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Can you recycle tape?

How can I properly restor my VHS tape?

  • I have a VHS from the early 2000's of a School Play that I did in Elementary School. It holds a lot of meaning to me as now I am older and moved away from that School and my friends when I was 10, so I frequently watched it. My sister (being a B*tch) decided to rip the tape out of the VHS, and tore and crinkled up a part of the tape strip in the process. I was wondering how I can restore this tape myself. I know it requires precission, and I'd rather do it myself (carefully) than have to take it somewhere or get it professionally restored. I want to have it done by tonight so I can show it to someone. I also read that I need a special Splicing Tape. Does anyone know where I can buy this??? Any step by step information would be helpful. Thanks in advance. Extra Info: The VHS tape has the 5 screws in the back, so the casing should be undamaged if I have to take it off. The film is cut about halfway through the tape. So both of the reels have about half of the video on them. The tape ends from where they were severed when my sister ripped it out of the VHS are crinkled about an inch or two on each side. Once again, if you tell me to take it to a Professional, that's not the answer I'm looking for and won't help at all. Thanks.

  • Answer:

    Hi Brittney: Although you could be perfectly capable of repairing your VHS tape yourself, I don't think you'll be able to locate the proper splicing block & mylar splice-tape tonight. Due to the decline in popularity of home VCRs, almost no local electronic stores carry VHS tape repair kits anymore. (You could call around to local camera stores or a "mom & pop" video rental store to see if they have any.) I've only found online dealers that have any left. I answered a similar Y!A Question a few days ago, and listed the details of what you need and where to get it: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqPf5ESxltlSIepVN2jy_Pnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120512152325AAqAqR3 Since you rewound the broken ends back into the cassette, you actually made the repair more difficult. You'll have to get a small Philips head screwdriver and carefully open the cassette, as well as try to properly re-thread the tape into the proper sequence of guides and rollers inside! (If you have another old-but-intact tape you don't care about, take it apart carefully to use as a threading guide. Or go buy a blank tape at the dollar-store, or get a used VHS movie at the local Goodwill/thrift store to take apart.) If you get frustrated with your attempts, one of the sources I listed (TapeCenter.com) will fix your tape for $20. hope this helps, --Dennis C.  

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you can make a repair, but it will require you to find at least 2 more VHS tape cassettes that you will have to scavenge, so they can't have anything on them that you need either. you don't need a "special" tape, the Scotch "magic mending tape" the frosted kind works for this. first take one of the tosser VHS cassettes, remove the screws. don't open the shell yet. turn it over and catch the screws. then carefully lift the top cover to expose the reels. now look carefully how the tape is threaded around the posts because tape you are restoring might not be right. now restore everything and put the screws back in. do this several times until you are comfortable that you are doing it right. Now open it one more time and cut the tape with scissors right at where the the videotape meets the clear leader. now lift the reel that has the videotape and toss it. leaving the shell with the empty take up reel. Now get the other tosser cassette and fast forward it all the way to the end and stop (don't rewind) and eject. Go through the same proceedure, except this time the empty reel will be on the other side. If it is not already, cue the tape to be restored to the point where it was damage and eject. Now you are ready to open up the cassette shell. pull the videotape out a little bit, since it is badly crinkled, remove the entire crinkled section, cut with scissors. now you are left with videotape on one reel on the left side and one with video tape on the other side. remove the left side and put it the tosser shell that has the empty reel on the right side. join the videotape to the clear leader tape with tape. thread the videotape through the posts and close up the shell again. repeat for the other side. now you have two cassettes, each has half of the original program. congratulation, you are done. there are "how to" programs on repairing VHS tapes on youtube. you might want to see how it is done first. however never try to "splice" the two sections of the damage tape together thinking that will make one tape. that won't work and could break you VCR when you try to play it.

lare

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