Hey John,

One thing that comes to mind is to spray a light coat of clear lacquer or such on the tape. Or possibly use clear polyurethane spray which itself may be a little more pliable. Once it dries it should act as a binder of the paper fiber to help make the paper structure less prone to breaking apart. Keeping the coating rather light should not make the tape brittle, which you don't want either. The tape will just be somewhat stiffer. Experimenting with chunks of unrecoverable tape could give you some feedback on that method.

I fear using oil may either not do anything to help or, worse, cause the paper fibers to break bonds more readily even if it was originally oiled. The lighter fractions of the original oil, if the type of tape you're using was pre-oiled, have obviously evaporated over time. 

Back in a previous life (late 70s and early 80s) I maintained numerical control (NC) machine tool controls at our company which used Friden Flexowriter machines to create and duplicate punched tape programs (Dang! Those things were heavy!) We didn't use that typical 1" oiled paper tape like we are all familiar with our Teletype gear nor the more bulletproof Mylar tape, but used a less flexible, somewhat thicker paper tape which could withstand weeks of daily multiple usages. It was basically paper, medium to dark grey in color, yet still flexible enough to allow repeated use in the feeders and was easy to handle (except when an operator fumbled a roll containing a large program - talk about haywire!), but the added stiffness and increased durability made the lifetime much longer.  
 
That is approximately the result I'm thinking you may obtain using the lacquer or polyurethane spray. I don't think I have any samples of that NC tape left in my collection of stuff to help illustrate my thinking. I still have one of the 60-year-old Friden readers, however, stashed somewhere around this rather chaotic piece of real estate.

Hope this helps!

Best regards and good luck,
   -Chris F.

On 9/16/2025 7:10 PM, JOHN MCCARTY wrote:
Green Keys;

  I am planning to run my 2-B paper tape printer this weekend at a vintage show in Lisle Ill. Problem is the tape
itself is getting brittle with age and is prone to breaking. This tape is slightly more that 1/4 inch wide but not quite
5/16". Is there anything I can do (lightly spray it with oil?) that will make it less breakable?

Thanks


John n9hrt


-- 
================================================================
Christian R Fandt    
Jamestown, NY 14701
  >  Electrical/Electronic Collector & Historian: Radios, Early Computers, Test Equipment
  >  Radio restorations:  Pre-1970s Automotive & Home radios
  >  Retired engineer/consultant on electrical/electronic contact physics


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