Thanks 🙂
i personally was not wanting to build one from scratch. i'm more interested in buying one but changing the shape of the tank but keeping the volume the same. lets say taking one of the smaller hight ones and making it taller/narrower/longer.
lets say i get a USC that is not quite wide enough to accommodate the submersion of the playing surface of the record. i would simply cut the sides and ends off then narrow it and make it longer and taller but keep the transducers the same.
i have access (a very very good friend) to a Stainless Steel fabricating workshop who specialise in making all kinds of boxes mainly for the catering/drainage industry so will be watertight.
btw. most records are made from virgin PVC so are 100% PVC so usually wont contain such things as plasticisers etc.etc.
Oil/Chemical resistance
PVC is resistant to acid, alkali and almost all inorganic chemicals. Although PVC swells or dissolves in aromatic hydrocarbons, ketones, and cyclic ethers, PVC is hard to dissolve in other organic solvents. PVC's Physical Properties - PVC
As a slight diversion from the main topic - ultrasonic RCMs - I have heard ozone is used to clean things in the catering industry.
Would a pressured (not sure how high a pressure!) delivery of ozone be any good for cleaning LPs? 😕
Thanks,
Andy
Would a pressured (not sure how high a pressure!) delivery of ozone be any good for cleaning LPs? 😕
Thanks,
Andy
Ozone is a very powerful oxidizing agent. I used to love the smell, associated with electric arcs, and it is probably not all that bad for one in limited exposures --- the association with photochemical smog is not so much because of the deleterious effects of O3 but more it being an easier substance to measure, and from its levels infer the presence of some decidedly worse things like N2O5.
I'm not a chemist, despite some friends' allegations from long ago 😱 but ozone sounds inefficacious here.
No I've abandoned the idea after the issue of protecting the label came up. Possibly a combination of approaches could have some conceivable advantage, like finding the resonant frequency of a particularly stubborn dirt clod, but probably that should be addressed with some other intervention.
What "virgin" means in this context is "no regrind added." You know for a fact that records can't be 100% PVC because they're black! 😀
The PVC compounds used for records have very high levels of lubricants and plasticizers, otherwise you couldn't press them or get them out of the mold, much less play them.
A simple dish rack will do the trick. Use one with the vertical wire separators and you are there. Otherwise put them in the dishwasher and use the dry cycle, just kidding there! The small amount of water alcohol mix will dry fairly quickly from the part that is still wet.
The vacuum suction delivered by a slot-suction RCM such as a Nitty Gritty - take your pic. (You just don't need the clean cycle, as the ultrasonic cleaner has replaced that.)
Air drying, IMO, is for the birds! 😛
Regards,
Andy
I wonder about using an air-knife, analogous to those new Dyson hand dryers in public bathrooms?
Dust and impingement
To each his own, as a little dust will inevitably settle onto one's freshly cleaned LP surface. But you definitely don't want to be blasting air onto the LP surface, as tiny dust particles will be driven with force back into the LP.
A vacuum really isn't necessary, as air drying takes about as long as it would to load the LP into another machine,
vacuum,
flip the LP in the machine,
vacuum again.
Then do the 2nd record from the URC batch.
Then the 3rd record from the URC batch, which would have air dried by now anyway.
With a vacuum, you've turned a URC setup that you can walk away from and return every 12 minutes into one where you need to be present much of the full cycle to vacuum one side of one LP at a time, times 6!
Many RCM vacuums also use a brush to help position the vacuum head against the record. One of the benefits of an ultrasonic setup is to allow one to eliminate the need for brushes contacting the LP.
Again, to each his own preferred method, but air drying works very well for me.
Cheers,
B B
To each his own, as a little dust will inevitably settle onto one's freshly cleaned LP surface. But you definitely don't want to be blasting air onto the LP surface, as tiny dust particles will be driven with force back into the LP.
A vacuum really isn't necessary, as air drying takes about as long as it would to load the LP into another machine,
vacuum,
flip the LP in the machine,
vacuum again.
Then do the 2nd record from the URC batch.
Then the 3rd record from the URC batch, which would have air dried by now anyway.
With a vacuum, you've turned a URC setup that you can walk away from and return every 12 minutes into one where you need to be present much of the full cycle to vacuum one side of one LP at a time, times 6!
Many RCM vacuums also use a brush to help position the vacuum head against the record. One of the benefits of an ultrasonic setup is to allow one to eliminate the need for brushes contacting the LP.
Again, to each his own preferred method, but air drying works very well for me.
Cheers,
B B
I understand your point, but I think that driving dust particles into the vinyl by an air blast is rather unlikely. Still, if something isn't needed, why do it?
I'm still curious, though, and may try to jury rig something to test the idea.
I'm still curious, though, and may try to jury rig something to test the idea.
As I remarked somewhere, take a look at the air in your room when bright sunlight is streaming in. Around here it's packed with particles. I have an air purifier but rarely use it, and probably ought to.
No doubt we live in a dusty world. But what's the kinetic energy of dust particles hitting the vinyl at something less than the velocity of the airstream?
frequency/generators
I was in this biz for many years. Very expensive for what you get and lots of hype. Your comments on fit and finish are dead on on most Mom and Pops.
If you want to have some fun check out the Harbor Freight U/S units.( Yes I know ). If I was doing it I would cut the bottom out of the tank and side mount the trans ducers on the side of a new metal tank. For records, facing into the U/S wave is preferred.
A really far out idea is to buy an U/S humidifier. Their atomizers are in the mega sonic range. Very narrow beam that has to be focused directly on the area being cleaned. Before I would risk a good record I would run some destruction tests. You will need a high power microscope for this.
Cleaning solution is inportant. A few drops of Joy soap is needed to removed air from the water. For lower frequencies stick a piece of common light weight aluminum foil into the tank for 1 minute. In some cases all that is left is a very chewed up piece of foil. In higher frequencies maybe dents. In the megasonic units no damage. Alcohol with a swab is a very good drying method.
The transducers are just a round or rectanular piece of a piezo electric material called PZT. The frequency is determined by the size of the transducer. There is not much difference between 40,60 or 80 khz. in cleaning or damage.
The Semiconductor industry at one time, tried to use U/S for cleaning Solar cells wafers. We found standing waves on the part would errode some areas and leave dirty in another. Most of the semi industry now uses the IBM wafer cleaning method of hydrogen peroxide. If I had dirty records tha'st what I would use instead of U/S cleaning.
I was in this biz for many years. Very expensive for what you get and lots of hype. Your comments on fit and finish are dead on on most Mom and Pops.
If you want to have some fun check out the Harbor Freight U/S units.( Yes I know ). If I was doing it I would cut the bottom out of the tank and side mount the trans ducers on the side of a new metal tank. For records, facing into the U/S wave is preferred.
A really far out idea is to buy an U/S humidifier. Their atomizers are in the mega sonic range. Very narrow beam that has to be focused directly on the area being cleaned. Before I would risk a good record I would run some destruction tests. You will need a high power microscope for this.
Cleaning solution is inportant. A few drops of Joy soap is needed to removed air from the water. For lower frequencies stick a piece of common light weight aluminum foil into the tank for 1 minute. In some cases all that is left is a very chewed up piece of foil. In higher frequencies maybe dents. In the megasonic units no damage. Alcohol with a swab is a very good drying method.
The transducers are just a round or rectanular piece of a piezo electric material called PZT. The frequency is determined by the size of the transducer. There is not much difference between 40,60 or 80 khz. in cleaning or damage.
The Semiconductor industry at one time, tried to use U/S for cleaning Solar cells wafers. We found standing waves on the part would errode some areas and leave dirty in another. Most of the semi industry now uses the IBM wafer cleaning method of hydrogen peroxide. If I had dirty records tha'st what I would use instead of U/S cleaning.
Sy,
Hydrogen Peroxide, would this imbrittle the surface or have a negative reaction with the wax and lipids. I would think that would be more aggressive than the alcohol solution. What say you Sy?
Hydrogen Peroxide, would this imbrittle the surface or have a negative reaction with the wax and lipids. I would think that would be more aggressive than the alcohol solution. What say you Sy?
Free radicals are bad things for vinyl. Peroxides, ozone, anything like that. Bad chemicals, bad, bad!!!