VCR cleaning really isn't much different than doing the dishes. Some dishes simply rinse clean while others you may have to scrub and scrub to get clean. VCRs are the same. No two VCRs get dirty alike and like dishes, some clean up real easy while others need to be scrubed hard.
If you have a head cleaning cassette, it's certainly worth giving it a try before tearing it apart for a manual cleaning. If you don't have a cleaning cassette, a secret from the service bench is to simply play an ordinary cassette for a couple of hours (no you won't be able to see the picture while it plays, so do something else to keep yourself occupied while it plays). The action of rotary heads contacting tape for a long period of time can safely remove soft deposits from the heads. This surprisingly restores normal operation about 2/3rds the time.
In event all the above fails, you must open it up for a manual cleaning. Even if the video heads look squeaky clean, invisible amounts of certain contaminants can render them useless.
Sure it's more work, but look on the bright side. Manually scrubbing the heads cleans them best. And while you have the cover off, you can clean everything else inside too. Something head cleaning cassettes can't do. Cleaning cassettes are only effective on the video heads and upper drum assembly.
The most important tools for the job are chamois tipped cleaning sticks, cotton swabs and head cleaning fluid. Most electronic stores carry them.
The term video heads and video drum are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are different. The video drum is the large tilted assembly the tape wraps around and is divided into two halves. The lower stationary part is known as the lower drum. It consists of the servo motor that spins the upper half, know as the upper drum. As you rotate the upper drum by hand, the slots you see at the bottom of it, are the video heads. They are the tiny electromagnetic coils that do the actual reading and writing on the tape. You can actually be quite mean to the video drum without damaging it; but when it comes to the heads, WATCH OUT! They are very fragile.
CLEANING THE VIDEO HEADS - in the event of a head clog, the first thing professionals try to accomplish on a cleaning job is to restore the picture. Cleaning the video heads is the most critical part of the process. Use extreme caution. Never use cotton swabs. Cotton tends to grab, get caught or leave fibers in the heads. It can also break them. Using chamois sticks is by far the safest method.
Soak a chamois stick with head cleaning fluid and place it directly on a video head with light pressure. For beginners, the safest method involves holding the chamois stick stationary in one hand and rotating the drum clockwise with the other. You want all scrubbing action to be in a horizontal direction. Never use any vertical motion; it's very risky for head tip breakage. When finished, allow a minute or two for the heads to dry and your ready to try it out.
Pop in a tape and press PLAY. Confirm the picture is now clear. If not, you might want to repeat the above process once again. Ninety eight percent of the time, cleaning the video heads solves this symptom. Most of the remaining two percent is caused by a defective video head somewhere on the upper drum.
FINISHING THE JOB - the video heads are clean. Now we need to finish the video drum. You can use the less expensive cotton swabs if you so desire, keep them damp but not dripping with cleaning fluid. Just remember when cleaning the upper drum, keep a little distance from the delicate heads and continue to scrub with horizontal motion. Should you accidentally contact a head while scrubbing vertically, your chances are about 100 times greater for causing damage. When cleaning the lower drum, always rotate the upper drum to keep the heads as far away as possible from wherever the swab is. Be sure to give special attention to all areas where the tape contacts the drum.
Next we clean everything else in the tape path. From here on the rules are much more relaxed. The only thing we need to be careful about is getting any fluid on belts or rubber tires. Head cleaning fluid is still a good choice for everthing left. Starting with the supply reel table, clean off any dust. Give special attention to where the idler and brakes make contact with it as well as the brakes themselves. Then, in the same direction the tape flows, clean the guide post, tension arm, full erase head, impedance roller (if any), guide rollers and angle pins, audio heads, guide post, capstan shaft, half load arms or review post (if any) and finally the take-up reel table and brakes.
The capstan shaft always seems to collect most of the debris. Most of the buildup is an oxide material that comes from the tape. You want to be sure when cleaning it, that you use minimal cleaning fluid on the swab to help keep it from going down into the capstan bearing. Most of the time this shaft cleans right up, but sometimes buildups can be stubborn. Don't be tempted to scrape the gunk off with something hard like a knife or screw driver. If the buildups won't come off after persistant scrubbing, try soaking the capstan shaft with any lubricating oil and set it aside for a few hours - preferably overnight. The oil will penetrate and loosen the oxide material making it much eassier to remove. Don't forget to clean the oil off when finished.
CLEANING BELTS and PULLEYS - despite what you hear or read about, the only fluid you want to use on rubber are special rubber cleaning solvents, also available at most electronic stores. Other cleaning solutions can dry out and harden the belts. The cost of belts now days is very inexpensive anyway so you may find the price of a belt kit for your VCR is probably less than a bottle of rubber cleaner. But first it is important to clean the pulleys. Most shops tend to skip this part, but the fact is, dirt on the pulleys reduces torque. Torque tests confirm that even slight amounts of dirt on the pulleys can reduce the torque by at least 50 percent. With the belts off, take a moistened swab, place it in the pulley's groove and spin it until no more dirt comes off. Repeat the process with all pulleys.
CLEANING DECK FLOOR and CIRCUIT BOARDS - if there is any dust on the floor of the mechanical deck or circuit boards, it should be removed. It's best to use a soft brush and a vacuum cleaner. Do not touch any parts with the vacuum. Use the brush to dislodge or loosen the dust the vacuum cleaner can't get. If the dirt is stubborn, the swab and cleaning fluid method might work better. In any case, be sure and remain clear of any adjustment controls on the circiut boards. Accidentally misadjusting any of these can spell disaster.
USING COMPRESSED AIR - if you are fortunate enough to have an air compressor and tank, these work great for getting dust out of your VCR. To be on the safe side, you may want to observe the following:
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VCR cleaning is usually performed: 1.) at a regular maintenance interval 2.) after experiencing a phenomenon known as a head clog. Usually it occurs suddenly as the result of foreign matter sticking to one or more of the video heads. This results in a sudden snowy picture (it occurs mostly on rental tapes). The snow is uniform or spread evenly across the screen from top to bottom. The sound is usually not affected at all or at the most it may have a slight distortion in it. There are several methods you can use to clean it up. Usually the easiest methods are tried first. |
If you have a head cleaning cassette, it's certainly worth giving it a try before tearing it apart for a manual cleaning. If you don't have a cleaning cassette, a secret from the service bench is to simply play an ordinary cassette for a couple of hours (no you won't be able to see the picture while it plays, so do something else to keep yourself occupied while it plays). The action of rotary heads contacting tape for a long period of time can safely remove soft deposits from the heads. This surprisingly restores normal operation about 2/3rds the time.
In event all the above fails, you must open it up for a manual cleaning. Even if the video heads look squeaky clean, invisible amounts of certain contaminants can render them useless.
Sure it's more work, but look on the bright side. Manually scrubbing the heads cleans them best. And while you have the cover off, you can clean everything else inside too. Something head cleaning cassettes can't do. Cleaning cassettes are only effective on the video heads and upper drum assembly.
The most important tools for the job are chamois tipped cleaning sticks, cotton swabs and head cleaning fluid. Most electronic stores carry them.
The term video heads and video drum are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are different. The video drum is the large tilted assembly the tape wraps around and is divided into two halves. The lower stationary part is known as the lower drum. It consists of the servo motor that spins the upper half, know as the upper drum. As you rotate the upper drum by hand, the slots you see at the bottom of it, are the video heads. They are the tiny electromagnetic coils that do the actual reading and writing on the tape. You can actually be quite mean to the video drum without damaging it; but when it comes to the heads, WATCH OUT! They are very fragile.
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The number one thing you have to lookout for when cleaning a VCR is the video heads. They are very fragile. Never touch them with your fingers or a Q-tip. Only touch them with a chamois stick while cleaning and then only in a horizontal direction. |
CLEANING THE VIDEO HEADS - in the event of a head clog, the first thing professionals try to accomplish on a cleaning job is to restore the picture. Cleaning the video heads is the most critical part of the process. Use extreme caution. Never use cotton swabs. Cotton tends to grab, get caught or leave fibers in the heads. It can also break them. Using chamois sticks is by far the safest method.
Soak a chamois stick with head cleaning fluid and place it directly on a video head with light pressure. For beginners, the safest method involves holding the chamois stick stationary in one hand and rotating the drum clockwise with the other. You want all scrubbing action to be in a horizontal direction. Never use any vertical motion; it's very risky for head tip breakage. When finished, allow a minute or two for the heads to dry and your ready to try it out.
Pop in a tape and press PLAY. Confirm the picture is now clear. If not, you might want to repeat the above process once again. Ninety eight percent of the time, cleaning the video heads solves this symptom. Most of the remaining two percent is caused by a defective video head somewhere on the upper drum.
FINISHING THE JOB - the video heads are clean. Now we need to finish the video drum. You can use the less expensive cotton swabs if you so desire, keep them damp but not dripping with cleaning fluid. Just remember when cleaning the upper drum, keep a little distance from the delicate heads and continue to scrub with horizontal motion. Should you accidentally contact a head while scrubbing vertically, your chances are about 100 times greater for causing damage. When cleaning the lower drum, always rotate the upper drum to keep the heads as far away as possible from wherever the swab is. Be sure to give special attention to all areas where the tape contacts the drum.
Next we clean everything else in the tape path. From here on the rules are much more relaxed. The only thing we need to be careful about is getting any fluid on belts or rubber tires. Head cleaning fluid is still a good choice for everthing left. Starting with the supply reel table, clean off any dust. Give special attention to where the idler and brakes make contact with it as well as the brakes themselves. Then, in the same direction the tape flows, clean the guide post, tension arm, full erase head, impedance roller (if any), guide rollers and angle pins, audio heads, guide post, capstan shaft, half load arms or review post (if any) and finally the take-up reel table and brakes.
The capstan shaft always seems to collect most of the debris. Most of the buildup is an oxide material that comes from the tape. You want to be sure when cleaning it, that you use minimal cleaning fluid on the swab to help keep it from going down into the capstan bearing. Most of the time this shaft cleans right up, but sometimes buildups can be stubborn. Don't be tempted to scrape the gunk off with something hard like a knife or screw driver. If the buildups won't come off after persistant scrubbing, try soaking the capstan shaft with any lubricating oil and set it aside for a few hours - preferably overnight. The oil will penetrate and loosen the oxide material making it much eassier to remove. Don't forget to clean the oil off when finished.
CLEANING BELTS and PULLEYS - despite what you hear or read about, the only fluid you want to use on rubber are special rubber cleaning solvents, also available at most electronic stores. Other cleaning solutions can dry out and harden the belts. The cost of belts now days is very inexpensive anyway so you may find the price of a belt kit for your VCR is probably less than a bottle of rubber cleaner. But first it is important to clean the pulleys. Most shops tend to skip this part, but the fact is, dirt on the pulleys reduces torque. Torque tests confirm that even slight amounts of dirt on the pulleys can reduce the torque by at least 50 percent. With the belts off, take a moistened swab, place it in the pulley's groove and spin it until no more dirt comes off. Repeat the process with all pulleys.
CLEANING DECK FLOOR and CIRCUIT BOARDS - if there is any dust on the floor of the mechanical deck or circuit boards, it should be removed. It's best to use a soft brush and a vacuum cleaner. Do not touch any parts with the vacuum. Use the brush to dislodge or loosen the dust the vacuum cleaner can't get. If the dirt is stubborn, the swab and cleaning fluid method might work better. In any case, be sure and remain clear of any adjustment controls on the circiut boards. Accidentally misadjusting any of these can spell disaster.
USING COMPRESSED AIR - if you are fortunate enough to have an air compressor and tank, these work great for getting dust out of your VCR. To be on the safe side, you may want to observe the following:
- Use only enough air pressure to remove the dust.
- Use sparingly on the mechanical deck. There is grease in numerous places on the deck and we don't want dust sticking to it. Also we don't want to risk blowing lubricants out of any VCR bearings.
- On circuit boards, blow dust away from mechanical deck.
- Just concentrate on getting most of the dust out. Spending extra time to get absolutely all of it out is not recommended. We want to minimize the exposure to the air blast as much as possible.
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