Best Inexpensive Vinyl Cleaning Method?

The absolute cheapest is original Blue Dawn dishwashing soap and rinse with lots of room temperature water. It has made a huge difference for me, even on noisy new records. Less than a penny a record. Use a soft towel to scrub, then rinse well.
 
the spin clean is very effective for cleaning records and at a budget price to boot.

cleaning the stylus can be done in a couple of ways. a discwasher sc2 stylus brush is EXCELLENT. never use it whle the tonearm is anchored but pick up the cartridge end of the tonearm with the finger lift and set the needle down on the upward pointing brush, then drag the brush toward you. only the vtf is pressing on the stylus/cantilever so it is perfectly safe. the stylast brush is the same but much smaller.

the magic eraser is the most effective and can be done every now and again to REALLY clean the diamond. you just drop the stylus down with the fingerlift or cuing lever a couple of times and that's IT.
 
I use a small sized vacuum attachment called a Vinyl Vac and it works well IMO. Someone was selling something similar on AK but I think he sold out recently.
https://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Vac-Re..._26?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ZESP8NSHTF0CNPEPXNVP

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I reached out to Nick of CanFab 3d and the cost is $133 shipped. It's a bit more expensive than I originally was planning on but I watched the youTube demo and it's a great design. So gonna order one.


Sorry.

~Hugh

Not too long ago the standard RCM machines out there were $400 to $600 as a general rule. You could find a inexpensive Disc Doctor one for about $200 to $250, ,but it did not have a full platter to support records. The VPI 16 was $400, and its replacement now is about $600.

Getting a full platter manual RCM at $130 would have been unheard of 5 years ago.

You are getting a chance that vinyl philes only dreamed of when I was a young pig.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
My solution is one that has kept me from getting any more complex for now. (Simple and can't see how results can get any better and all learned here on AK.)

2 / 5" plastic dent pullers for suction protection on each side of record. (Plus gives you handles for a strong grip.)

Styrofoam 6" painting pads for scrubbing.

Microfiber clothes over the 4 square in. vacuum attachment on my bench vacuum. (Rubber door sweep material wrapped around attachment head for positive and safe/easy contact to record fastened with "Shoe Goo".)

Clean water w/ultra small drop of "simplest" soap. (Ivory type) All you need is a tiny amount because it is the water that cleans and the soap is only there to break it's cohesive property so the water settles in to the grooves well.

Note: Vinyls and plastics are all in a state of flux due to oxidation, surficant possibilities, aggravation due to heat cold exchange etc..
Throwing harsh chemicals and alcohol has never been needed (in my experience anyways). Silence!!!!!!!
Hope this helps.
 
I reached out to Nick of CanFab 3d and the cost is $133 shipped. It's a bit more expensive than I originally was planning on but I watched the youTube demo and it's a great design. So gonna order one.


Sorry.

~Hugh
Good choice for the price. Unlike other vacuum systems if the vacuum fails it is harder and more expensive to replace than a shop vac.
 
okay..... I am going to add my 2 cents here. I purchased the canfab vacuum based system from squeakyclean. It is a very good value purchase and in my opinion works MUCH better that the discwasher machines that you spin by hand and dry off. I have had absolutely wonderful results with the vacuum system from squeakyclean and have recommended it.

Now I am going to admit that I am lazy and really don't like the time and labor spent on doing the record cleaning thing. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that clean records are as important as good components in your listening chain.

However, I did stumble on something that tickled my fancy. That is using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your records. I did some research and found that they are, for the most part, incredibly expensive. But.....in my Yaqin tube amp group on facebook, one of the guys bought one and highly recommended it. He has some very nice equipment and his opinion on this is one that I value. So.......I just ordered one from the same source and it uses the Baku ultrasonic cleaner with a motorized spindle that holds 7 albums. Reviews on it were excellent and so I just purchased one.

I am in no way affiliated with this fella who is in Poland that builds these things so I am waiting to get mine and I will report on how well it works. The review that I got from my Yaqin tube amp compatriot was good. the price that I paid...shipped to the U.S. was around 250 and this is a bare bones model. No heat source for the water so you need to heat it prior to using it. You will also have to pony up for a voltage converter that produces over 100 watss of power. They are readily available and pretty inexpensive. I have seen ultrasonic machines that clean multiple albums at one time going for 2-5 thousand dollars.

I don't know how anyone feels about using ultrasonic cleaners, but the reviews are very good, and I think that if you can get one at a reasonable price that it is an excellent value. I plan to use mine to clean and then I will use the Squeakyclean vacuum system to do the final step of drying and possibly even vacuuming off any leftover, loose particles.

Just my two cents. Very reasonably priced in comparison to other offerings. How long it will last? How well will it work? Not sure....I think it will work well and how difficult is it to have something that rotates slowly for 5 minutes at a clip with 7 albums immersed in the ultrasonic tank? I think that the expensive ones that are out there are ridiculously overpriced and will report back on how mine works after I have used it for a bit.

Might be worth looking into. I think that the 2 systems used in conjunction can give you an RCM system that will rival the ones that are going for multiple thousands of dollars. Too good to be true? I guess we will see pretty soon. I am excited to see how this works out.
I have a lot of records to clean.
 
Here is the website. The actual purchase was made on our favorite auction site...but you can email the contact at the website and they will then email you with a link to the auction and/or set one up just for you. That is how I did it. You will need to factor in a 10-30 dollar cost for a voltage converter to convert to 110v if you live in the U.S.A .......btw.....I have no affiliation with this particular product.....got the info from a fellow AK'er.

http://audiorevita.pl/
 
Here's my "$10 Record Cleaning Machine". Shop vac, $10 crevice tool attachment, microfibre cloth, and a drop of dish washing liquid. You really don't need the Spin Clean, but I have it so I use it instead of washing my records in the kitchen sink.

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$10 crevice attachment for 2.5" shop vac

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Protective microfibre cloth over crevice tool

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Clean your records in the kitchen sink, or something like a Spin Clean

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Rinse with water. Distilled if your tap water is not very soft.

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Vacuum fry

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The Power of Suck!
 

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I use two Spin Cleans. One with cleaning solution (Triton X-100, 99% IPA, distilled water) and the second with just distilled water. I bought a slotted vacuum attachment that someone here was making and a mini shop vac.

I use Scrubbing Bubbles first on really grungy thrift store and garage sale records. It's a little scary at first but I was amazed at the effectiveness. I rinse off in the sink, set album on a soft lint free cloth, apply the SB, let it sit for a few minutes, agitate with another cloth, sink rinse and then run them through the normal Spin Clean cycle after. Many of these become my cleanest and quietest used records.

P.S. - the OP probably has a cleaning machine of some sort by now.
 
How about getting dust off the needle?

Hi Hungman61,

Its a stylus not a needle. ;) Nonetheless, the magic eraser works quite well, cleans diamond tips very well.

you want to carefully lift the eraser to the stylus, hit it a few times, do not drag, or brush it across the stylus. you will damage the cart.

A cheap way to clean your albums.

Dawn soap, and warm water.

Use a spray bottle, and microfiber cloth to dry. There are other home mixtures that work as well. Watched one on YouTube last night with some Jet dry, water, and rubbing alcohol.

Kind Regards,
John
 
A cheap way to clean your albums.

Dawn soap, and warm water.

add to this one of the lint removal clothing brushes, usually red directional fiber for removing lint from your clothes that sell for a buck at dollar stores.

wet the brush, and take a dot of the dawn and spread back and forth in a line on both sides of the brush. wet the record, wash as the fibers make you follow the grooves, both sides of the record.

spray vigorously with the sink sprayer, dry with the microfiber cloths and set on a rack or easels to dry.

quite similar to what i did before the spinclean (better than the dawn method).

 
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