Reusable swabs for VCR non-head cleaning?
 

Hi,

Does anyone know if reusable swabs are any good for VCR non-head cleaning (rollers, control head, audio head)?

regards

I'm not sure why you'd want them to be reusable? Typically the recommended swabs I've seen are MG Chemicals chamois swabs. They are kind of pricy, but supposedly they work well. I've tried them and I don't really see much advantage over using the isopropyl alcohol dampened paper method to clean the heads and Qtips for everything else with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol (but not the pinch roller). For devices with miniDV or Hi8 head drums within a camcorder, I could see the Chamois swabs being useful as they are probably easier to get into certain tight spaces.

For the pinch roller, I've seen American Recorder S-721 fluid recommended and it has quite good reviews on Amazon. According to the MSDS sheets, it is 100% hexane. Plain hexane is probably attainable for much cheaper. I've also seen naphtha (which is lighter fluid) recommended for cleaning rubber parts. I've tried American Recorder S-721 and it works well to get rid of the shiny varnish/oxidized layer that is often present where the pinch roller contacts the tape and won't cause cracking or drying out of the rubber that alcohol can cause.

If you did use reusable swabs, I'd probably still only use them once to prevent re-introducing old contamination.

We use paper, chamois, cotton because being absorbent it holds the cleaning fluid plus the removed dirt. Non absorbent material cannot hold the cleaning fluid to keep the dirty surface wet while cleaning it.

We avoid using cotton on video heads because a strand of cotton may stay caught on the delicate head and catch on something at high speed, possibly destroying the head.