Personalized Reels Anyone?

[Des-Lab]

Not to intentionally self-gloss TOO much, but this could be one of the most famous single reels in Cyberspace. It is the one and only personalized Des-Lab "Studio" reel. Only one of its kind in the world (unless someone has quietky decided to replicate it and hasn't said anything). It's the same reel used as my avatar picture.

I only have the one. And it is my "house" reel. It's nothing fancy. I made it back in fall of 2001. As you may or may not know, these are actually early 70's era 'Scotch' brand style reels. And they were always 'printed' only on one side; the other flange being left blank unmarked bare metal. So I took two "Classic" reels apart, put the two stamped flanges together back to back and took the two 'blank' flanges and combined them to make a double-sided blank reel. After doing some shopping around, I finally found some right size and right font decal letters. I then sat there, one by one, trying to plumb the letters as best as I could, starting with the number and center hyphen first and put them on. Would you believe that it took me nearly two hours to do both sides of the reel? The other side is the same, except it has a number "2" as opposed to the number "1".

And so here it is.

See two attached pictures of it.

And see it here in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDUgG1LBvvI

So do any of you have any 'custom' or 'personalized' reels?

[Web Police]

Good Idea and nice looking reel. I have been thinking of doing something similar with one of those reel style cassette tapes. :)

[Scorpion8]

It is the one and only personalized Des-Lab "Studio" reel. Only one of its kind in the world (unless someone has quietky decided to replicate it and hasn't said anything).

Dunno, think I passed on 3 or 4 cases of those at the thrift yesterday ..... :D

Nice craftsmanship, Matt.

[MacGyver]

indeed, god job, boss!! i had always thought that the des-lab avvie*reelstop was a PHOTOSHOP job, but now i find out that it is an actual existing reel!! smacks to me of the sort of DIY and customization i like to do!! :-)<-:-)<- des!!!!o-o:-)

[TheReeler]

I've seen some DIY designs from time to time here and there, and until now, one of the best designs I've ever seen was this one:

http://i13.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/14/92/8e62_1.JPG

(from this thread, click (http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?t=1669))

Looking the holes, that reels were probably made with Philips (the top) and Revox (the left and right)

Isn't a totally 100% original design, because BASF made a very similar design, but with silver reels and with different colors. I haven't any pic here, but sometime ago I shot a short video where one can be seen (spinning at the cassette speed with big reels!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p38yGdmhxE

I didn't any personalized reel yet, but I planned to do some once I buy some special paint *reelspin* but my daughter did her own personalized reel with christmas songs when she was 4:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/xmasreel.jpg

[TheReeler]

Won this one:

http://i11.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/13/f7/b542_1.JPG

[Des-Lab]

Wow. That one is unusual. Most likely a one of a kind. The Maxell emblems however are definitely NOT in a perfect 12-4-8 pattern, although it's close. Was that done intentionally?

Is the reel laquered or something? The reflections certainly give that impression.

Anyway. Very nice! I'm considering the idea of possibly making up some TapeHeads logo decals to put on reels and then offering them for custom sale. But I'm not sure if the cost of doing that would make it a practical venture. Maybe sometime down the road. I still have quite a few "blank" reels and might someday do something like that.

[TheReeler]

I'll post pics once I receive it. Unfortunatelly there were only one.

[TheReeler]

I've received the Maxell black reel. It was a DIY made by a guy and the result was maybe 8 out of 10, but isn't perfect. Most imperfections came out when a flash is used directly to the reel:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/blackmaxell2.jpg

... but not with is not directly:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/blackmaxell1.jpg

And here are some shots of how it looks now in a Teac X2000R:


http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/blackmaxell3.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/blackmaxell4.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/blackmaxell5.jpg


The seller sent me the reel without a reel box and with a missing screw. I sent him an email yesterday but didn't replied yet. This seller always last a lot sending replies, so I think this will be the first time I'll place a negative in eBay.

[Des-Lab]

Interesting. In looking at those pictures, I'm going to guess that whoever made that reel probably took it apart and spray painted the flanges black. Once the paint dried he then applied a layer of clear coat laquer. And then affixed the labels on top of all that. Not bad in priniciple though I would've put the clear coat over the labels, not the other way around. It doens't look TOO bad, though that design is a bit too eccentric for me. It sucks that he still let it get damaged. Even worse that he didn't bother protecting it for shipping.

Oh well. However, maybe I'll make a custom reel too. But just not quite as radical.

[TheReeler]

He protected nice for shipping, but not inside a reel box and packed it.

[Rat44]

That looks good.
It seems that if the reels are aluminun wouldnt it be better to have them anodized?

[stuwee]

That looks good.
It seems that if the reels are aluminun wouldnt it be better to have them anodized?

Great idea, like those glasses from the 60's, whatever color you wanted, any hot rod shop could do it, candy-apple-red anyone??

[TheReeler]

Here is a video of the Maxell spinning in the X2000R:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5zz4CSUQwU

[TheReeler]

Curious pic *eyepop*

http://i17.ebayimg.com/02/i/001/37/e7/ad3d_1.JPG