I went out an pulled my note from the archives to provide a FYI...

DWight


Did it really eat the tape or just say pop of a foot or two from the
     front ?

     You wouldn't believe the amount of confetti that 1 ft. of 3590 can
     make inside a drive !

     Now, naturally IBM has a bunch of high dollar tools they'd like to
     sell you to do this but....

     Ya got the blue, can't remember the official name, plastic, loader
     piece ?

     Is some of the tape still hanging out of the cart ?
     If not hold the tape in your left hand as you would a calculator with
     the drive sprocket towards you and the write-lock on the lower left
     and the tape exit port on the lower right.  With the non-business end
     of a pen, push in on the center lock button on the drive sprocket.
     NOTE: your pen needs to be smaller than the hole around the drive
     sprocket lock button.  Now while still depressing the lock button
     rotate/wiggle (as if drawing little o's / doodles / spiro-graph
     action) in a counter clockwise direction the pen.  As it wobbles in
     the hole in the sprocket it should rotate the tape spool clockwise ie.
     extending the tape out of the cart.
     If the tape is already out of the cart you can lay it down with the
     sprocket up, depress the lock with a pen, and pull out enough tape to
     get by the damaged area.

     NOTE: these tapes are mylar (sp?) and any little nick will result in a
     complete tear!  but it is extremely tough so don't worry, just use
     caution.

     OK, back to the blue thingy...
     The dowel that holds the tape in is semi-hard rubber... with the
     business end of a pen, push it out of the blue loader piece. USE
     CAUTION TO AVOID PERSONAL INJURY BY THE PEN !

     Now set the cart in front of you to your left, tape exiting the bottom
     right corner, sprocket away from you. ahhh see the picture below

     +---------+   <-= cart
     |         |
     |         |
     |         |                       +- ---+--\
     |        /      (tape)            | U   +   \   <-= blue loader piece
     +-------/______________________   +-----+    \      note orientation

     Now just lay the tape over the loader piece, making sure the center
     line of the tape and blue loader piece are as close to exact as you
     can get it... then push the little rubber lock back down in the blue
     loader piece which will secure the tape.  (the U in the diagram
     denotes location of the rubber lock piece)

     OK, now to get the tape back in the spool/cart...

     as before hold the tape in your left hand, sprocket facing towards
     you, tape hanging down.  Put the NON-business end of the ball-point
     pen in the sprocket center hole depressing the lock pin.  THIS TIME
     draw your little o's with a clock-wise rotation and that will rotate
     the spool counter-clock-wise thus pulling the tape back into the cart.

     Then snap the blue thingy back in and pray !

     The first operation I would try would be a move data !!!

     but every tape I've done this to is still going strong
     granted that is only 3 out of ??? 5,000

     later,
           Dwight
                  ;-)

     PS if all else fails IBM, for a price, can pull info off a trashed
     tape but you have to send it off and I have no idea of the cost, only
     the availability of the service.