Moldy 8mm cassette - Boston area?

[Barrythecrab]

Does anyone know of a vendor/person who cleans and captures 8mm video (moldy) cassettes? I am aware of Specs but this client was hoping for a semi-local person. It's a fairly moldy tape and I'm not prepared to deal with it, I do not have a sacrificial camcorder/player either.
Boston to Providence area would be helpful.

[lordsmurf]

Throw it in bay, have a tea party.

I learned long ago to not trust anybody aside from Spec Bros. Those guys actually clean it, they don't use some half-ass "cleaner" device that just throws it in the air, and leaves some attached to the tape.

There's not a single mold, but many. Some need different treatments that others.

Some tapes need more care than others, and can include baking.

If this person actually cares about the contents, then mail it overnight Fedex/UPS, pay the ~$100 to have it done right.

[timtape]

These thin Metal Particle or Metal Evaporated tapes are often much harder to deal with than conventional tapes including most VHS/Betamax, most audio cassettes, and open reel, which use much more stable metal oxides rather than pure metal, and as I understand 8mm/DV etc tapes are a special hard case, or can be.

These MP and ME tapes dont handle submerging in water and solvents/surfactants as well as the other tapes. Plus having such a thin fragile base tape, they can tear very easily starting at the tape edge. Even a small amount of dried mold at the tape edge can glue the winds together and when the tape is played or wound the tearing damage is done. The tears cant be repaired without loss of data around that area.

We see on YT various people trying to clean mold from VHS tapes but how many do you see doing the same thing with 8mm tapes and the tapes surviving the cleaning process? And if we do, how many show you how they actually fixed them? Here's one who shows everything except how he actually did the work with an 8mm moldy tape. The viewer comments speak for themselves. https://youtu.be/7KiBTPZrWXU?si=MYXDKVzEU0mo6lsS

Also once the thin protective coating over the unoxidised metal layer is breached, often due to submersion, the metal underneath oxidises and that's the end of the recording. Read especially points 10. and 11. in this Specs Bros paper:
http://www.specsbros.com/disaster-recovery-magnetic-tapes-can-survive-flood-exposure.html

I wouldnt send such tapes, and especially those with a lot of mold, to anyone except real experts like Specs Bros, and even with the best experts there may be no guarantee of complete success.

[Barrythecrab]

The client has been advised.