I have the one you are talking about.  It's designed for video tapes, etc.  We used it years ago to erase DEC cartridges we no longer needed; however, it does tend to cut out after only a few minutes of use.

It does work on DATs, but you need to make several full passes before a DAT is erased.  Remember to work it slowly and don't forget to keep the switch on while you *slowly* pull it away from the tape; otherwise, you may never be able to erase the tape (some physics about it reinforcing rather than destroying the existing magnetic patterns?).

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>>> Stan Sieler <[log in to unmask]> Friday, October 22, 1999 1:33:11 PM >>>
Re:

> on cleaning out the building is the hundreds (thousands?) of 9 track
> mag tapes and 3480 cartridges that we have amassed.  How can we erase
> the data and is anyone interested in them?

We bought a tape eraser at Radio Shack a few years ago.  It sems to
work pretty well, but it has a short duty cycle (something like on for
5 minutes, off for 30 minutes).

Note: it did appear to erase our 9 track mag tapes, but it had less
success with DDS tapes.

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Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask] 
                                         http://www.allegro.com/sieler/