Splicing a length of VHS recording tape into a loop to use as a belt drive
for the Teres.

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Above photo #1: Measuring a length of VHS recording tape for splicing. Target
belt length after splice is 42 inches. For this splicer block, I wanted 2 inches
of overlap on both sides of the splice. 46 inches is my cut length to begin
with.

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Above photo #2: Above is the Markertek splicing block. There is a hold down
foot on either side of the cut line.  My goal is to lay out the tape within the
groove so that it is held taut by both hold down feet.  No wrinkles allowed.
Edges of tape must align closely within the groove.  It might be worthwhile to
note that this is the point where it is important to determine that you don't
have the tape in a twist... :-)

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Above photo 2a: another view.  Tape is laid into the groove so that both
holding feet will secure tape position tautly. **There might be some question as
to whether the ferrous oxide side should face against the driven surfaces of
platter and pulley, or if the uncoated back side should engage the drive.  In
this case I chose the oxide coated surface to be placed against the drive.  It
is difficult to tell which side is which by vision alone, but the tape coming
off the reel is oxide up.

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Above photo 3: preparing to lay the second end over the first end.

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Above photo 4: smoothing out the second end over the block in the groove.
Both hold down feet will secure the tape.

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Above photo 5: Clamping the second foot.  Before making the cut, careful
attention is paid to getting the tape between the feet laid down smooth and
precisely aligned within the groove and over one another.

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Above photo 6: Making the cut with the built in razor.  The yellow cutting
head is pulled over the tape and a precise cut is made.  The cut angle is 90
degrees to the tape length.  The preferred splice for video tape.

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Above photo 7: After lifting a foot, a remnant tape end is removed prior to
placing the adhesive splice.

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Above photo 8: peeling off an adhesive splice from the card.  The splice is a
thin foil with adhesive to one side.  Unfortunately, the color is silver.  I
would have preferred black to make an invisible splice.

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Above photo 9: Using tweezers to accurately place the splice.  I need tools
like this.  Some folks might be able to do this with their fingers.  Not me.

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Above photo 10: Smoothing out the splice.  It lays down smoothly and easily,
so there were no bubbles.

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Above photo 11: After lifting up the hold down feet, the spliced tape loop is
removed from the splicing block.

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Above photo 12: holding the tape loop tautly between my hands, the splice
joint appears strong, wrinkle free and ready for use.

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Above scanned image13: a close up view of the splice joint from the back
side.  Before magnification, I thought I had a closer match than this.

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Above scanned image 14: close up view of splice from the front. I wonder if
the tape moved slightly during the razor cut, or if I just didn't align the
pieces perfectly.  In any case, this joint functions.  And this is an early
effort using the Markertek TS-77 splicing block.  Later efforts became more
precise.