The belt fits

The belt for the reel-to-reel recorder arrived on Tuesday, in an envelope far too large for it. It is a thin rubber loop about the size of a bracelet, and I spent a good ten minutes working out which of the three pulleys it was meant to live on. The diagram taped inside the lid was no help: somebody had gone over it in pencil, years ago, with opinions of their own.

It went on at the second try. The motor hummed, the reels turned, and for about forty seconds the machine did exactly what it was built to do, which is move tape from one reel to the other almost silently. Then the tape wandered off the guide and folded itself into a small accordion on the floor. I stopped it there and decided that was enough for one evening.

There is a reel on the spindle with a label in a hand I do not recognise: "Sunday, the garden." I have not played it. I would like to be sure the machine can be trusted first, so this weekend is for cleaning the heads with a cotton bud and a lot of patience. If the tape survives, there will be a post about what is on it. If it does not, there will be a post about that instead.