Warped records

[Stanislav]

I acquired a few very valuable records, but some of them are warped. Does anyone know a way of making them reasonably flat without destroying them?

Regards

Stan - adores vynil

[Brett]

Use a decent record clamp.

[miguel2]

Put some (HIFI ) magazines over the warped ones in a flat surface for some days. Never tried but some people say it is effective. It doesn't hurt anyway.

Miguel

[Stanislav]

Thank you guys.

Brett,
Where can one find a good record clamp here DownUnder, most of the so called Hi-Fi shops sell only DVD and Home Theater stuff nowadays. Maybe I should try Speakerworks ( Tom Manning - ex ScanAudio man).

Miguel,
I thought about this and actually tried it in the past but didn't find it very effective, so I dunno - I may give it another try anyway.

Stan - keen to try almost everything worth trying

[Brett]

Originally posted by Stanislav
Brett,
Where can one find a good record clamp here DownUnder, most of the so called Hi-Fi shops sell only DVD and Home Theater stuff nowadays. Maybe I should try Speakerworks ( Tom Manning - ex ScanAudio man).

Hi Stan,

due to the wonderful invention of the internet, I buy almost all my gear mail order. Here in rural NSW, even buying a non top 40 CD requres going to the next town.
What sort of TT do you have, and what's your budget? I'll do some webcrawling later and see what I can find one I finish the amp I'm soldering tonight. OTTOMH, I know where I can get new Michell clamps for about $A90 - ish.

Tom is great and has done some awesome speaker repairs for me in the past, but I don't think he'll have any vinyl gear.

The other method suggested of placing large weights on LPs, I've never found to work. A friend even had a rig made years ago with some special glass plates to put the disc between, and then weighted and placed on his verandah in the afternoon sun. I never saw one it worked with.

[Stanislav]

Brett,

I just found an interesting idea for a DIY clamp on the net.
Here's the link:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rabruil/puck.html

I think it may work.

Stan

[Panelhead]

Stan,
A record clamp will only help warps a little. An outer clamp like a Merrill or the Clearaudio will fix it. But these are expensive.
To really fix the record, buy 3 13in x 13 in sheets of glass. Place two records in between the glass. Preheat oven to 200 degree F. Do this either before going to bed or to work. Turn oven off and place record sandwich in oven. Allow to cool down to room temp.
Once the oven and records are cooled off you will be the proud owner of flat records.


George

[Stanislav]

Hi George,

Interesting method, have you tried it yourself? I am no sceptical, simply willing to try the best possible way of fixing warped records.

According to Brett this may not work that well, but I will try it with some not so important disks anyway - there's nothing to lose except a few cents on top of the electricity bill.

Thanks for the input - will let you know of the outcome.

P.S. 200 degrees F = 93.3 Celsius

Stan - likes risks and adventures

[peranders]

Originally posted by Panelhead
Stan,
A record clamp will only help warps a little. An outer clamp like a Merrill or the Clearaudio will fix it. But these are expensive.
To really fix the record, buy 3 13in x 13 in sheets of glass. Place two records in between the glass. Preheat oven to 200 degree F. Do this either before going to bed or to work. Turn oven off and place record sandwich in oven. Allow to cool down to room temp.
Once the oven and records are cooled off you will be the proud owner of flat records.

200 deg F

Start at 50-60 deg C, my advise! Be careful! I got a single warped lying on top of a regular tube radio in the 60's.

[Brett]

Originally posted by Stanislav
Hi George,

Interesting method, have you tried it yourself? I am no sceptical, simply willing to try the best possible way of fixing warped records.

According to Brett this may not work that well, but I will try it with some not so important disks anyway - there's nothing to lose except a few cents on top of the electricity bill.

Thanks for the input - will let you know of the outcome.

P.S. 200 degrees F = 93.3 Celsius

Stan - likes risks and adventures

Hi Stan,

I haven't tried George's method, but it might work well, and would be my first suggestion as it's the cheapest. Try it on some records you don't mind losing, and I'd second Peranders in experimenting at different heats until you get it right. Smaller warps may need less heat and time, and I'd be using the least amount possible. Getting the glass cut won't be expensive.

I have few LPs that even a low riding arm like my SME10 won't track over when using either the Rock (threaded spindle) or Gyro (collett) clamps to flatten them some. I don't buy warped LPs if I can avoid it, as I'd rather wait for a good copy; I've never had one not turn up sooner or later, but if this method works, I might be able to have a playable copy in the interim.

The weight you linked to earlier won't help. It's too light to make any difference, except in stopping any dynamic wowing caused by LPs slipping on (say) a felt mat.

Best clamp I could find in search alst night was the Gyro one, which I don't like to recommend as it may not work on your particular TT if the spindle is slightly undersize, oversize or too, short for the collet to grip properly. I f i find something better, I'll post a link.

In the meantime, have a look at this old asylum thread.
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?f...ko&r=&session=