How to Clean a Cassette Deck

Tech46

Editor

posted on 14 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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If the deck is just eating your tape and you can't rewind or fast forward, cleaning the deck as follows may help the tape start playing smoothly again.

Steps

Remove the tape from the deck.

Open up the tape compartment.

Gather Isopropyl alcohol (70-80%)Q-tips and a lens cleaning cloth.

Soak the Q-tip in the alcohol.

Clean the heads. Press fast forward and rewind so that the heads move. This will allow you to clean the heads more evenly.

Clean the pinch roller. Press play so the roller is moving when you clean it. This part tends to be very grimy.

Clean the capstan. This will also move when you press play. The capstan is the thin metal roller to the left of the pinch roller.

Using the lens cloth, wipe out any other areas that appear dusty or dirty.

Insert your tape.

Rewind the tape to the start, then fast forward to the end. This will smooth out the tape and any wrinkles that occurred when the tape came out should go away. Rewind and fast forward until the tape plays smoothly.