Let's play a WET record! Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab...(video)
- Thread starter Fasterdamnit
- Start date
uxwbill
Lurking in the Shadows
Better than what happened to me. The record got to spinning so fast that it broke free of the turntable and I spent quite a bit of time chasing it around the house. Sure sounded good while it was on the table, though.
Supposedly, WD-40 is mostly kerosene.
Or some petroleum fraction not far from that range. Highly refined, of course. And it has some sort of polar solvent in it, which can dissolve traces of water (which was of course its original purpose - WD stands for Water Dispersant). Any number of ketones, aldehydes, alcohols etc. could work.
If record vinyl has any plasticizers in it, I'd be worried about extracting them out with solvents, thereby degrading the plastic.
"And George Washington Carver died a po' man, still tryin to play a phonograph record with a peanut."
- Eddie Murphy, SNL, Black History Minute
- Eddie Murphy, SNL, Black History Minute
GreatTone
Super Member
Last year, I had a brief fling using an "In the Groove" record cleaner, which was given to me as a gift. At first it seemed great for getting dust off an otherwise clean record. Then I began to notice it was leaving strips of a kind of adhesive type junk on the vinyl -- there was a thin strip where the sticky rubber stuff didn't quite meet, and I think the adhesive that holds the stuff on the roller was leaking out.
Nothing would clean the crap off, and every record so afflicted was incredibly crackly and noisy. In desperation, I finally used lighter fluid (naphtha) as a solvent, and luckily it cleaned the sticky stuff off. However, the first play after cleaning resulted in the stylus shaving very fine strips of vinyl. I finally decided that the naphtha had dried the vinyl in some way, at least in a very thin layer in the groove, and the stylus just cut it away.
Interestingly, after a single play, the vinyl shaving stopped, and the record was quiet and sounded fine.
Not that you would use lighter fluid as a lubricant (it evaporates without a trace almost instantly), but the idea that a solvent could degrade the vinyl, at least a little, is very real.
Are you sure you were getting vinyl strips? Hard to imagine the record sounded like anything at all after that. I wondered if maybe the adhesive gunk was down in the grooves and that was what was coming out.
But back to you the topic, very interesting. I wonder what Goof Off or other adhesive removers would do to adhesive on vinyl. The solvent based stuff would probably be instant death for a record.
BUT I once read about a home remedy for removing price stickers off of glassware and dishes. Peel off the label first, then rub with vegetable oil. It emulsifies the adhesive, then you clean off the oil with detergent. Might be worth a try if this happens again.
I've seen moron flea market sellers put stickers on 78s, right on the grooves. Duh!
I think naphtha is a step lighter than lighter fluid. Lighter fluid is in the kerosene/paint thinner range, evaporates and burns a bit slower so as not to explode on you. Naphtha is more like the non-aromatic fraction of gasoline - very light, volatile, and therefore explosive. Not good for lighter fluid.
But back to you the topic, very interesting. I wonder what Goof Off or other adhesive removers would do to adhesive on vinyl. The solvent based stuff would probably be instant death for a record.
BUT I once read about a home remedy for removing price stickers off of glassware and dishes. Peel off the label first, then rub with vegetable oil. It emulsifies the adhesive, then you clean off the oil with detergent. Might be worth a try if this happens again.
I've seen moron flea market sellers put stickers on 78s, right on the grooves. Duh!
I think naphtha is a step lighter than lighter fluid. Lighter fluid is in the kerosene/paint thinner range, evaporates and burns a bit slower so as not to explode on you. Naphtha is more like the non-aromatic fraction of gasoline - very light, volatile, and therefore explosive. Not good for lighter fluid.