Quickly Removing Magnetic Tape From Reels

We had some old magnetic tape reels we had salvaged from a recording studio - the reels were nice and sturdy, but the magnetic tape was pretty useless to us. So, we decided to remove the tape from the reels and dispose of it.

Step 1: First Attempt - Use the Intern

We at first tasked our workshop intern, Adam, with the task of removing the tape from the reels manually. We rigged up a spindle and he got to work with some serious forearm workout...

After noting that the reels contained 2500' of tape each, we quickly rethought the manual approach.

Step 2: Second Attempt - Be More Clever

Once the intern option became apparent that it would take forever, we decided to leverage some tools to help us with the task. Enter the Dremel Multi-Max...

First, we took off the outer reels, which gave us unencumbered access to the magnetic tape itself.

Step 3: Protect the Table and Get Cutting

We laid done some scrap 1/8" MDF on our work table, and loaded the multimax with an oscillating cutting blade. Being careful to control the depth of the cut (so as not to penetrate our sacrificial layer) we readily cut through yard after yard of magnetic tape with ease... :-)

Step 4: Clean Up the Reel

In order not to score the aluminum reel itself, we stopped our cut a bit short and unreeled the last bit manually. Result - clean reels ready for re-use, and a much shorter task for our intern... :-) We assembled the reels again after the magnetic tape was removed, preparing them for re-use (for 3d-printer filament, or whatever).

Step 5: Repeat...

Since we had multiple reels to process, our intern took over, and for the next hour our space was filled with the glorious sound of the Multimax doing its job.

All things considered, without the Dremel tools we would have scrapped the project and just thrown out the reels. With the Multimax, we were able to salvage something interesting for future reuse.

Thanks Dremel!