How Many Cassette Deck Users Here?

Been away from this thread a while but currently working through a stack of Nakamichi CR decks that I managed to amass over the past couple of years.
Consisting of a CR1E, 2x CR2's, a CR3E and a beautiful CR4E.
All have/had their issues and I've completed the repair/refurb back to full functionality on 4/5 decks. The last one to do is the CR4E, the 'daddy' of the stack. Currently building up the courage and trying to find the time to do a complete strip-down of the transport to refurb the reel and mode motors. Not for the feint-hearted!


View attachment 1319832
Checking the heads heights, tilt (zenith) and depth penetration and a thorough cleaning of the entire tape path is a good first step in order to ascertain how in or out of specification the playback signal is.
View attachment 1319820View attachment 1319821

I'm finding that all of these decks' capstan flywheels are sufferering from varying degrees of 'zinc pest' which which can contribute to horrendous wow&flutter measurements.
Not much can be done to compensate for this unfortunately, apart from sourcing replacement flywheels and who has those??
View attachment 1319828View attachment 1319829View attachment 1319830View attachment 1319822

Cleaning the transports and making sure everything is free from contaminants and detritus is a must on these decks

View attachment 1319825

The original nakamichi belts should always be reconditioned and re-used if they are still elastic and show no signs of deterioration. I usually hit them with Platenclene (Naptha) which both cleans and reconditions, leaving them looking and feeling like new.

Before
View attachment 1319826

After
View attachment 1319827

Rushing to find out if a deck can still play tapes ok before cleaning the full tape path can result in minor calamities and a waste of good tapes.
View attachment 1319834

Once the decks are re-assembled and made good for operation it's time to get down to tweaking the azimuth and play/bias/record levels. I'm using the excellent HansPeter Roth calibration tapes to perform all necessary calibrations and gaining nice improvements back towards factory-specification.
View attachment 1319823View attachment 1319836

Dolby levels check out ok on this one.
View attachment 1319833

Getting the play azimuth back in-phase requires a decent set of screwdrivers and a steady hand.
View attachment 1319824

A 10 second average 0.068% W&F WRMS measurement on the original cpastan belt is acceptable.
View attachment 1319835

The Nakamichi CR range (1-4) are some of the best bang-for-buck Nak decks you can get hold of. Their sound signature is wonderful, even the lowly CR1 and CR2 sound epic, while the CR3 and CR4 entertain on a higher level.

Once these are completed I have a stack of 7 yamaha decks to get through.
No rest for the wicked!

View attachment 1319831
Hi
You can straighten those capstan wheels out on a lathe.
Bring them to a metalworks place ,if you can find one ,these days. Or get a small one yourself.
Cheers
 
You can straighten those capstan wheels out on a lathe.
I did think about that but the problem with zinc pest is that it will just re-appear, a bit like rust.
The impurities in the zinc alloy comes from within the mass and bubbles/expands out to the surface.
However, I'm in touch with several machine shops regarding a project to have some cassette head gauges made so maybe it could be an interesting experiment to get them balanced and observe how long it take for the phenomenon to re-appear.... it would be good data, particularly for Nakamichi deck owners as the flywheels are all made of the same zinc alloy I think.
 
Been away from this thread a while but currently working through a stack of Nakamichi CR decks that I managed to amass over the past couple of years.
Consisting of a CR1E, 2x CR2's, a CR3E and a beautiful CR4E.
All have/had their issues and I've completed the repair/refurb back to full functionality on 4/5 decks. The last one to do is the CR4E, the 'daddy' of the stack. Currently building up the courage and trying to find the time to do a complete strip-down of the transport to refurb the reel and mode motors. Not for the feint-hearted!


View attachment 1319832
Checking the heads heights, tilt (zenith) and depth penetration and a thorough cleaning of the entire tape path is a good first step in order to ascertain how in or out of specification the playback signal is.
View attachment 1319820View attachment 1319821

I'm finding that all of these decks' capstan flywheels are sufferering from varying degrees of 'zinc pest' which which can contribute to horrendous wow&flutter measurements.
Not much can be done to compensate for this unfortunately, apart from sourcing replacement flywheels and who has those??
View attachment 1319828View attachment 1319829View attachment 1319830View attachment 1319822

Cleaning the transports and making sure everything is free from contaminants and detritus is a must on these decks

View attachment 1319825

The original nakamichi belts should always be reconditioned and re-used if they are still elastic and show no signs of deterioration. I usually hit them with Platenclene (Naptha) which both cleans and reconditions, leaving them looking and feeling like new.

Before
View attachment 1319826

After
View attachment 1319827

Rushing to find out if a deck can still play tapes ok before cleaning the full tape path can result in minor calamities and a waste of good tapes.
View attachment 1319834

Once the decks are re-assembled and made good for operation it's time to get down to tweaking the azimuth and play/bias/record levels. I'm using the excellent HansPeter Roth calibration tapes to perform all necessary calibrations and gaining nice improvements back towards factory-specification.
View attachment 1319823View attachment 1319836

Dolby levels check out ok on this one.
View attachment 1319833

Getting the play azimuth back in-phase requires a decent set of screwdrivers and a steady hand.
View attachment 1319824

A 10 second average 0.068% W&F WRMS measurement on the original cpastan belt is acceptable.
View attachment 1319835

The Nakamichi CR range (1-4) are some of the best bang-for-buck Nak decks you can get hold of. Their sound signature is wonderful, even the lowly CR1 and CR2 sound epic, while the CR3 and CR4 entertain on a higher level.

Once these are completed I have a stack of 7 yamaha decks to get through.
No rest for the wicked!

View attachment 1319831
Drug my old Nakamichi CR1A out of the garage which is a super hostile environment. After 16 years. Wiped off the grime. Plays great.
 
Get some new ones made. Stainless.
They will be an exact replica of the IT-M300 and with possibly even tighter tolerances for flatness, perpendicularity, parallelism and dimensional stability.
RFQ's have been sent out to various machine shops.

DSC_0362_1_1.JPG
DSC_0363_1_1.JPG
 
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There used to be a site for machining and plastic jobs, called e-machines or similar, you can find sellers and buyers for what you have in mind.
It was basically a meeting place for those dealing in metal and plastic parts.
Somebody I know made lots of money by supplying small quantities of plastic parts to buyers in the USA, he used to get orders from people visiting that site, now of course 3-D printing has changed the way things work.
He used to make the molds, and injection mold 50 - 100 impressions, in this line 100k impressions are a normal run...medical syringe molds making 14,400 per hour are considered slow!

Or you could have them made by 3-D printing, some people do have metal sputtering or similar machines, cost may be high.
Even cast iron or old aluminum piston crowns can be used to make flywheels, more durable than zinc, which I suspect was pressure die cast, and the material may be in fact similar to what was used in carburetors.

Please make sure the new ones are within 5% of the original weight, or you may have speed regulation issues.
 
A BX-125 packed down somewhere in a cardboard box have pretty tired rubber, any suggestion where to buy a replacement kit, or can I go with just any kit from ebay like this one linked below...?
Full Kit Belt (2pcs) + Roller + Idler for cassette deck Nakamichi BX-125 - ebay.com
Have you determined conclusively that it's actually 'pretty tired' and needs replacing? If not, then if the capstan belt is still intact then just measure w&f using WFGUI.
Soak the belt and pinch roller in naptha to recondition and clean. measure again.
If the capstan belt is gloop then you won't get in-spec w&f with any other belt and it's a lottery as to which belts are the best at any given time, even from the same belt supplier.
I generally use webspareparts or audio andijk.
 
Pretty tired to such a degree it wont spin the cassette and that was already years ago, so the w&f measurement have to wait.
I found WebSpareParts, unfortunately only the flat belt for my BX.
https://webspareparts.com/collectio...an-belt-for-cassette-deck-nakamichi-bx-125e-1

Ok while typing here I tried to find Andijk and I think you meant this web page:
https://www.electro-andijk.nl/
and for my deck it would be this kit, just short of the roller, the belts are supposed to be "original", I have no idea but wondering do someone still manufacturing all the original Nakamichi rubber.
https://www.electro-andijk.nl/categ...hi-bx-125-bx125-snarenset-cassettedeck-detail

And ANT's webpage for the WFGUI SW
http://www.ant-audio.co.uk/index.php?cat=post&qry=library

I have to put up a calibration tape on the shopping list too.
 
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In the late '90 i bought a clearance of Sony Chrome tapes - budget type but much better than what available previously-
Since i've always hated Dolby (a remedy worse than the problem, imo), on my Teac C2 those tapes used with metal EQ + CrO2 Bias position give me the right feel on highs.
On the A 430 is just a matter of altering a bit the auto bias procedure.
c
Don't ask me why, i don't know