How to use a Degausser?

Jim Brennan

Jim Brennan

VHS Member Old Skool
I was picking up some gear today when the guy hands me this little thing that looks like a small iron. He asks if I want a degausser. I say sure.

The only problem is that I have no idea how to use it. It has a little trigger on it, which I assume initiates the process, and there is a sticker on the side that indicates it was made by a company called Benjamin, and that it has to cycle 1 minute on for every 20 minutes off.

That's it. So does anyone know of a tutorial on how to use this to erase tapes?

Thanks.
 
Depends what it looks like.
Is it a handheld model? Or standalone?

Either way - pretty simple really... turn it on, and rub it over the tape you want to erase (or rub the tape on it, if it's a standalone model).

How long you need to do it will depend on how powerful it is - but to give you an idea, when I worked in radio (and the human race still used tapes) we'd erase carts in easily under 10 seconds on the degausser... probably more like 5.

EDITED TO ADD:
Should be obvious but... don't do this near any tapes you DON'T want erased.
:)
 
Yeah, it's handheld. Looks like an iron.

I normally wouldn't care, but I just had a client asked me if I could degauss about 100 mini-DV tapes for him. I told him no, but would look into it. I think I may just drop this off on a loan to him and let him do it himself. But I figure I should be able to tell him how to use it.

Thanks Luis

Oh, and 'carts'...man does that bring back memories of being a DJ in college. Man, things sure have changed.
 
Jim Brennan said:
Oh, and 'carts'...man does that bring back memories of being a DJ in college. Man, things sure have changed.
Click to expand...

Hehehehe.
Yeah.
We're old.

As far as your client goes - yeah, that's something they should easily be able to do themselves. Shouldn't take too long - just tell them to run it across both sides of the tape. Probably don't even have to take them out of the cases either.
 
Cool. I'm assuming that it can remain plugged in, and that they just pull the trigger to activate it.
 
Jim Brennan said:
Cool. I'm assuming that it can remain plugged in, and that they just pull the trigger to activate it.
Click to expand...

That's they way all the ones I've seen are.
You may want to test it out yourself before you hand it off to a client though
:)

But yeah, shouldn't be any danger in leaving it plugged in.
Just tell them not to set it on top of their CRT monitor or something....
(there I go, with another old reference)
 
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