Thursday, October 18, 2012

Cassette Tape Winder


When audio cassette tapes were popular, I was also listening to the Hindi and Kannada film songs from my collection.  Rewinding or forward winding was necessary.  The normal way to do that was by pressing the << or >> buttons provided on the tape recorder.


My music collection in Cassette Tapes. 


National Panasonic Stereo Radio/Cassette Player, bought September 1984.
This was shortly before Radio License Fee was removed by the Dept. of Telecommunications!  I had paid the fee of Rupees fifteen twice, annually.

But I just wanted to do it manually at times, which appears crazy!  For minor works like that the most suited manual tool was the hexagonal pencil .  But a "Reynolds" ball pen with its hexagonal was better fitting.  This is an amazing connection between a pencil/pen and an audio cassette tape!

It took a long time to wind half the length of the tape in the cassette.  So I improved on this method by adding a  'flywheel' to the pen.  This was an old rubber wheel that a friend had given me from his 'aeromodeling' left overs. For holding the mechanism, I put through a bicycle spoke which also became the axle for the operation. One twirl would wind a lot of tape as the flywheel did its work.  The need for this tool used to arise when the tape got jammed and entangled in the body like this:


Image from the web.


Cassette image from the web.

 I had this tool ready on hand near my desk where I had kept the player.  It had also become my time-pass hand toy which I simply twirled while listening to the songs!

I have misplaced it at the time of posting this, so no picture of it is here.  

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