HISTORY:
Oh my! Today, while working through yet more reel to reel related spare parts, I have found some of our old R2R tape machine spare parts. Most of the parts are 'mundane' i.e not exciting items such as head assemblies, VU meters or the motors (they all found new machines to live in yonks ago) but some of these less interesting components that I will be listing could be of benefit to others who have the specific machines 'lying around' waiting for a spare part (or two or three ...)
I am very much "into" sustainability and a complete tape machine represents a LOT of embedded energy and to waste that embedded energy is a very bad thing, even worse is to bury it in landfill and subsequently poison our environment!
What is embedded energy?
Embedded energy is a measurement of the total energy that was used to create a component, a module or a complete piece of equipment originally.
HERE is some more information about Ee
So my motivation is 'saving things' where they may be old but still useful or possibly be repurposed.
Back to this component I am offering ...
Go back in time, in the 1990's our Australian Broadcasting Corporation was 'forced' by Federal Government funding decisions to 'clear out the cupboards' of their old, obsolete equipment.
Masses of fantastic high quality equipment used in the broadcast industry suddenly became available in the Australian market place through auction houses such as Pickles.
Masses and masses of gear of all types and what's even better, there was often a friendly ABC engineer on hand who could answer techie questions about the gear being offered. Not only that, much of the equipment had original full Service manuals - to me this was like 'techie heaven!"
Although it was hard to constrain ourselves, the bidding was stupidly low and many took advantage of getting great gear for "a song"
I am not a trader in such things but I ran an audio post production facility for many years and we worked with client's source material using 1/4", 1" and 2" tape formats so just imagine my glee when I saw this array of OTARI's and STUDER's being offered (by the truckload and with all the trimmings such as the aluminium reels and original Studer NAB hubs - Wow!)
I bought a LOT of those machines in all the different tape formats and produced my 'dream machines' by taking parts that needed servicing from other machines - ending up with some "perfect" OTARI's and more importantly STUDER 810 & 820's!
In my opinion, the STUDER is a superior machine but the OTARI is good too, and it was originally cheaper to purchase.
Any excess STUDER gear went overseas back to Germany (they were scrambling for the spare parts) and also the OTARI 'leftovers' went the same way but locally HOWEVER today I have found a few more bits and pieces from the OTARI MX5050 BII specifically.
Please don't ask if I have a complete, working machine - I don't because all the "good stuff" left home quite some time ago - now there are just a few parts that I am hoping someone can make use of ...
If this component from the MX5050 BII/III machine isn't what you are looking for ... try searching HERE to see the other components that may still be available, including more of these knobs but I have designated them as Grade B
Here are the details of this spare part from an OTARI BII (competed against the STUDER B67)
OTARI (Japan) - Control Knob
Colour: Dark Smoky Grey
Insert for the control shaft is Brass
Complete with the clear plastic washer that sits between the two knobs fitted to the concentric control shaft (enhances smooth rotation of the top most knob)
SPARE PART ONLY
Extracted from the MX5050 BII
If you are working on this machine I expect you will have the full Service Manual (if not, I do see a number of sites offering these for no cast but make sure you get the correct suffix)
Part number: KN1047 (stamped into the rear of the knob)
Function: this is one of the two dominant knobs on the left hand side, used to set the LINE or MIC input levels for either channel.
Central White dot to indicate this is one of the input knobs (Output has a Yellow dot)
The knob offered here is the TOP section ONLY (MIC input level), these are concentric controls which means there is also a lower section of the knob ... it is offered separately in the interests of maximum buyer flexibility.
Secured to the pot shaft with two side mounted, tiny Steel hex grub screws.
Comes with the hex grub screw of course (very small grub)
The dual potentiometer is NOT supplied ... only the knob as shown
DIMENSIONS:
19.85mm diameter (top section) or 25.85mm (base skirt) x 25.25mm length
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Unmarked at all i.e no position markings, no rub marks etc
NO scratching or other surface damage
NO knob body damage at all
Central top White dot is clean and complete, as is the vertical running side White line
It is the fact that the White areas show no wear or discolouration plus the inclusion of the clear plastic washer, that has been used to describe this knob as "Grade A" - for no other reasons.
I have now placed this control knob into a sealed clear plastic packet while it waits it's destiny with another MX5050 machine
