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Cleaning Vinyl???

V

vinylisbest

New Member
Ok, I grew up with a vinyl brush in the home, but I am seeing threads talking about soap and water, and rinsing etc...Dad told me never to get 'em wet. What is the do's and don'ts about cleaning vinyl? How often and how do you clean it? I din't know one was supposed to clean it with soap and water, but I obviously want to take care of my stuff. DIY or pay for solultion? Advice?
 
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Cleaning Vinyl

We have come a long way in vinyl care/cleaning and far as I'm concerned the standard for cleaning LPs is useing a VPI, Nitty Gritty etc RCMs. All those old DiscWasher kits on Ebay are there for a reason, this is 2008, not 1978.
 
I'd suggest using the search function here- you'll find more information (and diverging opinions) than you can hope to digest any time soon.
 
Vinylisbest, I'm a huuuuuge proponent of a DIY wet vac system. It's really quite amazing and does everything that a $500 VPI does. Might not be very pretty...or if you put time into it, it *can* be pretty. Mine's uglier than a mud fence.

Basic cleaner fluid recipe: Distilled Water, 90+ % rubbing alcohol, about 40 drops of Kodak Photoflow and a little bit of unscented Lysol...about a cup seems to work well. The Lysol combats things like mold and other nasties. The Photoflow gets rid of the viscosity of water, i.e. it's tendency to bead, so that the fluid gets in the grooves. The alcohol aids in the cleaning also. The distilled water is the medium for the whole mess, and leaves no mineral residue.

Pour out about half the gallon of distilled water into a sterilized container. Mix the crap in the gallon. Fill back up with distilled water. Save the extra.

Get an old vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment. Also get a piece of crap turntable, something with a fairly stout platter. Rip the arm off, you just want this for a work surface. Now take the crevice tool and tape the end shut with some duct tape. Drill a hole just in from the end to fit over the spindle. Now measure and cut a slot that runs from the edge of a record label to the edge of the record. Cover the whole tool with cloth (I use a black sock with a slot cut for...the slot). That's your suction tool.

Now put a record on the turntable. Put about a capful of fluid on it. Use an old Discwasher (or similar) brush to swirl the fluid all around the groove area and scrub the disc in motions going with the groove. Then fire up the vac and rotate the platter slowly by hand, vacuuming up all the fluid. Now repeat the process, but with straight distilled water this time. Vac it off. Put your newly cleaned vinyl in a new poly sleeve (order them online) and put back in the jacket.

Also pick up a good carbon fiber brush for every day maintenance.
 
Or if you're creatively challenged and exceedingly lazy like me, just break down and spend the cash on a record cleaning machine (I have the VPI 16.5) and cleaning concentrate (ibid) that you mix with store bought distilled water and iso-alch....machine cleaning shows it's worth after the first album you play dirty, then clean and play again...you will be sold. Once you really clean them, a good carbon fiber brush is all you need to get the surface crud off before/between play. Weather the device is homeade or store bought...the results are night and day!!

James R.
 
Sansui Louie

I like your idea about drilling the hole for the spindle. Maybe a thin spacer between the crevice tool and the label to allow a margin of error? Probably not necessary. Anyway, the hole would give some stability.

The sock is also a good idea. Kind of a filter you can just throw in the washer.

Simple innovation is the best way.

Thanks,
Rick
 
Tapehead47 said:
I like your idea about drilling the hole for the spindle. Maybe a thin spacer between the crevice tool and the label to allow a margin of error? Probably not necessary. Anyway, the hole would give some stability.

The sock is also a good idea. Kind of a filter you can just throw in the washer.

Simple innovation is the best way.

Thanks,
Rick
Click to expand...

Washer hell, trash can. Use those strays that the washer ate


I'll throw in that even the smallest of shop vacs offers waaaaaaaaay too much suction
 
Windwalker said:
Washer hell, trash can. Use those strays that the washer ate


I'll throw in that even the smallest of shop vacs offers waaaaaaaaay too much suction
Click to expand...

Could always counteract that with holes drilled into the back side of the tool.
 
Windwalker said:
Washer hell, trash can. Use those strays that the washer ate


I'll throw in that even the smallest of shop vacs offers waaaaaaaaay too much suction
Click to expand...

How could there be "Too much suction"? If it lifts the LP off the turntable?
Short of that I would think that the more suction the better the cleaning.

Please expound.

Rick
 
Well, I hold the album down on the turntable with a thumb and forefinger thing.....forefinger on edge of record, thumb on label, and turn manually. Suction is your friend. :D
 
mwr885 said:
Could always counteract that with holes drilled into the back side of the tool.
Click to expand...

I actually had the end of the crevice tool open


Tapehead47 said:
How could there be "Too much suction"? If it lifts the LP off the turntable?
Short of that I would think that the more suction the better the cleaning.

Please expound.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what it did


Sansui Louie said:
Suction is your friend
Click to expand...

So I hear:D
 
Any pics of your DIY cleaners? I was thinking of the KAB ev1 but this sounds more interesting and also fits the budget.
 
That is a very interesting topic for me - a cleaning noobie - as I am still one of those discwasher junkies from the 80s.

As I understand it, the wet/suction cleaning method is:
drop the cleaning micture on the record, use a brush to wet the whole surface, and once the grooves are wet, use a suction pipe close to the grooves to remove the fluid, which will at the same time take the dust and particles with it.

Am I correct?

I have no doubt that the suction will be much more effective than the typical brush - that probably moves dust around rather than remove it.

Now, what about particles / dust that have been stuck in the grooves over the years and repeated plays of the LP without proper cleaning?

Or isn't such the case?

I am not talking about "stones" that can cause the stylus to jump a track, just those dust particles that cause pops.

Are they removed as well by the suction? Is that so easy?


I was thinking about cleaning such dirty LPs using an airbrush spraying a cleaning mixture at about 45 degrees angle to the LP. I was thinking of mounting the LP vertically through a very long spindle over a bucket of sorts, and spray with a very focused beam of the airbrush through the grooves while the LP is slowly rotated.

Would that make sense? If so, it could even be mechanised of sorts, so that the cleaning process can be automated.

Any thoughts (or failed / succesful experiments)?
 
m4rz said:
Any pics of your DIY cleaners? I was thinking of the KAB ev1 but this sounds more interesting and also fits the budget.
Click to expand...

Always glad to help www.enjoythemusic.com/recordcleaner.htm

For all you vinyl junkies out there, i have gathered a few suggested cleaning concoctions from the Internet and other mailing lists i belong to. i offer NO responsibility for these formulations. Quite a few dudes swear by certain one's. Me? Well, being too lazy i just buy Nitty Gritty or VPI's stuff.


distilled water alcohol detergent
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) 1 part 1 part isopropyl none
2) 1 part 1 part isopropyl a drop of Triton X-100
3) 1 quart 1 pint denatured 10 drops Photoflo
4) 3 parts 1 part a few drops
5) 3 parts 1 part rubbing a few drops
6) 4 parts 1 part ethanol some
 
m4rz said:
Any pics of your DIY cleaners? I was thinking of the KAB ev1 but this sounds more interesting and also fits the budget.
Click to expand...

You don't wanna see mine... :D Someone had some pics of the crevice tool here a few weeks back. My old 'workstation' turntable sits on top of a dog kennel in the 'dog room'. An old stand-up Dirt Devil vac with the crevice tool attached sits next to it. Jugs of distilled water and the solution sit atop the dog kennel also, along with a craptastic D4 brush.

SaSi, I was a Discwasher hold out for a long time, but noticed that they just couldn't get real *filth* off. They can get light dust off. And, over time, they leave a residue of that solution that they come with. And a dry carbon fiber brush does work better. You *will* notice a dramatic improvement in quiet when you go to wet vac cleaning. You might even get an urge to buy more thrift vinyl... more often than not, that deplorable noise you hear is *filth*, not wear. There's 30 years of bong resin, spilled Schlitz and pizza and cig smoke on those things!

I first went to the carbon fiber brush, then got intrigued when someone posted pics of their very nice DIY cleaner here a few years ago. I set about assembling my system, always intending to fancy it up and build it into a nice dedicated, pretty unit. Well, it works just as well ugly as it does pretty, and if it were pretty and the vac motor went out, that would be a problem. In it's current ugly state, it's like stereo components....I can upgrade or replace parts of it. :D
 
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