Mouldy old tapes

[bty997881]

Just tackling the last two tapes of my second batch of the 400, both of which have a 
particularly nasty dose of the White Fungus of Death, so I thought thought I'd share with you 
the damage limitation technique I'm using.
 It seems that the worst of the fungus is on the edge of the tapes, rather than on the face, so 
what I've been doing is cracking open the cases, and cleaning it off with cotton buds dipped 
in isopropyl alcohol. 
This is safe and fairly effective, and not only helps reduce the amount of gak shed into the 
works of the machine, but also reduces the friction between the tapes and the side of the 
casing, making them play more smoothly. 
Judging by the colour of the used buds, this is also an effective way of catching a lot of the 
oxide debris too.
 Most of the tapes are in 'sealed', rather than screwed enclosures, but I've found that you can 
crack them quite cleanly by inserting a flat blade screwdriver into the record tab holes and 
twisting, then open the cases by running a Stanley blade down the crack you've made.
 I don't suppose that alcohol does much damage to fungal spores, but short of reaching for 
the Dithane left over from this summer's abysmal attempt to grow tomatoes in a Welsh 
climate, I'm not sure there's much that can be done in this respect.
 Happy ripping!
Roger