With all the talk about obtaining quality paper for music roll
production, no one has mentioned the problem of proper paper storage,
once you have your supply of paper.

Expansion and contraction must be taken into account.  One cannot store
the paper on end on a cement floor in the garage, and expect to produce
perfect rolls.  I assume roll-making paper needs to be stored under
strict climate-controlled conditions.

I have had some recut rolls that were wider than the take-up spool,
others shrunken on one side or the other so that the perforations would
not line up with the tracker bar.

Our house is quite humid in summer and very dry in winter, in spite of
attempts to humidify or dehumidify the room where the rolls are stored.
The paper used in the major current roll recutting projects holds up
quite well under these conditions.  However, several years ago I
obtained a box of used recut rolls produced on inferior paper.  I have
no idea who recut them, but not anyone well-known today.  They played
perfectly in the dry season, but were impossible to play during humid
weather.  I tried shrinking them, using a rotary ironer to remove the
moisture.  They worked for a while, but soon absorbed moisture and
expanded again to become useless.  I saved the spools and boxes, and
discarded the rolls.

It would be interesting to hear from those who are recutting rolls about
these problems.

Bruce Clark