Philips N2204 Cassette Recorder

[Backtoreality]

Hi folks,
I recently acquired a one of these from a car boot sale. Opening up revealed a lot of black goo where the belts had once been so I cleaned it up and ordered a couple of packs of 100 belts from China (accidentally, I forgot I'd ordered the first pack) I now have loads of drive belts but they start at 40mm diameter while the small belt on the N2204 is around 20mm. Has anyone successfully cut and glued drive belts of 1mm square? I could buy a kit from one of the online sellers but they cost an arm and a leg in relation to what I've paid for the belts I've got.
Regards

David

[camtechman]

David,

You simply buy them from CPC (where those sellers buy them from & add their markup)

Here's the link for CPC: http://cpc.farnell.com/ and search for AVBELT59 & AVBELT110

AVBELT59 is the small one & AVBELT110 is the larger

Bish Bash Bosh----------Job done at a sensible price.!

The hard work comes cleaning off the old melted belts and all surfaces it's 'infected' and there's no short cut to that job and I been doing it for over 20 years and I still hate it!

Good luck

Tony

[Backtoreality]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for that, I haven't even looked at CPC! The black goo is all off, took ages with "petrol" lighter fluid, but did work.
Regards,
David

[cheerfulcharlie]

Cut and glue does work if you have nothing else. You must use a new sharp blade in your scalpel to get an even cut down the rubber, then a loupe to see that the glue (super) only goes onto the mating surfaces. Any bumps or roughness at the join can be smoothed off with dry 'wet and dry' paper.

[emeritus]

I have sometimes removed this sort of goo by adding powder to it and working it up to a dry putty-like consistency with a plastic spatula. Most of it can then be scraped off without sticking to everything. The very fine dry soil from our garden works OK (we have a Loess-type soil here), but something like Bentonite as used in home brewing to remove suspended sediment would probably be better as it is highly absorbent. Not suitable where there is danger of the powder getting somewhere it could cause damage.

[camtechman]

I use the 'atomic bomb' method: M.E.K. (Methyl Ethyl Keytone) but making sure it goes nowhere near plastic parts....probably why, over the years, I've grown 3 extra fingers on each hand, As the singer Fred Wedlock penned: "It'll remove pubic hair from a concrete gnome"

[Tootles]

Originally Posted by Backtoreality

Has anyone successfully cut and glued drive belts of 1mm square?

I have - that size and smaller. That's how I've done most of my belts. Best way of doing it IME when a 50-pack of assorted belts costs ~£3 and a single correctly-sized belt costs £8-15.

The trick is to cut exactly straight (I can't stress this enough) and put a tiny bit of superglue on it, and hold the ends together for a count of thirty. Doing it this way I've made belts up for all my cassette machines (occupational hazard of buying archaic hardware eh?) and they all perform perfectly. How I think of it is that a properly thought-through and executed botch job is just as good as doing it the "right" way.

Only problem now is finding the right shape/diameter for my open reel deck - a National Matsushita 401S that uses 1.5mm round belts - which I've not been able to so far (unless I should go with my gut and get a turntable belt and cut that to size...).

[camtechman]

The trick is to cut exactly straight (I can't stress this enough) and put a tiny bit of superglue on it, and hold the ends together for a count of thirty

As Tootles states above, this is the method I use but to add some extra info: The best tool for getting an exact & straight cut is by using a Swann Morton N0:3 Scalpel Handle & a new Swann Moron No: 11 surgical blade.

Also application of a thin to medium/thin super glue and apply the droplet onto only one cut surface,

If you apply it to both, there is a chance that it could ooze out and cause the surplus to form a ridge around the joint which can cause a blip to the smooth running of the belt as it passes over the flywheel and the motor pulley.

Applying a spot of super glue is best carried out by letting a drop of the superglue to fall onto, say, a small coin and then, using a piece of stiff wire (or a straightened paper clip) to touch the surface of the glue, on the coin, and touch it to one of the cut ends, as mentioned above.

Note, and this may sound obvious, make sure the cut belt is parallel before you bring the two cut ends together, otherwise you'll end up with a twist in it !

If you have a head fitting magnifying glass with LED lighting (about £6.50 on Ebay), you'll have, not only both hands free but also have a good close up for getting the two cut ends joined squarely too.

Good luck.

[argibbo]

Originally Posted by camtechman

You simply buy them from CPC (where those sellers buy them from & add their markup)

Here's the link for CPC: http://cpc.farnell.com/ and search for AVBELT59 & AVBELT110

AVBELT59 is the small one & AVBELT110 is the larger

Bish Bash Bosh----------Job done at a sensible price.!

The hard work comes cleaning off the old melted belts and all surfaces it's 'infected' and there's no short cut to that job and I been doing it for over 20 years and I still hate it!

Thanks for the belt data Tony

I have just restored a Philips N3302. You're so right about the belts being gooey and really hard to clean off.
Thanks for the head up on the replacements. I have a kit of replacement belts of varying sizes, but...
The flywheel belt from my kit was the cause of a high level of wow & flutter. I substituted a narrower belt and the problem disappeared.
These beautiful little machines are often disregarded but they have a number of important features:

Electronic motor speed control (adjustable)
AC bias.

Also important to note is the disconcerting motor noise present on playback. This is a layout issue in the design. The motor and speaker/amplifier stage are too close together, however the recorded signal is clean and free from this noise when the tape is replayed on a different machine.

Replay quality is actually pretty decent, especially if you use a better quality mic. I use an AGK D190 omni on mine.

Now restoring a Pye 9118 (N2204 in a sharp suit). This one came complete with 6 Eveready HP11's still installed, rusted up but not leaky! I struggled in vain to find a date code on the cells to see when they gave their last gasp!

If anyone has a spare tape transport lever (Play/rec fast wind/rewind) mine is missing the plastic cover.

Cheers
Andy