Tapesonic 70-T capstan motor
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[Deleted User]
Posts: 7,658
Hello,
Before I put everything back together I thought I'd take a photo of the (West) German made Papst capstan motor for my Tapesonic open reel recorder I'm finally getting to. Really well made and worth appreciating.
Enjoy, Ken
Before I put everything back together I thought I'd take a photo of the (West) German made Papst capstan motor for my Tapesonic open reel recorder I'm finally getting to. Really well made and worth appreciating.
Enjoy, Ken
Post edited by [Deleted User] on
Comments
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Beautiful. What size is it?
Call me a geek, but I love well designed/engineered things like that. I have a couple vacuum tube HP voltmeters that I like to take the lid off and gawk at.Wristwatch--->Crisco -
Hmmmmm....those rubber bushings look like something I could use.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Quality machining like that is definitely a thing of beauty.
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Before you go gutting Mr. S's beautiful Papst motor (so nice, one might be tempted to say it's a Blue Ribbon effort on Papst's part)... www.tubesandmore.com has a pretty good selection of grommets, last time I looked (granted, that's a few years ago... but still).Hmmmmm....those rubber bushings look like something I could use.
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Hi Strider,
I agree, well made mechanical objects have a beauty beyond just what they are supposed to do. The motor is about 4" in diameter and is an outer rotor design, meaning the complete part on the right spins, giving an inertial flywheel effect. The black assembly, in the middle, is where the wires leading to the motor's coils are attached and the external control wiring is done. The threaded posts and the nuts are made of brass.
Here is another interesting part of the Tapesonic. This is the underside of main transport plate and shows the automatic shut off assembly. If the tape would break or the end of the tape happened the right hand tension lever would drop. On this side the weighted arm would swing down and the screw head that has attached the spring string would push in the on/off switch. Here again brass is used to make the weight and it cleaned up pretty nicely.
Cheers, Ken -
The Germans are/were so good at engineering things like that. This just goes to prove they don't make them like they used to.
Very nice piece of visual art.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
Hi H9,
I agree, the capstan motor is an excellent example of German engineering as art. But, the Tapesonic recorders were made in New York City as part of the Premier Electronics Laboratories. They were located at 382 Lafayette Street and owned by Sam Miller who along with two other people made custom tape recorders. I remember reading about them in Audio magazine along time ago. You would send them a deposit and they would build a tape deck customized for what you wanted. The take-up and supply reel motors were made by Bodine, also a New York company.
That's why I'm taking my time refurbishing this unit, since it comes from an earlier era of American audio craftsmanship built by a small custom shop.
Cheers, Ken -
Ken, do you have any Fairchild hardware? Some of the most amazing audio hardware I've encountered. Sherman Fairchild was a remarkable guy; the phalanx of businesses he started is nigh-on unbelievable.
[
If you've got one Fairchild tt, you need to have a backup, you know? ;-)
http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=vintage&n=198875&highlight=Sherman+Fairchild&r=&search_url=%2Fdefault.mpl%3Fsearchtext%3DSherman%2BFairchild%26b%3DAND%26topic%3D%26topics_only%3DN%26author%3D%26date1%3D%26date2%3D%26slowmessage%3D%26sort%3Dscore%26sortOrder%3DDESC%26forum%3DALL
http://www.bcwarbirds.com/sherman_fairchild_bio.htm
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Fairchild/Aero25.htm
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19600725,00.html
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/dlsearch/results/detail.do?fullItemID=/hoagy/ATM-MC2-3-10-9 -
Hi Mark,
That is a beautiful turntable, I wasn't aware of Fairchild's contributions, except Fairchild aircraft, of course. I'll keep an eye out now that I know. That kind of reminds me of Harry Belock and Everest Records. I've collected quite a few of the first and second generation Everest records.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everest_Records
Cheers, Ken -
The Fairchild turntables are built to remarkable tolerances. The two in the photos are the rarest of the rare (750); unbelievable pieces of hardware... it just doesn't get much better. Fairchild also made phono cartridges, preamps and various kinds of signal processors; all beautifully built stuff.
http://www.oswaldsmillaudio.com/Products/plinths-Others.html
http://www.westernlabo.com/11_111.html -
After some additional cleaning the motor went back together and seems to be spinning freely with no chatter. This also shows the transport schematic and connections to the motor. Next is to finish the pinch roller assembly which was located under the motor.
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Hello,
Things are progressing, I've taken apart the tape lifter assembly, on the right, and cleaned it up. The round object, on the left, is a solenoid to activate the pinch roller mechanism, most solenoids on tape recorders are shaped like a cylinder, but this one is round. There is a coil spring on the other side of the faceplate to return the pinch roller after the solenoid has released. Next part to do is the speed selector switch.
Cheers, Ken -
Ken, I must compliment you on the pictures you're getting of this stuff as well. Very nice and sharp, with great lighting -- not too much, not too little. Rather striking!
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Thanks, bmbguy, I appreciate the comments. There's so little information available on this deck or the earlier models made by this company that I thought I'd try and document as much as I could. I wasn't sure if it was very interesting to CP members or not.
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Hello,
Here are some additional photos. The first one shows a detail of the pinch roller coil spring I referred to in the previous post. When activated the solenoid positions the pinch roller arm against the capstan shaft driving the tape. When the solenoid is released the coil spring brings the pinch roller arm back into position. It is unusual to find a circular shaped solenoid and a self contained coil spring. The second photo is a detail of the tape lifter arms as seen from the front surface of the head mounting block. When the solenoid is activated the arm mounted on the back of the solenoid rotates and pushes down on the large arm and allows the spring loaded tape lifter assembly to move inward allowing the tape to come in contact with the erase, record and playback heads. All of this a very smoothly operating and compact mechanism.
The third photo is the tape speed selector switch that I disassembled in order to clean the silver plated contact surfaces. This switch was pretty coated with oil mixed with dust and dirt, but things were fairly clean underneath.
Cheers, Ken -
Hello,
This is a photo of the flywheel assembly that was pretty grimy, but cleaned up nicely. This is placed on the left side of the transport and works to eliminate any speed variations as the tape comes off of the supply reel. The weight is a little over 2 pounds and is attached to the shaft which goes through the bearing housing.
Cheers, Ken -
Hello,
Well the Tapesonic transport is all back together and seems to be working fine, I had to disassemble the flywheel and do a better job lubricating the bearings. But, it rotates smoothly now and I learned a few things about putting it together, this time. Now to start on the electronics section, where the record and playback electronics are located. Here is a photo of the front plate after I've cleaned up the control knobs and shafts and VU meters. I've checked out the power supply and it seems fine, regulated voltage of 24VDC, but I've ordered some replacement filter caps.
Cheers, Ken -
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Beautiful work Ken!
I have really gotten the bug for restoring older components.
Not that I have done it yet, but I find myself reading/researching every spare moment, and watching restoration vids on youtube.
Ordering the parts for my first tube re-cap pretty soon.
Pretty addictive hobby, and your not helping Ken!:redface:
Awesome work!:cheesygrin:Testing
Testing
Testing -
oooooh.
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Hello,
Here are some more photos I've taken. This shows the rear of the electronics section with plugin circuit boards for bias, record and playback for each channel. You can see the grunge inside the enclosure that needs to be cleaned and polished. The top plate was in really bad shape and I've done a partial cleaning just to get it started. The other photo shows the main wiring harness and connections to the power supply and front panel controls.
Cheers, Ken -
Here are some photos of the transport. I replaced the tape function buttons, the original ones were fairly worn and the "stop" button rocked on its support shaft. I found these generic control buttons and had to carefully Dremel out the centers so they would fit over the original shafts, that took a few days to get them just right. The small pieces of tape are there to help in setting the pinch roller pressure, giving calibration marks. I had the two head covers and the two NAB hubs powder coated a textured black and silver metal flake to match the original main plate's color. The photos of the rear show some technical details. The deck is an example of a direct drive capstan Papst motor with no belts, the two reel motors are beautifully made Bodine electric motors (yes, Jethro was building his famous motors down by the cement pond all those years). There are three relays that control the tape movement function, this was the first time that I was able (read: brave enough) to take them apart and thoroughly clean everything inside.
Cheers, Ken -
Hi pepster,
Thanks for the kind words, considering the level of craftsmanship you show in your cable and power cord construction you'd be a natural at restoration. Go ahead, jump in. There's plenty of technical assistance here in CP to help out if you run into snags.
Cheers, Ken -
Excellent work Ken!
thanks for sharing -
No problem, it's nice having a place to talk about older audio gear. Here I've removed the circuit boards and the upper chassis top and can see what's next. I found the date "plaque" on the inside top of the chassis housing. Time to break out the Goo Gone, some Flitz and a whole mess of Q-tips and cotton balls.
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WOW!
I've been watching this thread like most of your projects. This rebuild is amazing! Great job Ken!Carl -
Outstanding piece and work Ken! I need some help with bulbs for my tape deck. Just can't find them.Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS * Roon * Gustard R26 DAC / Singxer SU-6 DDC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 *
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This isn't a very exciting subject, but I thought it turned out pretty nice. This is the AC transformer for the electronics section of the tape deck. I removed the two end caps and had them sandblasted and powder coated glossy black. I sanded off the old black paint from the laminations and exposed the copper electrostatic shield which I polished and coated with a clear lacquer then masked that off and painted the laminations. I added some new hardware and now the transformer looks much better. I've cleaned up the main chassis so now I can put the power supply back together.
Cheers, Ken -
Hello,
I've had some time to work on this project and I thought I'd share. I've replaced the three motor run capacitors and solved a problem of slowing down during rewind and fast forward. I've taken apart one of the VU meters and realigned the needle bearings (tricky job). I've sent off one of the reel motors for a problem with a slight rattling sound.
I've installed NOS Nortronics erase, record and playback heads and had everything optically aligned by JRF Magnetics. The photo shows the round mounting plates that are used for alignment.
Enjoy, Ken -
neat-o
