Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:58:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Repair cheap casette player?
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

 Mike B. <omni at omniphile.com> wrote

>Madeleine Yeh wrote:
>>   "Mike B." <yahoo at omniphile.com> wrote:
>>> mail-order.  For example:
>>>
>>> http://www.action-electronics.com/belts.htm
>>
>>   Thanks for your information.   I was just about to
>> order when I found that a $3.00 rubber belt would cost
>> $11.00 in shipping.  Yikes!

>I expect they are set up for retailer or repair shop customers, who
>would be ordering dozens of different sizes at once, where the
> shipping cost is spread out over more parts.

It might be simpler to hit a thrift shop and test a player to
see whether the hubs move (don't expect to find one that
actually plays the sound).  If it's cheap enough, buy it
to take apart for the rubber belt.

>>  I might have to grit my teeth and pay up anyway but
>>it seems a lot for something that could be stuffed in an
>>envelope and sent by US  postal services.

Every so often I have to stop and move the decimal point
over to get a price to look right.

>I suspect that you can pick up a new player on e-Bay as cheaply,
> or even in Freecycle for the cost of picking it up if you keep an
>eye open for one.

Pig in a poke, though; the question is does it work as well or at
all, and on e-Bay you can't test it.  And e-Bay still costs for
shipping etc.

> They might even still sell them new...and I
>wouldn't expect them to cost a whole lot if they do.
>You could probably get the tapes turned into CDs by
>borrowing a player long enough to copy them.

mp3s might be better, if you have a way to save them
and also make new CDs from them as needed. But you
still lose the analog quality. (we will not get into that argument)

>> I wonder if anyone repairs audio equipment locally.
>Probably.  Google or yellow pages.

Lots of luck.  If you find one, let me know.  The local one
here refuses to touch anything that isn't all digital.

=Tamar