'm not convinced it's due to increased crime. I suppose it's one way to get better police coverage. 8-( - db
