Baking Tapes

During tape inspection, if you've determined that a tape is sticky, you'll probably need to bake it (so long as it isn't moldy). This is a fairly straightforward process using the scientific oven that lives in the conservation lab on the 2nd floor. Baking a tape warms up the binder enough that the tape will typically not have the shedding and traction issues anymore when it's fresh out of the oven (but the effects can wear off as it cools, so transferring immediately is important).

1. Dismantle the tape. You want just the tape on its hubs for baking, so it needs to be removed from the cassette if it was in one.
   • This segment of this video99 video shows how to dismantle a U-matic tape.
2. Label one hub with which side of the tape it is (if the tape is on hubs, as opposed to something like 1/4" audio which will just be on one reel) and the last four digits of the item barcode. Write this in permanent marker.
3. Take the tape down to the scientific oven in the conservation lab and lay it on one of the shelves so that it sits flat, and if it is on multiple hubs, ensure there is good tension between the hubs so the tape is not sitting on the shelf.
4. Program the oven for your bake. Recommended bake times are below, but they are always shifting as tape stocks change with age.
   • Once you power on the oven, it will cycle through a few stages of blinking temperature settings. When the temperature shows solid, settings can be changed, but only one at a time. The clock button will allow you to set an hour duration, and whether you want the oven to turn on or off at the end of that time period. Typically, we always leave it to off and set the duration for the total time of our bake. The temperature button will allow you to set the temperature. We almost always leave this at 125 degrees F.
5. Enter the bake data into the appropriate section in the Airtable record. This will log the bake and send out an alert when the tape has finished baking.
6. When the baking has finished, retrieve the tape from the oven (wearing nitrile gloves), and re-assemble the tape in the lab. You will want to digitize the tape as soon as you are able to.