Hi MMDers.  Five or six weeks ago I wrote in complaining of having to
pay 50 Oz dollars for a roll of Filmoplast tape and where could I get
it cheaper.  I also enquired if anybody knew about an iron-on version
of Filmoplast.  I soon found out that there indeed is such a tape,
and Hauke Marxsen supplied me with the Neschen Company's web address.
It is  http://www.neschen.de/index2.html

The web site has a good deal of information about Neschen products
and an email address from which one can request extra information.
I did this and received a very courteous reply from Andreas Ptack
<a.ptack@neschen.de> in which he said that he was sending a catalog,
technical info and some samples of Filmoplast R, the iron-on tissue.

After about two weeks a bulky envelope arrived, as promised, and it
included a generous sample of tissue, in the form of sheets about
15 cm by 20 cm (6 inches by 8 inches).

I hunted around for a suitably damaged roll to test the tissue on,
and pulled out one I had acquired in a mail auction several years ago.
When I 'd tried it out I'd discovered that it was very badly damaged,
with Metrostyle lever rips along its length, as well as the usual edge
damage along about two thirds of its length.  My immediate instinct
then was to chuck it away -- now I'm glad I didn't.

I worked my way through the roll, teasing out the crumpled-up paper
where there was a rip, ironing it flat and wetting it where the creases
resisted the iron.  Once the paper was as flat as it was ever going to
be, I cut a suitably-sized piece of tape and ironed it on, with my iron
set to about the "cotton" setting.  This effected a very satisfactory
and barely visible repair.

In some places a chunk of the original paper was completely missing.
In this case the usual technique (technik in the U.S.?) of placing a
spare bit of roll paper under the hole, and cutting carefully just
outside the perimeter of the hole, produced a piece of paper that
fitted the slightly enlarged hole exactly.  (The trick is to hold
everything firmly as you cut -- easier said than done.)

Again, a piece of Filmoplast R ironed over the top produced an
excellent repair.  Considering the damage suffered by this roll, it
was a minor miracle that it occurred almost entirely where there was
no music.

Then I tackled the frayed edge, by cutting strips of tissue 15 cm long
and about 6 mm wide ( 6 inches by about 1/4 of an inch ).  Using these
on the edge proved to be about twice as fast as using Filmoplast P
tape, because I would never use bits of that tape any longer than about
4 cm.

That's because of the difficulty of lining up a long strip along the
edge, and because I would be fearful of the Filmoplast P slowly sliding
on its adhesive after the paper was rolled up, causing "cockles" along
the edge.  This can happen, and I have the evidence to prove it, in the
form of one of my first attempts at mending a roll, on which I used
long lengths of Magic tape.  The cockles are there for all to see.

I found the following method of applying Filmoplast R to the edges
seemed to work:  align the tape as carefully as possible with the edge
and get it exactly right at one end.  Press down hard with a finger
there, and the tape will stay in place for a while. (I think the warmth
from one's finger produces a weak adhesion.)  Then gently pull the tape
out so that it lies properly all along the edge and press down on the
other end, and maybe on a couple of places in between.  Gently place a
Teflon ironing mat over the area and pass the iron over once, quickly.
Remove the mat and iron the tape again, more firmly.

Of course, even though the damage was only along one side of the roll,
I applied tissue to both edges, to avoid uneven build-up when the paper
was rolled up again.

The result was a roll that plays perfectly again and still fits on the
original spool; pity it was a rather boring piece of music (Souvenir
d'Ismalia by Saint-Saens).  Of course I can't be sure that using long
lengths of tissue along the edge won't eventually cause trouble so
I will play the roll every few months and report to a breathlessly
waiting audience.

There is one repair for which Filmoplast R seems too flimsy, and that
is for the replacement of bridging or chaining on long music
perforations.  I've been making bridging tape, with a home-made punch,
out of Crompton coated tissue, obtained from the U.K.  This seems to
work very well, whereas Filmoplast R tends to be damaged by the
punching operation and the thin bridges are easily damaged during
ironing-on.

I used a micrometer to measure the thickness of the roll paper with
and without tape.  Here are the results:

  Original paper:  0.08 mm (.003 inch)
  Paper plus Filmoplast R:  0.12 mm
  Paper plus burnished-on Filmoplast P:  0.115 mm
  Paper plus burnished-on Magic tape:  0.14 mm

So with Filmoplast the paper is half as thick again; with Magic tape
it's nearly doubled in thickness.

Well, there's my report.  I'm quite impressed and I'll be using
Filmoplast R again.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania