Please help with DIY "Keith Monks" record cleaning machine problem

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Gee,no wonder the Gudebrod thread is so hard to find;Eric's a hoarder:D

Try a local hobby shop or industrial hardware supplier for the arm parts.
That pump seems like a good choice re flow and vacuum.Good price too!
The catch bottle is really essential,hope you can fix it.
 
I made a little progress over the day or two. The collection bottle that arrived with my vacuum pump was cracked and wasn't air tight, so I made a new one from a plastic snap lid container. Not sure how well this will work because the box "contracts" a bit when the pump is on. Greater amounts of flex reduces the vacuum at the end hose. I may build another collection jar from a small glass Ball Jar.

I found a few nylon threaded hose barbs at the local hardware store. The trick is that most hose barbs have "tapered" threads, so you can't just screw a nut onto the other end. Thus, I needed to use a few washers as spacers. The first one is rubber, the next ones are just regular metal washers. The hose that connects to the pump is 5/16" ID and the hose that will connect to the nozzle is 1/4" ID.

Next, I need to craft a nozzle out of teflon and then start building an arm.
 

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Some More Progress

I've had a little bit of time to make some more progress on my record cleaner. The plastic collection container that I posted above turned out to flex too much as a result of the vacuum pump. The sides very clearly suck in and collapse the container a bit - thus, I figured this would have too much of an impact on the consistency of the vacuum pressure. So, I started again.

As it turns out, I had a hard time finding a hose bib with a straight thread on it. Most of them are NPT tapered pipe threads, which makes fitting a nut and getting an airtight seal nearly impossible. After a long search, I found this one that works great:

Parker - 685HB-4-4 - Barbed Hose Fitting

It is a hose barb that fits 1/4" ID hose and has a 7/16-20 thread. It even comes with a rubber gasket for an air-tight seal. I used one for the inlet and the other for the outlet of the collection jar. The collection jar is a very small (6-7 ounces) Ball Jar. Once these were mounted in the lid of the Ball Jar, I got some more hose from the hardware store that fit the nut on the bottom of the lid. This will be the inlet side so the siphoned liquid will stay out of the vacuum pump.

The nozzle was fashioned out of 1/4" teflon rod from McMaster: 1/4" teflon rod

The hardest part was drilling the orifice exactly in the center of the teflon rod. I made a little jig for my drill press - see the hand-drawn attachment below. First, make sure the table for your drill press is perfectly level so it will be perpendicular to your drill bit. Then, take any flat scrap of wood and drill a 1/4" diameter hole (matching the teflon rod) about 3/4 of the way through the thickness of the wood. Then take your small drill bit and drill the rest of the way through. Use care to make sure this hole is EXACTLY in the center of your larger hole. I had to try this two or three times before I was satisfied with the placement of the smaller hole. You'll only be able to tell if you got it right after drilling into your teflon rod, so this part is a bit of trial and error.

Next, cut your teflon rod into shorter pegs - I made mine just about 1" long. The rod cuts easily with a razor knife, but your cut will most definitely be crooked as the blade slides through the teflon. We'll fix this with the drill press after drilling the hole in it. Take your teflon peg and gently tap it into the 1/4" hole in your block of wood - mine was pretty snug. Now turn the block of wood upside down on your drill press so the teflon peg goes through the hole in the table. Put your small diameter drill bit in the chuck. Line up the drill bit with the small hole that came out the bottom of your block and drill through your teflon peg. If you centered your hole in the wood properly, you should have a nicely centered hole in your teflon rod. You might need to use pliers to gently remove the teflon from the wood when you are finished.

Next, use your drill press to shape the end of the teflon nozzle. Set your drill press to its highest speed setting for this. Put the teflon rod in the chuck and tighten gently - you want to hold it steady, not deform it. Place a flat block of wood on the table and put a piece of heavy grit sand paper (I used 150 grit) on top of the block of wood. Start the drill press and gently press the teflon onto the sandpaper. While maintaining pressure, pull the sand paper out from under the teflon rod. Do this 2-3 times and you'll have a nice flat bottom for your nozzle. This is especially important if your hole is not dead-center in your teflon rod. Then, using the same 150 grit paper, hold the sanding block at an angle against the bottom of the nozzle to taper the end a bit. Using a rigid block of wood is important here to shape the teflon. You'll need to move the sanding block around a bit as this will remove the grit from the paper quickly. When you are done, your nozzle should look like an upside down 3D code with a flat top. Next, work your way up through successively fine grit sand paper to smooth the nozzle - I used 220, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 for a final polish. I hand held the sand paper for this step to round over the edges. This took about 2 minutes on the drill press.

I am not yet sure what orifice diameter in the teflon will work best, so I made three: 1mm, 1.25mm, and 1.5mm. Drill bits were sourced from McMaster:

1.00 mm drill bit
1.25 mm drill bit
1.50 mm drill bit

Trying each nozzle with the vaccum pump running and the thread through the orifice, I get the following vacuum readings on my pump:

1.00mm hole results in 17mm Hg of vacuum
1.25mm hole results in 14mm Hg of vacuum
1.50mm hole results in 11mm Hg of vacuum

The 1.5mm hole provides the greatest flow rate of air with 0.25mm" diameter thread in the orifice.

The next task will be to find an old record player that I can fit the suction nozzle to. I'm thinking I want to try this the easier way before fabricating my own turn table mechanism (platter, motor, speed control, etc) and arm mechanism.
 

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Same Jar as Smart devices used. Very good idea. I don't know if Norman is still alive ? Norm also used that thread.

The drill press is next best to a lathe. Makes me think I could make a jig for mine. I have a Record mini vice which is good, it will bolt to the press. My press is Delta made in the USA and very good it is.
 
Way to go Eric,and happy new year!

While the smaller holes generate more vacuum dry,the thread will swell slightly when wet,which impedes flow. I think I ended up choosing 1/16 diameter (very close to 1.50mm) as the best performer overall.

In addition to the catch-bottle,I would recommend that you also install a water absorber of some sort directly ahead of the vacuum pump to extract that last little bit of ''mist'' in the airstream.I think I got mine from a supplier of paint-spraying equipment.I'll try to find my notes.

Nigel- I find it funny and ironic that you're using an American drill press and I'm using a British lathe. I love my old Viceroy. Mine is the first picture in the link,but is the 40'' between-centers model.

Viceroy TD Lathes
 
The ones nearly everyone in the UK treasure is the Colchester lathe. They can work 14 inch metal which many modern lathes can not. Some Colchesters look like they stopped working 20 years ago. Then one day you walk in and the old beast is turning metal.

Even SME have to farm out if that large.
 
Thanks Eric! I know exactly what you mean about space,there's never enough.

Nigel-In my high school the metal shop had 6 Colchester Student lathes,so that's what I learned on:)). Occasionally my Mom would bring me to work with her (she was a tool and die maker).I still remember her lathe,it was a Colchester Master.
You're not kidding; That thing was HUGE:eek:
 
Any of you make any progress on your respective projects over the past several months? I'm intrigued by the idea of trying something similar with a Technics I have laying around. A proper nozzle for a non-obscene amount of money seems to be the biggest hold-up.

I'm mainly interested in this for the sake of a lower-noise RCM, since my 2.5HP shop vac and KAB EV-1 are disruptive to my pets.
 
Packgrog: I saw your PM and thought I'd just reply here so everyone can see. I've made only minimal progress on my RCM this year - work has been keeping me busy lately. I made the nozzle myself from a teflon rod that I purchased from McMaster. The real challenge was to drill the hole EXACTLY in the middle of the rod so that when you round it over, the hole is actually at the peak of the tip. I found a used direct drive turntable at the local flea market for a few bucks and modified the headshell a bit so I could strap the nozzle to it. I used it a few times, but the real challenge is keeping the liquid out of the body of the turn table when it runs off the edge of the record I'm cleaning. I'm debating between building a new mechanism with the parts from the TT I found, or doing a complete custom job. In the meantime, it works.
 
The Avro Arrow debacle is still a topic of outrage here in Canada.

The reasoning behind the extremely suspicious termination and the immediate destruction of all materials and information relating to the project has never been revealed.

Many of us view this decision by the Diefenbaker Conservative government as nothing less than an act of treason that remains un-addressed.

You can view some of the ''remains'' of an Arrow at the Canadian Aviation Museum,located in Ottawa,Ontario. It is a truly sad sight.What could have been.....

It was quite simple. The ICBM made it (and many other aircraft in development) redundant overnight.
 
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