Unboxing Vintage Reels! Can My Old Akai Bring Them to Life? (Shed Clean Out Ep. 169)

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hey guys, Chris The Ultimate Recycler here. Welcome back to the emergency storage shed episode 169, I believe.

[00:00:07]Now, we've got to work back along this shelf, but before we have a look at that, David Shields asked in the last video, "What are we going to do with the emergency storage shed once it's empty?"

[00:00:17]And he did think that I'd mentioned something previously, and I had quite a while ago.

[00:00:21]And I've talked about setting up my lathe in here. Now, I have a lathe that I got out of a workshop a while back.

[00:00:26]There was a playlist on that series as well. It's buried in the carport along with a lot of other farm stuff. You wouldn't expect anything else from me, would you? Piles of stuff everywhere.

[00:00:35]But, I do have an an aim of setting up this as part of my workshop. I did show a plan in one of my episodes. I should find that again. I might do that soon, and we'll talk about how it should be laid out. Uh there's a wall here between this room and my main shed, but I can actually gain about 8 to 10 in because it's a double wall at the moment. In fact, this side wall was the original sliding doors to the shed. So, we'll be streamlining the shed. We'll be getting as much space as we can. And given that we're likely to be finishing up at the shop soon, I'm hoping to turn this shed into something really flash. A great repair everything shed, all organized and neat, you know, we all have dreams, don't we?

[00:01:18]But, I will be spending a lot more time here. We will be getting a lot of the junk out of the road and actually setting up, which I started to do before we found out our shop was going to be for sale. So, like everything, I kind of have a a plan of where to go, and then something hits me from left field and totally takes me off track. I guess that's life, isn't it? Enough chatter.

[00:01:36]Let's look at what we've got to do today, and hopefully make some more shelf more space on that shelf behind me.

[00:01:42]Looking from the back of the shed now, and we're getting quite a long way.

[00:01:46]We're nearly halfway along this shelf, and I've kept it empty. Uh I will be stacking some stuff back on here to help me get organized, but at the moment, I want to kind of leave it empty.

[00:01:56]There's a bit of other clutter in this room, like some heaters. Now that the weather's getting cooler, I can fix them up and sell them. That's a Rinnai gas heater that runs off LPG, the bottled gas. And I've got another one of those somewhere, and they're quite expensive.

[00:02:11]I think I'll throw them on eBay and move them on once the weather gets a little colder. Timing is everything with selling heaters.

[00:02:18]This week, we're going to look in that kettle box. I'm pretty sure it's not kettles. And sort out the rest of this stuff on the shelf. Now, let's have a quick look now.

[00:02:28]Some of the stuff I'm keeping. Hang on, I'll zoom back a bit. We're a bit close.

[00:02:31]There we go.

[00:02:33]This is a just an LCD computer monitor, nothing flash. It's only VGA input. I keep it for testing things, and I used it just the other day to test a server I had. So, I will hang on to that.

[00:02:44]This uh linisher and grinder, I think I think it's just a timber work sort of sanding belt thing.

[00:02:52]Uh it's only a cheapy. I think I'll sell it. I was going to use it, but it's going to be a long time before I get round to having space for it and doing any woodwork. And when that time comes along, I think I'll buy a better one.

[00:03:03]So, we'll probably sell that.

[00:03:04]The Makita, what's this? I think it's a orbital sander.

[00:03:08]I do like my Makita stuff. I'll probably hang on to that one because it's a good brand, and I think it was in near new condition. There's a keyboard here I use for testing. There's a Stanley bench plane. Well, I will hang on to that.

[00:03:20]These items here, the Philips CD cassette radio. I've got a sticker on it that says the cassette doesn't work, which is typical.

[00:03:29]I don't want to keep it, but I'm going to fix it. So, I might even get on to a repair video shortly. The fact that the shop hasn't sold straight away, and it's on the market now at a fairly high price, I think we've got a bit more time. So, I know most of my videos have been unboxings one after the other, both here and at the shop. Let's try and get a quick repair video in, and I'll do that soon.

[00:03:49]This isolation transformer, it's a homemade one. It's quite a vintage one.

[00:03:53]Now, Hugh Jeffries emailed me about that one. He's interested in that. Hugh has his own tech channel on uh or modern tech, phones, and everything. I'm not sure what he wants to do with that one, but I'll work out if that goes and email Hugh about it.

[00:04:08]The lovely old oscilloscope here. I love this. It's a great old piece. It's just so cool-looking vintage vintage tech at its best. I haven't actually fired it up. Maybe we'll see if it works.

[00:04:19]I don't really have a use for it. I have got a modern oscilloscope, and I still really don't know how to use it very well. I think I'll just sell this, and that will clear up Oh, what's this? I think this is an all-in-one computer back here. HP Pavilion. I don't really need that.

[00:04:33]We'll work out what to do that with that when we get to it.

[00:04:36]>> [snorts] >> Okay.

[00:04:37]First thing, I guess, today. Big introduction today, isn't it? Let's get this Oh, let's have a look now.

[00:04:44]What is in it? It's too heavy for a kettle.

[00:04:50]And it's Oh, old films. That's right. We got these from somewhere.

[00:04:54]House lot we did, shed.

[00:04:59]I'm not sure if they're home recordings or or commercial films. We might have to try and rig up a projector and see what's on them.

[00:05:08]Yeah, okay. Maybe that's this week's video.

[00:05:11]Discovering what's on old films.

[00:05:14]Okay, it's the next morning. I'm fully recharged with coffee. Well, maybe not fully, but I've got some in my system.

[00:05:20]I've taken Cocoa for a walk, and it's time to get into this box. I had a quick peek in last night before I finished up in here, and they're not actually films. They're audio. They're reel-to-reel tapes.

[00:05:31]Although, I did find this one here sitting on the shelf next to it, and this is an old film.

[00:05:36]I think it's an 8 mm, but it's totally unknown what's on it.

[00:05:41]Uh I think these have an audio track as well. I'm not sure on that. So, I'll have to get a projector for that one.

[00:05:47]All these others, I didn't go too far into the box, but I just had a look, and they're all Well, they're all I think they're all audio tapes.

[00:05:57]This one is Moving with Nancy's Sinatra.

[00:06:00]Moving with Nancy.

[00:06:02]So, that's a commercial one. That might have a market. It might sell on eBay. I don't know. This one says Hair by Moog.

[00:06:10]I've no idea what Moog is. Hair, of course, was a um back in the '60s or this sort of era was a a musical or a Was it a musical as such? Something like that. And I don't know what Moog is, though, unless Moog was a band.

[00:06:26]How does that open?

[00:06:30]Oh, I can't get that one open. It feels like there's something in there. Well, there obviously is a tape in there.

[00:06:35]I'll have to work on that.

[00:06:37]So, I'm going to have to dig out a reel-to-reel player. I think I have one that's in working condition.

[00:06:42]This may be home recorded, that one.

[00:06:47]This one's Negro spirituals. Although, it says on this side, Hard Rock Deep Purple.

[00:06:53]So, maybe that's home recorded.

[00:06:56]Not sure. Here's another one. It says Moog. And this is about as far as I got when I had a peek in the box last night. I have no idea what Moog means.

[00:07:06]Oh, this says demo tape.

[00:07:09]Interesting.

[00:07:11]If Moog was a famous band, which is unlikely, I haven't heard of them.

[00:07:16]Um a demo tape might be quite valuable.

[00:07:19]It's a shame it doesn't say Beatles demo tape.

[00:07:23]Uh Arrows 3 hours of easy easy listening.

[00:07:28]Yep, that looks like the original. So, they might have a market on eBay. I'm not sure. I'll have to check that. I'll certainly sell through the shop.

[00:07:35]Probably have to keep them fairly cheap, I would imagine.

[00:07:38]There's an empty reel.

[00:07:40]First tape made.

[00:07:43]Don't know what that means. Well, other than it's the first tape they made. I don't know if it's a home recording.

[00:07:50]We'll have to have a listen to that.

[00:07:52]And there's a heap of other of these cases, and I don't know how to open them. Oh, there we go. The other one might be just jammed.

[00:08:00]So, blank tape.

[00:08:03]I don't know. What's it say here?

[00:08:06]Gary Glitter, Dave Clark, Neil Diamond, Dave Clark. So, it's obviously been home recorded.

[00:08:13]Uh World's Greatest Popular Piano Concertos.

[00:08:18]And what do we got down the bottom?

[00:08:20]Another home recorded one, Military Bands.

[00:08:24]TDK.

[00:08:25]I guess this is like When I was young, we had cassette tapes. I never really had a reel-to-reel player. I've not really ever used one.

[00:08:33]That might be still a blank tape.

[00:08:36]Party tape.

[00:08:38]What's it say there?

[00:08:41]Can't [snorts] make that out. Patchy something.

[00:08:44]So, back in the day, we used to have mix tapes, where you'd record off the radio even though you weren't supposed to, and you'd make up a tape of all your favorite songs as a party tape, or you'd give it to a mate.

[00:08:57]You couldn't ask for a better gift than someone doing a mix tape for you.

[00:09:02]Mix selection. Okay, so they're home recorded ones.

[00:09:05]And be interesting to see what films what um songs they have on them. I'm presuming they're going to be sort of '60s, maybe '70s era stuff.

[00:09:16]Uh one more in the bottom.

[00:09:19]And that one's one side Gary Glitter and Neil Diamond.

[00:09:23]All right. Well, that's probably what's it '70s.

[00:09:27]Um okay. Well, I better dig out a reel-to-reel player.

[00:09:31]See if we can get some of these playing just to see what they're like.

[00:09:35]I guess they've got a market.

[00:09:37]And then I'll have to dig out I've got an old projector here that was dropped off for e-waste that apparently works.

[00:09:42]Never ever had it out of the case. So, be interesting to see what's on that one. I don't have a spare spool, though, to run it onto.

[00:09:51]Not sure how we're going to go there.

[00:09:54]All right. I'll go and get the reel-to-reel player, and we'll have a bit of a play.

[00:09:58]A couple of hours later and I've wasted a couple of hours. I'm trying to get this reel-to-reel player to go. Um, it came from the op shop quite a while ago and it's a good one It's a good one.

[00:10:08]I've put it aside because I think it's quite valuable and I ran into the guy he came into the shop and he asked me about it and he said he dropped it down to the charity shop and I said, "Well, I ended up with it." He said it used to work.

[00:10:19]But unfortunately, it's probably been sitting for a long time. Now, I've taken a while to kind of nut it out how to thread it and everything. I think I've got it right.

[00:10:27]And the capstan is spinning.

[00:10:31]But the pinch roller seems to be having a problem as in when I press play it um comes into gear but the tapes only just turn and the pinch roller is not turning. I think it's supposed to spin.

[00:10:43]So, before we damage the tape, I think I've got it threaded correctly. It rewinds and fast-forwards and does everything else it's supposed to.

[00:10:51]So, we're going to give up on this. I'll rewind this back onto the proper reel. I don't know why that's so slow.

[00:11:00]I'd say probably all the belts are a bit old and perished. It probably needs a good lube.

[00:11:05]Uh, might be a good restoration project at some stage. I can hear a humming through the speakers. I've got it hooked up to my amp so I know the amplifier is working.

[00:11:13]And everything else appears to go except yeah, the belts have got a problem. All right, I might have to rewind that manually.

[00:11:21]Or maybe it'll free up a bit.

[00:11:24]But it does mean we're not going to be able to test these tapes. I'll just have to sell them as they are.

[00:11:29]So, here they all are. I'll take these to the shop and sell them probably as one bulk lot, I think. I did a search on the pre-recorded ones and I think the Nancy Sinatra one would probably do okay, maybe 20 or 30 dollars based on what I saw.

[00:11:44]Uh, but they do sell quite well. Um, mostly I didn't see any in Australia, I don't think. Mostly overseas.

[00:11:50]All the home recorded ones should be pretty interesting for someone that's got a reel-to-reel player and likes playing music on these reels.

[00:11:57]The demo one and these other ones real mix real mystery. I don't know what's on them.

[00:12:03]Might even be a blank one the two of you okay. So, that'll be lucky dip for someone and the same with those ones.

[00:12:09]So, there we go. And there's one blank one which of course you need to put the tape across while you're playing it.

[00:12:15]I'll leave this movie one for another time because I think I've got another box of old movies and I need to find them set up a projector. I don't have time to do that today.

[00:12:24]At least we had a bit of a go at these, but I'm going to sell them as one lot pretty well untested. Put them in the shop for I don't know, maybe 60 bucks a lot or something like that.

[00:12:33]I I might make them available to subscribers who become members. Now, there you go. That's something you haven't heard me say. I'm about to set up some sort of mem- membership on my channel. I'll talk about that very soon.

[00:12:45]Don't worry, you won't If you don't want to I'm not asking people to pay unless they want to.

[00:12:50]Uh, we'll go into much more detail shortly, but nothing will be paywalled.

[00:12:54]You'll still be able to watch all my videos for free.

[00:12:57]More about that soon.

[00:12:58]Uh, at least we've got something out of the shed today. So, I'll get these organized and take them off to the shop.

[00:13:03]And we didn't get back to anything else on that shelf, but it'll be pretty easy to go through and sort that in the next episode and we'll have the whole shelf at least processed if not empty. So, thanks for watching, guys. Another episode done and dusted. More stuff out of that shed.

[00:13:18]Um, potentially a bit more money in the kitty. We'll take that to the shop on Friday.

[00:13:22]Look out for my next video and I will talk about membership soon just to let you know what I'm thinking. I appreciate any input in the comments about that.

[00:13:29]And um, you know, last thing I want to do is scare any of you guys off. I really appreciate all the support and I don't want to do anything to harm that.

[00:13:37]That's enough for now. We'll talk to you in the next video. Bye for now.