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What about this cleaning fluid recipie?

bajaed

bajaed

Active Member
Owner of my local vinyl shop suggested this.

1 gallon distilled water
8 drops of Dawn Clear
6 drops of Glycerin

Mix, spray on record and wipe with Viva paper towels. Let dry.


Wanted to get opinions on the fluid, paper towels and if I need to also rinse with distilled water?

I also have some micro fiber towels I can use.

Thoughts?
 
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I'd probably not use glycerin. Look at using a photographic wetting agent, used in film developing. Here is a recipe I've tried with pretty good results, although I use this when I'm out of the MOFI cleaner.

600ml of distilled water
80ml 7% iso alcohol
6 drops wetting agent
 
He wrote down glycerin and said it could be purchased at the grocery store. Glycol makes more sense.

Not sure.
 
bajaed said:
Owner of my local vinyl shop suggested this.

1 gallon distilled water
8 drops of Dawn Clear
6 drops of Glycerin

Mix, spray on record and wipe with Viva paper towels. Let dry.


Wanted to get opinions on the fluid, paper towels and if I need to also rinse with distilled water?

I also have some micro fiber towels I can use.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

One thing about this method, not the formula. Think of this like mopping a floor. You have your mop and bucket of cleaner. You mop the floor and mostly what you end up doing is just moving around dirty cleaner. You need to get the dirty fluid off the record, so at least rinse with distilled water. A vacuum record cleaning machine will do a nice job too. Also. I would invest in a record cleaning brush, something like this or similar,http://www.musicdirect.com/p-7281-mobile-fidelity-record-brush-mfsl.aspx. Good luck.
 
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Glycerin can bind at the molecular level with alcohol *and* water, at the same time. It helps the alcohol and distilled water remain in a fairly stable, uniform suspension once mixed. It's the chemical "glue" that holds those two liquids together.

(I played a chemical engineer for 25 years, in a previous life, with specialty in surface active agents, including glycerin use.)
 
Skip this method IMO

Would be better off using a paint brush , bowl hot water + Dawn then rinsing under the tap
 
I've done a number of before and after tests by digitizing records and counting the clicks. I've published some pictures of the waveforms.

I can't recommend a specific formula, but I can say that results can be different depending on what you are trying to clean.

If you have a record that has been well cared for, the solution should be mostly distilled water with some sort of wetting agent,

If the record came from a thrift store or a garage sale it may have an oily film that takes several tries to remove. I suspect that some old records have a film of tar from tobacco smoke. Others seem to have some sort of lubricant from a previous attempt to clean them. This kind of stuff attracts dust and binds it to the record. When you wet the record it forms a sludge that quickly gums up the stylus.

This is when you need a vacuum machine and perhaps several cleaning and vacuuming cycles. Once a record has this sludge removed, it is much easier to keep clean.
 
bajaed said:
So you are saying it would be good to use the glycerin?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you want the distilled water and alcohol to remain evenly mixed. The distilled water is the safest and most useful ingredient, but the alcohol is necessary to break up the oils and the glycerin is helpful there, too, but it's mostly to keep the alcohol dispersed in the water. That recipe is pretty much the recipe for creating a bulk bottle of what one paid bucks for in little tiny bottles back in the day when LPs and cleaners were on shelves new. Silly to pay the same price for a few fluid ounces when one could make a gallon or more for the same price and refill those little convenient bottles.
 
Using NO chemicals will work well on many used LPs

Here is what I do with all used LPs before the 1st spin - use orange dent pullers and rinse under tap/warm water. Vac with KAB EV1. Rinse with distilled water/aquafina vac again

that's it
 
I would NOT use Viva paper towels, they tend to shed a lot of little bits when you wipe with them. unless you want dinglebarries all over your records I would use a micro fiber cloth.
 
Frank Sol said:
Skip this method IMO

Would be better off using a paint brush , bowl hot water + Dawn then rinsing under the tap
Click to expand...

That is what I do. I use running warm water in the sink to rinse really good and I make sure I have washed out all the groves. I have discovered that the 3M yellow micro fiber detail towels work great. :thmbsp: I purchased them for my Cannon camera lens to clean them with and realized how nice they work on drying Lp's. I trimmed a really expensive camel hair paint brush so they were about 2" long. So they would be a little stiffer yet still soft to get into the groves of the LP.
 
OK, what about this. I'm going to mix 4 oz. of 91% isopropyl alcohol with 3/4 gallon distilled water and a few drops of dawn clear. Spray on record and scrub with soft paint pad.

Then I will vacum off fluid with a velvet covered shop vac nozzle, spray again with pure distilled water and vacum again then wipe dry with micro fiber cloth.

Any flaws to that method?

Somebody on another forum speculated that any traces of glycerin would ruin my stylus. True?
 
bajaed said:
Owner of my local vinyl shop suggested this.
8 drops of Dawn Clear
6 drops of Glycerin
wipe with Viva paper towels. Let dry.
Click to expand...

::jawdrop:

And that's why I always clean used records with a real rcm and real fluid no matter how clean they appear.
 
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Don't have any velvet at the house. Any harm in wrapping the vacuum attachment in a microfiber towel?
 
bajaed said:
Don't have any velvet at the house. Any harm in wrapping the vacuum attachment in a microfiber towel?
Click to expand...

I don't see a problem. I use my 3M micro fiber towel on the vacuum brush. When I wash my M/F towels I only wash just them and when I dry them I Don't use the dryer sheets that makes them soft. 3M instructions. And the load of jeans etc before them I don't use a dryer towel either so the dryer tub is clean from the film the dryer sheets leave after months of use. I purchased these for my Camera and Telescope and eye glasses, you can wipe the glass dry and no scratches and No film from the dryer.
 
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