What are these things called?

Brian Gaff was thinking very hard :

Circlips?

At some point in my dim & distant, I seem to recollect using copper wire for this purpose. One turn and twist, but bend the twist up to reduce friction.

As for the size of the wire, I can't help. The wire would have come from an old transformer or choke. Copper wire can be reduced in diameter by stretching BTW

Personally I would scrap the Denon, if the retainers have worn out as opposed to being butchered during belt replacement, then the drive motor has been on borrowed time for years.

Cassette decks do not "lose" hub retainers incidentally, Einstein some time back postulated that your hub retainers are still with us in some form. Have you looked really hard for them?

HN

No, these are much thinner and have no gap. Brian

I'm sure they are around, but no the machine is not worn out. They bit the dust due to a faulty tape getting jammed. The machine, a dual capstan three motor jobbie is fine but every time I eject the left spool tends to come with the tape and has to be pushed back on. Unfortunately, anything not completely seamless will not do due to a small nick is each center of hub where the moving bit locates on it. Any projection like a wire or circle will inevitably ping and cause wow.

Brian

A single twist of a spring, clipped from one in a box of many springs saved in case they came in useful?

Thomas Prufer

Got any beady-eyed friends?

Bill

The problem is that they are like most small objects, by the time you notice they are gone, they are really gone. Besides, if they were still any good they would not have fallen off in the first place. Its so often the case that a nice bit of design is ruined by one little poorly chosen part. Brian

Hmm, well, its that little raw edge that is often the problem but worth a thought I suppose. I see no reason why they did not designee it with a bigger spindle and a washer in front of a normal circlip. Just a bit of bad design in an otherwise nice one. Brian

I expect that the design might be common to many cassette players - so it might be worth finding a few junk units (freecycle etc.) of lesser quality to see if they'll provide the parts.

Are you sure that the retainers aren't assembled from the back? i.e. take spindle, thread on retainer, then hub, then attach to chassis, then fit drive gear or pulley on the reverse side?

cheers

Jules

Brian, at the risk of stating the obvious, have you tried asking Denon?

Bert

Thinking out the box how about cutting a small piece of plastic in the diameter of the thing and just pressing it on allowing the spindle to punch the hole.