+ZuluGula Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 Does anyone have experience in giving extra life to old drive belts, tape rollers and other rubber parts? What kind of chemicals you use? I am trying to refurbish couple of disk drives. Quick search lead me to products like MG 408A and Sprayway 203. Maybe some other homemade solutions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 Pop them in boiling water. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 Vinegar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 1050 drive belts are at least somewhat easy to source just replace with new ones instead of stopgap workarounds. Best Electronics has them for both Tandon & WST mechs. (And I presume for 810 MPI's and Tandons too) or these guys have a convenient online option: https://console5.com/store/parts/belts.html?cat=341 I wonder if their Apple shugart belt will work for an 810... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrbrevin Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 people who do motorcycle restoration of rubber parts recommend a soak in 50/50 alcohol and methyl-salicylate (oil of wintergreen) it worked on my inlet rubber but never tried it on belts 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 less alcohol more oil of wintergreen.. but only on certain belts always do a test spot or test belt before going all in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 I'd have thought alcohol as a solvent would attack most rubber - it's why it's not a good idea to use ethanol blended fuels on older cars with carb + low pressure mechanical fuel pumps and the usual high percentage of rubber hoses in the system. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 (edited) Vinegar. Wipe on, leave for a bit, wipe off. Edited March 17, 2020 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZuluGula Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Cleaning is one thing, but what about making rubber more elastic and softer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, ZuluGula said: Cleaning is one thing, but what about making rubber more elastic and softer? Vinegar. Your title says "rejuvenating" not cleaning, and my solution works. It's from vast experience. Try it on your old windshield wipers that don't quite wipe as they once did. Regular application of vinegar will maintain rubber too. Edited March 17, 2020 by Gunstar 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 On 3/17/2020 at 12:54 AM, _The Doctor__ said: less alcohol more oil of wintergreen.. but only on certain belts always do a test spot or test belt before going all in. I was bored one day so I snagged a small bottle of methyl salicylate from the chemistry cabinet and took it to a boring math class and poured it on the baseboard radiators. INSTANT powerful eye-wateringly powerful Wintergreen! It was great! they cleared the room and cancelled math class that day with all the windows open. :) That was many years ago, of course. (But it's still funny) :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) My mother worked as a Secretary for a mint distributor back in the 90's and she used to bring little glass sample bottles of pure mint oil home on occasion and that stuff was potent. All she had to do was open the bottle for a second and the house smelled like mint for days. She always smelled like mint, but mostly stayed in the office area, not the warehouse. I think it was the base mint oils that everything else is derived from. They had a warehouse full of 50 gallon drums of different mint oils. I never tried it on rubber though, but I'm apt to believe it would work; there's always more than one way to skin a cat. Edited March 19, 2020 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STE'86 Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 you could try silicone spray. its what car guys use for softening crusty rubber door seals so they go watertight and upvc windows people use it for doing the same reason on rubber door and window seals have used it on both and can confirm it does revitalise old rubber. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 In lieu of putting effort into rejuvenating belts for the disk drives at least, new drive belts are available for 810M, 810T, 1050 Tandon & 1050 WST from Best Electronics. (Minimum order requirements notwithstanding) And for the 810 & 1050 Tandons, can be purchased online from Console5 for a reasonable price: https://console5.com/store/fabric-reinforced-belt-for-atari-1050-tandon-ibm-pcjr-qumetrak-142-floppy-drive-spindle.html Interesting they indicate "for Atari 1050, Tandon TM100" - which suggests that the Tandon TM100 in the 810 and the Tandon TM50 in the 1050 use the same size drive belt? I didn't know this - and have not tested myself. That's good to know if true. For the 810 at least, you can loosen the drive motor, and move it slightly to increase the tension with the old belt which might give a bit more life out of an old belt. I don't think the motor in the 1050/TM50 mech can be moved like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 On 3/22/2020 at 10:44 PM, STE'86 said: you could try silicone spray. its what car guys use for softening crusty rubber door seals so they go watertight and upvc windows people use it for doing the same reason on rubber door and window seals have used it on both and can confirm it does revitalise old rubber. Silicone sounds kind of slippery to me to be used on a belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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