My revolutionary new record cleaning technique...

i have used this method on some records.

It is refreshing that hearinspace has actually responded to the idea and with a thought I had shared until I considered the fact that the stylus is dealing with that junk one way or another! It could be one listens to the same record more than they might have intended. In my case that is what would lead to stylus wear and tear.

I would say in response to his concern: the record is not fully enjoyable when listening to the "after treatment clearing out play". You can hear the stuff being displaced. I have found that it is good to listen to the disk so you can hear when the stylus has been overwhelmed with junk.

I use one of those MR CLEAN melamine pads to clean the stylus and it is now peppered with little black dots. there is no question that after the cleaning out play the record sounds much better than it did before.

This is not and nothing else is either a way to remove clicks and pops. I ahve tried all sorts of things and that never seem to happen. They can me minimized but never removed.

What this does is add dynamic range and much greater clarity.

Best of all it is easy to do and as effective as far more complicated measures.

I have been using filtered water - can't wait to try the added vinegar. I will get a gallon of distilled water next time I go the grocery store.

It does as every record cleaning regimen I have tried move some of the dirt around - probably takes a few application to really do the job. of removing most of it.

Gravity is the key.

I think I am going to wear out my carbon fiber brush!
 
Well, I have grown a bit since those times, now I listen to symphonic, jazz, melodic music, etc.😀
I think I'll release the LPs of Cream, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, etc.
But I will never do that with The Beatles and / or Lennon, the latter includes records with Yoko, the "invader", the "culprit" of the dissolution, and so on.
The New York City ....... but the lyrics were good, I liked "We are all water"
 
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i have used this method on some records.
can't wait to try the added vinegar. I will get a gallon of distilled water next time I go the grocery store.

Tried that, even used neat distilled vinegar on a couple of LPs that've got terminal noise problems and have proved to be impervious to vacuum cleaner, soaking, multiple UC cycles. No audible effect.

Some records cannot be cleaned to reduce noise. One, Tangerine Dream Stratosfear was new and awful when I got it during the 70's, the other was S/H. I have other Virgin pressings that're as bad. Incidentally, noise aside, the UC was transformational on the Tang LP. It sounded every bit as a good as the CD remaster.

Some noise is baked in and can't be cleaned away.
 
Tried that, even used neat distilled vinegar on a couple of LPs that've got terminal noise problems and have proved to be impervious to vacuum cleaner, soaking, multiple UC cycles. No audible effect.

Some records cannot be cleaned to reduce noise. One, Tangerine Dream Stratosfear was new and awful when I got it during the 70's, the other was S/H. I have other Virgin pressings that're as bad. Incidentally, noise aside, the UC was transformational on the Tang LP. It sounded every bit as a good as the CD remaster.

Some noise is baked in and can't be cleaned away.


Neat vinegar isn't going to have a sufficiently low surface tension to make it into the groove. To be effective, the vinegar has to get into the groove and be agitated for a time.

If the record sounded terrible from now, it is possible that it was made with regrind.
 
Really didn't think the drop or two of surfactant really counted 🙂 I use Ilfotol.

I've also tried mixing vinegar, ipa and water, though not in an electrostatic bath because I was too worried about the acid rotting seals.

It's been interesting to see the difference wetting on different LPs. Some wet with virtually no surfactant, others seem no need a tonne of it. RC cleaning certainly improves wetting. It's possible to see it improving over a cleaning cycle and on subsequent cleans.

I've not done experiments with de-static-ing before cleaning but I'd wondered if that might be interesting.
 
It's been interesting to see the difference wetting on different LPs. Some wet with virtually no surfactant, others seem no need a tonne of it.

The only surfactant I use is alcohol, I don't use any detergents or detergent-based surfactants in record cleaning.

In high concentrations (like straight 91%) I never see any differences from one record to another.

When diluted further with water or now vinegar, I do start to see some differences during the the first round of cleaning.

Subsequent cleanings don't seem to demonstrate the same sort of reaction, though.

So I've assumed that the difference is accounted for by something left on the record by the previous owner.

I mean, I've even read of one label suggesting people could treat records with a certain type of (I think) whale oil in an effort to minimize friction seen by the stylus.

I approach record cleaning as an exercise in removing not only the stuff we'd normally expect to find in the groove, but the crud the previous owners used to try to clean the record.

Therefor I stick to just alcohol and/or alcohol + DWV.
 
Well, I have grown a bit since those times, now I listen to symphonic, jazz, melodic music, etc.😀
I think I'll release the LPs of Cream, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, etc.
But I will never do that with The Beatles and / or Lennon, the latter includes records with Yoko, the "invader", the "culprit" of the dissolution, and so on.
The New York City ....... but the lyrics were good, I liked "We are all water"

Ironically, I have put records by the CREAM on again after decades of ignoring them and I have to say they are quite good. Don't throw those away.

No question they were a grand mess but their musicianship remains superb.

You will please forgive me - I hate PINK FLOYD as much as John Lydon does. Except for the first record which was lots of fun.

I keep trying to forget the Beatles but it hasn't happened yet. Not much of the "after Beatles" work is interesting from any of them, for me, especially Harrison. As much as like Harrison as a human being his music never did anything for me except for TAXMAN and he could not even play the break.

In ANTHOLOFY I thought he came across the best.

Lennon had his great moments but suffered from the poseur's disease. He could never be himself. He had to be what he thought he should be or what someone told him he should be.

Personally, I will never forgive him for what he did to Harry Nilsson.
 
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Tried adding some vinegar - I think that is a good addition.

Cleaned up my copy of Dan Hicks STRIKING IT RICH - bought when it came out and has suffered numerous indignities in the time since.

Listened while it played after the treatment and had to get up and clean the stylus about 14 times - good exercise! Amazing how much junk is released.

This record was very quiet before cleaning - especially considering its age.

There was no reduction in noise but the expected cleaning up of the high frequencies occurred. A few more cleanings will be worthwhile.

Keep that stylus clean!
 
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What about spinning it? Adapt an old rotary tool like a bench grinder. WooHoo, watch that crapola fly !

Or blast it while spinning with a water pressure cleaner ! :firefite: Yaooooooogha !

The idea is really to allow the alcohol and vinegar to work until they're gone all by themselves.

But there is a gentleman from Italy I believe that made a centrifugal drying machine to work with his ultrasonic machine.

I tried making my own mandrel that could work with a cordless drill, for when I'm more conventionally cleaning. It is actually sorta tricky to make a mandrel that doesn't self-tighten during spin-up or down, and holds on tightly enough not to let the album spin freely. And you need some decent RPM to spin the inner grooves fast enough to evacuate the fluids.
 
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You will please forgive me - I hate PINK FLOYD as much as John Lydon does. Except for the first record which was lots of fun.

..................

No problem, you have your opinion and your tastes and I mine.

I don't think he was a fake, no one is perfect, but he was sincere in his beliefs .

There are very interesting documentaries about his life.
 
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The idea is really to allow the alcohol and vinegar to work until they're gone all by themselves.

But there is a gentleman from Italy I believe that made a centrifugal drying machine to work with his ultrasonic machine.

I tried making my own mandrel that could work with a cordless drill, for when I'm more conventionally cleaning. It is actually sorta tricky to make a mandrel that doesn't self-tighten during spin-up or down, and holds on tightly enough not to let the album spin freely. And you need some decent RPM to spin the inner grooves fast enough to evacuate the fluids.

I confess! I tried drying with a drill years ago and found though tough to stabilize if hand held it still wasn't fast/powerful enough to throw off the water.
A more powerful rig though might just do it.

I threw in the blast it bit "cuz I was feelin' happeeeee" , but actually think it could work if done supporting the disc from behind (ply or other disc), the water maybe mixed with Photo-Flo or similar, and the record spun the right direction relative to the water jet.
 
Someone used Pledge or Brylcreem or something of the sort, on their album(s). I know this sort of thing is sometimes done to shine-up albums before selling them,
Right, by unscrupulous sellers/traders who's intent is to cover up the true condition of the record, or just by plain ignorance. So once the crap that was rubbed into the record is finally dissolved and removed, your method can then be compared to other more conventional ones. Until then, it's up in the air.
 
You are paying much more than the actual production cost of a record.
Records are compression molded it seems, and the excess trimmed off.
The excess material is called plant waste or plant rejection, and that is the cleanest source for recycling.
Every time you melt any thermoplastic material it degrades, and the number of times it is melted is called its heat history.
PVC degrades faster, and gives off tiny amounts of Hydro chloric acid every time it is melted, and you have also to refresh the plasticiser and other chemicals added ...that actually is tougher than doing a new batch, the scrap PVC has to be tested before compounding again, or adding a small quantity to the new batch.

So recycling plant waste is comparatively easier, you know what you are dealing with.
On the other hand, this scrap sells for about 70% of the new material price, so little if any saving is achieved, and the quality suffers.
For a few pennies the customer is irritated and later comes to know they were cheated.
Hardly a reputable thing to do.

These chemicals migrate and decompose in PVC, so that is the reason I said cleaning old PVC is a little tricky.


I am experienced in plastic molding, and in plastic processing PVC by itself is a vast field, due to the variety of grades and applications.

It is my view that to spend more than raw material cost in order to recycle old material is stupid.
Scrap @ 70% + testing + compounding + handling = More or about new material price.

Also bear in mind that this plant waste is generally less than a few months old, and I am trying to prevent damage to decades old plastic.
I remember around 1978 when recycled vinyl came to light as a source used in new records. The reason it became a topic of discussion was because the record deteriorated much more quickly and you could readily hear it as the sound of mis-tracking. Apparently the vinyl was brittle and the stylus progressively broke off pieces of the groove. I suppose it is a very exacting process when adding modifiers to rejuvenate it and there is an element of QC involved. I remember hearing about the discontinuation of it's use as a result.
 
We generally can add up to 10% plant waste / runners to moldings without issues, EXCEPT where it is natural colour or medical parts.

I do mostly medical and safety equipment.
Some scrap is used for cleaning machinery during production, such as material and colour changes. Our scrap, like short pieces and runners, are shredded in what is called a grinder, and that is how it is re used and stored.

But mixing scrap in new material inevitably adds dust and worse, as the material is electrostatically charged, it attracts dust. So storage and handling has to be good.
Here, the minute grooves have to be perfectly reproduced, the quality of the molding has to be good, and these people add scrap. Like adding salt to ice cream. And for little economic advantage.
Like I said, stupid...

We used LDPE to flush PVC, and even then the client was quibbling, so I had him take away the work, it was not lucrative anyway.

They were having issues with black dots in medium blue PVC, and were giving scrap blue LDPE for purging. I asked for clean natural LDPE to clean, they would not spend, I said enough, bye bye.

A plant making PVC medical tubing (catheters etc.) had a recurring black dot problem, solved by flushing the machines every 8 hours with LDPE, it was caused by die build up.
And this was with medical grade PVC compound in a clean room facility with air filters for dust and workers wearing medical grade wear, like persons in an operation theater.
Records you don't need such cleanliness.
But if PVC can cause this level of problems in a medical grade plant, imagine what can happen in other plants.
 
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In other words, the conclusion is that the really stupid thing is to keep trying to achieve zero noise with various cleaning methods if the problem is that the LP is made with recycled PVC .....
I'm on another path now, RIAA tube phono peamplifier and MC cartridge with ball needle.
Of course, negative reviews will come about my purpose. I am not worried, go ahead!