Has anyone here ever sucessfully baked a "sticky tape"?

[ferriteman]

I was just wondering about this, as there is certainly plenty documented on this "baking" process on the internet if you google the subject, so I was wondering....have any of the tape heads around here tried this and was it sucessful?

I was thinking of trying it myself...apparently you're supposed to use a hair-dryer in cardboard box...very carefully!

[Scorpion8]

I did once. With a LOT of trepidation. Oven, set at low temp (I think 200F was considered "warm" on my oven) and then pulled it out after it reached steady state temp. Seemed to work, as I haven't had any problems with the tape since. It wasn't in real bad condition to begin with.

[ferriteman]

You used an oven? All the documents I've read say to use a hair dryer in a cardboard box...but if it worked...

[Des-Lab]

Once baked a Scotch "Classic" tape in the regular [electric] oven. Had it set to "warm" for a few hours. Then let it cool for a few more hours before I used it. It actually worked pretty well and I was able to play it long enough to retrieve a recording. But a few weeks later, it had siezed up again.

Baking is only a temporary fix meant to rescue a recording that would otherwise be lost. Despite some claims to the contrary you may hear out there, you can NOT circumvent having to buy new tapes and re-record by baking over and over and over. A SSS tape can only be baked maybe two or three times at most. After that, the tape is finished and even baking won't save it.