2" Tape 16 track help?

[JohnRoberts]

there may have been multiple machines using 3m transports (Stevens comes to mind) but restoring a known machine with documentation would be hard enough...

Perhaps if you have too much time and too much money on your hands.

JR

 

[Disco Volante]

Amen. Dad was an atheist, mom a christian farmer's daughter. Recycling/reusing/repairing was the religion where I grew up. Recently, it's gotten fashionable...

 

[thakava]

Very interesting project!
Following

 

[nashkato]

fwiw… recently took apart a 3m m79 .
except wood and most metalparts everythings in storage .
if i can help you out in any way let me know .

 

[iomegaman]

Definitely a Bouse 1600 apd...picked it up today...the meter stack alone is probably worth it...looks like direct drive captains...

Apparently cost $18k in 1976

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/I...X/IDX/70s/Recording-1976-08-OCR-Page-0004.pdf

 

[soapfoot]

Great! Now that you've got a make and model, finding service documentation should be a lot more straightforward

 

[iomegaman]

Monitor PB Amp card:

Anyone recognize the transformers?

The smaller can one is "7463"

The larger one is "7433"...since the numbers seem sequential they might be custom...or at least labelled custom...

The chips seem to be CMOS Nor gates and Quad SPST switches...

 

[iomegaman]

Bias card w/Inductor:

 

[iomegaman]

Record card

 

[iomegaman]

Gonna send the heads to JRF and get a report...

 

[Disco Volante]

Looks like a good cleanup and a recap would put the electronics into shape. +1 for Bourns trimmers.

 

[mjrippe]

Monitor PB Amp card:

Anyone recognize the transformers?

The smaller can one is "7463"

The larger one is "7433"...since the numbers seem sequential they might be custom...or at least labelled custom...

The chips seem to be CMOS Nor gates and Quad SPST switches...

Or those might be date codes from 1974?

 

[iomegaman]

Or those might be date codes from 1974?

Good thought...seems almost no one has heard of these machines...JRF said they had never seen one.

Brochure listed it at $18k in 1976 thing is built like a tank 1/4" steel and aluminium throughout...gonna build an extension card so I can test channels and plug it in to a variac to ramp up slowly so the caps can remember what they're made for...definately a summer project of time...but its 99% here except for the most important part:

INFORMATION.

 

[Westrek]

Gonna send the heads to JRF and get a report...

As others have said, this should be your first step. Hopefully there's meat left on the heads and no open coils on any of the heads, which would be a real drag.

 

[radardoug]

Output transformer looks like a Jensen.

 

[iomegaman]

As others have said, this should be your first step. Hopefully there's meat left on the heads and no open coils on any of the heads, which would be a real drag.

Yeah my physical inspection after I removed the heads shows a little better under a magnifying glass...there is no serious wear because it looks like th machine has sat for a long time...but again, not my area of expertise.

 

[iampoor1]

Wow, what an interesting piece. Wonder if you have the only 1 still left in existence

 

[soapfoot]

Is there a counter in the machine anywhere? Might give some idea of the number of hours on the heads

 

[iomegaman]

Is there a counter in the machine anywhere? Might give some idea of the number of hours on the heads

There's some sort of digital counter on the front of the machine that is probably for tracking the tape itself...as far as an analog counter, nothing so far.

The guy who owned it previous to the guy who sold it is going to call me tonite...he says he has no maintenance records in his studio for it (Platinum Studios in Tempe just up the road from me)...I just found out there's a guy in Gibert (up by Tempe) that got the last Stephens 811B manual...I'm going to reach out to him and see if he will sell me a copy...ANY info is better than being blind...

I know its not a Stephens but the Plat Studio owner texted me it that these were custom built for each buyer...claims it uses transport and cards from Apmex machines...definitely has Ampex motors in it...but the cards are not like any Ampex I have seen online.

 

[soapfoot]

Yeah, for machine hours you'd be looking for an analog counter that appears a bit like the odometer in an older car.