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Vinyl warping

B

bambino

Member
Recently bought a mix of new and used vinyl while traveling. Had about 6 records stacked on their sides flat for a couple days before thinking I should have them standing straight which I then did.

Got them back home and one is unusable warped. The others have a mix of no warping to minor warping that doesn’t effect audio quality. I find it hard to believe that such a short time flat could have been the problem, especially since they didn’t all get warped. One is a minor warp that didn’t spend any time flat. With the minor warps I’m inclined just to keep them as they sound fine and replace the one severely warped record. What are all your thoughts?
 
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And you're sure they were all un-warped when you bought them? You don't mention whether or not you inspected them prior to returning home.
 
benricci said:
And you're sure they were all un-warped when you bought them? You don't mention whether or not you inspected them prior to returning home.
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No I didn’t unwrap the new ones which were shrink wrapped. Two of them are not warped, two have minor warps, and one is unusable.

Other than the unusable one I’m inclined just to use them as they sound fine. Some say that it can damage the needle but it isn’t extreme, and now that I look at it out of my many vintage and new records in my collection very few are absolutely totally perfectly flat across the board.
 
Since we don't know the condition of the records when you bought them, it was be nearly impossible to make any determinations about how they got that way. Did they sit in a hot car for any extended period of time during your travels?
 
benricci said:
Since we don't know the condition of the records when you bought them, it was be nearly impossible to make any determinations about how they got that way. Did they sit in a hot car for any extended period of time during your travels?
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no hot car time. Would being stacked flat for like two days be enough to warp records?
 
bambino said:
no hot car time. Would being stacked flat for like two days be enough to warp records?
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Two days? Probably not, especially if not exposed to heat. That's why I asked if you had looked at the records before you brought them home. Coulda been warped before you bought them.

Six records is also probably not sufficient to provide the pressure needed to warp records, especially in that short of a timeframe. You'd need a big, heavy stack and more time to do serious damage.
 
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I think a combination of heat and pressure is needed. Thin vinyl is easier to warp. Some 70's oil crisis thin vinyl started off warped.

Edit: To clarify, heat and pressure warped the records. Not saying would fix them.
 
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Old Guy8 said:
I think a combination of heat and pressure is needed. Thin vinyl is easier to warp. Some 70's oil crisis thin vinyl started off warped.
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I have several warped records and I keep thinking about how I'd like to flatten them. I don't know if this will work, but it seems like it should... Get a couple of big flat stone tiles, put a record in between, put the tiles on my porch in the hottest week of the summer and weigh the top tile down with a couple of cinder blocks. What do you think, is that likely to work?
 
Aaron Hayman said:
I have several warped records and I keep thinking about how I'd like to flatten them. I don't know if this will work, but it seems like it should... Get a couple of big flat stone tiles, put a record in between, put the tiles on my porch in the hottest week of the summer and weigh the top tile down with a couple of cinder blocks. What do you think, is that likely to work?
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A recommended process from some website: I've tried removing record with sleeve from folders. Set on edge between 12"x12"x1/4" MDF. Press together. Leave for long time period. But, not sure I'll live long enough.
Have no idea if your cinder block process will work. Warps and record thickness varies. Maybe the groove structure could change. I'm no expert. Try AK search warped records for threads.
 
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One recommendation I remember from back in the 1980s was to take two pieces of glass and sandwich the record between them, then leave in the oven at low temp for a half hour. Never tried it; I never had any records that were too badly warped to play. This article has all the details.
 
swechsler said:
One recommendation I remember from back in the 1980s was to take two pieces of glass and sandwich the record between them, then leave in the oven at low temp for a half hour. Never tried it; I never had any records that were too badly warped to play. This article has all the details.
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Exactly what I did. Went to my local glass shop and had them cut two 13" square pieces for me out of 1/4" thick glass. Placed a record between them, set the oven for 175 degrees (it's lowest setting) and left the record in for 30 minutes. Let the glass and record sandwich cool down and was rewarded with a perfectly flat record when I was done.
 
For the really vinyl-obsessed, there is the VinylFlat, basically a set of pressure plates and an optional heated/zippered bag that would raise the temperature to a safe level. The idea was to go slowly. Try a shorter time in the heat to see if it corrected the warp. If not, try again for a longer period. I've considered getting one, but I have to see just how many warped records I own that could benefit from it, and decide if it's cheaper to replace them all vs. buying a VinylFlat system. One could probably make something similar at home, but it's the heat I worry about--some ovens don't get the temperature low enough, and there's no telling how accurate the oven's temperature is compared to measured temperature.
 
I was concerned about the accuracy of our oven's temp setting so I picked up an oven thermometer to compare the two. I set the controls to 175 degrees and the thermometer never went above 184. I figured that was good enough. Even so I still used two of my wife's old records as guinea pigs and both came out perfectly flat and playable.
 
I've had two types of warped records - Ones that were ugly but sounded fine, and ones that caused skips of had audible swishes/thumps. I never bothered messing with the first kind. For the second kind, I have flattened them using glass and low temp ovens. They looked better but you could still hear the area where the grooves got distorted. YMMV.
 
^^^ same, and basically same. Never bothered to try flattening them but if I can hear it or it kicks the stylus out, time for a replacement.
 
swechsler said:
One company used to sell a record weighting ring that went around the outside of the record to reduce warpage. This company sells a super expensive version.
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That's actually a "~half price" version. I'd seen others sell rings like this for much more. I thought of maybe finding a machine shop that could fabricate one for me, but that's probably more trouble than it's worth. I don't know if it's the cost of labor to machine it, or the large piece of metal needed to machine it from.
 
Wildcat said:
That's actually a "~half price" version. I'd seen others sell rings like this for much more. I thought of maybe finding a machine shop that could fabricate one for me, but that's probably more trouble than it's worth. I don't know if it's the cost of labor to machine it, or the large piece of metal needed to machine it from.
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Or maybe these companies know how much audiophiles are willing to pay for "tweaks".
 
swechsler said:
Or maybe these companies know how much audiophiles are willing to pay for "tweaks".
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Definitely! I found it amusing when Pro-Ject's tracking force gauge for $80 was the exact same generic gauge you could buy on Amazon for $15. The only difference was branding. The plastic case was exactly the same shape, as was the scale (a stamped piece of metal).

Some of those record weights (that go over the spindle) are hundreds of dollars. I can't estimate machining time, but I know that what these companies are selling for hundreds probably cost under $100 to manufacture.

At times I wonder if I'm in the wrong business. :D
 
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