Rubber idler wheel rubber restoration

That link was dead when I tried it, yesterday. I got a 404 error. It's working tonight.

hey

Finally. Someone named a product after me.

I have used Rubber Roller Restorer from

Fixes printer rubber rollers etc etc. Colin

All the rejuvenating stuff will not work or will not last long .

If you have some VCR belts around that will fit around the hard idler . A real thin one the same width would be deal but 1 or 2 of the square ones will work .

Stretch or place the belt-s around the idler and run a bead of superglue around to hold it on . mount the idler in a drill and run it on sandpaper . If you are using square belt-s you shound sand it down in the drill first to take some off so the finished diameter is closer .

This works for me 100%

About 25 years ago, I had a Nordmende pinch roller that didn't respond to the usual surface treatments, so a coworker tried TCE or MEK. The trick was that he used either heat and/or pressure/vacuum (don't remember anymore what the chamber was) to induce the TCE to penetrate. After the TCE the pinch roller was clean and pliable, but shrunken. So I followed another recommendation to soak it in brake fluid, and sure enough, it plumped right up. YMMV, no warranty expressed or implied, etc.

TM

Nice hearing the various techniques mentioned in this thread. I have restored digital tape transport capstans by removing the deteriorated rubber and layering back to the original diameter using multiple dips in liquid vinyl; the capstan needs to be spun at low rpm with the shaft horizontal until each vinyl layer has set. I did a capstan for an HP-85 awhile ago that required quite close tolerances and this technique worked well; the result was a bright red surface however ;-)

Regards,

Michael

msg hath wroth:

The HP85 drive roller is mostly metal with a relatively thin coating of rubber. See photos at: See page 2 of 3 pages. Resurfacing such a roller will work just fine. However, the Sony and Gerrard idlers have a much thicker layer of rubber. The deformation depth of the capstan is also substantially deeper than the HP85 drive roller, requiring a much thicker deposition of added rubber. It's probably possible, using the suggested freezing the rubber and machining it down to the diameter required. As I indicated in a previous message, I think it will work with the relatively wide Sony idler, but will not work with the fairly narrow Gerrard idler.

Current status is that I'm gathering an assortment of chemicals and concoctions, along with a variety of rubber parts. I'll try some experiments next weekend, and then apply the least disgusting fix to the customers antique tape recorder and turntable.

Thanks for all the suggestions and hints.

Incidentally, this is how I repaired an HP65 calculator drive roller:

The "rubber" is a piece of vinyl tubing, conveniently with the correct diameter. The only good way to cut it to size is with a razor blade.