Sony DAT PCM 2300 pinch roller

[TIMTAPE]

I'm currently looking at the above DAT machine. Dont have much experience with them but I'm giving it a shot. The pinch roller's rubber had gone hard and the capstan cant reliably pull the tape through.

Anyone know a source for new pinch rollers? They're tiny, about 6mm x 7.5mm with about 1.5mm axle hole and what looks like a roller bearing.

Thanks, Tim

[Michael Maurice]

Tim, I've asked my friend who's a Sony dealer to find out the part number and availability.

[TIMTAPE]

Thanks for that, Michael. I appreciate it.

Tim

[Michael Maurice]

Unfortunately the pinch roller is no longer available.

[TIMTAPE]

OK, thanks for your work in enquiring Michael.

I suspect I will have problems sourcing one...

Tim

[DOFFERY]

Hi Tim,
I have some small rollers 7mm overall dia. about 5.5mm depth. hole(not with a metal bearing) axle hole as near as possible to 60 thou. near enough 1,5mm.
If you don't have any luck you could try one of these.

Colin.

[6110c37]

If all else fails let me know the OD and thickness of the pinch roller rubber and if I have anything suitable I will try and re-manufacture the roller.

Martin

[tri-comp]

Hi Tim,

If this part in the picture (Sony Partno.: X33630251) is what you're looking for check this site out:

http://www.broadcastspares.com/113101-x33630251.html

They're UK-based I think and I'm not affiliated with them.

Best of luck,

/tri-comp

EDIT:
Forgot to say; I have the service-manual. PM me if interested...

[TIMTAPE]

Thanks Colin, 6110 and Tri comp.

Tricomp, that looks exactly the part but at 49 pounds I dont think the owner will want to touch it. Pity one has to buy the bracket assy as well. I only need the roller.

6110 do you re rubber rollers? I have a local fellow who does this but I can imagine his look when he sees how tiny it is. Even reel to reel pinch rollers he baulks at, understandably. Very fine, fiddly work.

Colin, maybe one of the ones you mentioned would do but I'm not sure if the plain bearing would work for the application. Could be worth a try though.

Will be in touch. Still canvassing the options.

Thanks again all.

Tim

PS: Just tried USA Sony. Part no longer available!

[TIMTAPE]

Well the local rerubbering man has agreed to have a go at the tiny roller so I've just posted it off. He said he would have a go on the condition that under strong magnification he could actually see it !

Cheers Tim

[Michael Maurice]

Tim,

Before you give this pinch roller to your local man, check out terrys rubber rollers he rebuilds pinch rollers professionally and many be able to help.

[TIMTAPE]

Thanks Michael,

I did know of Terry's, but since I'm fortunate in having a rerubbering specialist here in Perth I've never needed to send a roller further afield.
But I suspect this tiny one is going to be difficult to do no matter who does the work. It's about the size of a garden pea.

Probably in original manufacture they started with a long brass tube, rubbered and cured that, then lathed it down to correct size, then cut the tube into many pinch rollers. If I had a mind to it, I suppose I could suggest he do it this way and make me 10 or 20 in one go, which I could sell. But that's not really my style.

Thanks again.

Cheers Tim

[6110c37]

Hi Tim,
I have a limited range of neoprene tube which can be vulcanized to an existing roller then ground to concentricity with a high speed grinding attachment on my small lathe. But it all depends on the OD of the roller, with and without the rubber coating as to whether I have suitable material. Let me know if your friend cannot help.
Martin.

[TIMTAPE]

Thanks Martin,

I may need to come to you if the local contact has problems.

Regards Tim

[TIMTAPE]

A slight twist in the road. I remembered that I had a DAT deck (not audio but for computer data storage) which plugs in via SCSI.
It wasnt a Sony but when I opened it, it had a pinch roller in it which it turns out is an exact match to the Sony DAT audio deck. The rubber is in very good condition and it now works like a charm in the Sony machine.

I suspect this may be the way to go for finding a pinch roller and perhaps other mechanical parts for a DAT audio machine.
I believe the computer DAT drives will play all DAT tapes but do not read the data on DAT audio tape recording. Still some mechanical parts may be exchangeable. Probably DAT drives for computers were manufactured past the time that DAT audio decks were discontinued and were more plentiful than DAT audio decks. Maybe there are still parts available off the shelf. Does anyone know?

Cheers Tim

[jamesperrett]

I'm sure that there are certain computer DAT drives that will read audio tapes but I can't remember which ones exactly (I think they were fitted to Silicon Graphics workstations). I suspect that there weren't that many actual manufacturers of DAT mechanisms so there is probably good scope for interchanging parts. I know that Pioneer made mechanisms for a wide variety of audio machines although I believe that Sony made their own mechanisms.

James.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by TIMTAPE

A slight twist in the road. I remembered that I had a DAT deck (not audio but for computer data storage) which plugs in via SCSI.
It wasnt a Sony but when I opened it, it had a pinch roller in it which it turns out is an exact match to the Sony DAT audio deck. The rubber is in very good condition and it now works like a charm in the Sony machine.

What a piece of good luck, Tim!

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by TIMTAPE

Probably DAT drives for computers were manufactured past the time that DAT audio decks were discontinued and were more plentiful than DAT audio decks. Maybe there are still parts available off the shelf. Does anyone know?

I'm not sure about parts, but I would have been doing a DAT drive with most servers until about 6 years ago when I switched to Ultrium. Faults were fixed either by the warranty or replacement.

HP still do DAT drives - see here.

There will certainly be a huge number of these drives out there in old servers, but no idea what condition the pinch rollers would be in - I have a dead one in the workshop I haven't gotten around to throwing out yet, and could probably lay my hands on 2-3 more pretty quickly.

If anyone wants a dead HP Surestore DAT8i to play with let me know, yours for postage.

[TIMTAPE]

OK thanks for that info about the HP DAT drives arjoll, and the fact that many were used in servers. I'll keep my eye out for them.

Regards Tim