Wood Glue as Vinyl Cleaner

[onwardjames]

Excellent.

I have a Cannonball Adderly save I'm going to glue today, and hoping the glue helps this sad Chess records Muddy Waters I rescued yesterday from GW. I'm going to say it will be listenable, but only after digitizing and cleaning up some of the roughest stuff.

Glue - accept no substitute, lol.

 

[Schmidlapper]

You could use something like this:

Just used your idea myself, but I added some heat shrink over the scary screw part so my albums would relax and quit clinging to me when I tried to put them on it.

 

[gcczep]

Clever way of stacking... I have mine individually just sitting on top of plastic cups. It has been cooling down so drying is taking a bit longer than usual.

Playbacks of LPs that have been given the glue treatment are really good. So much so that the whatever music is in the fade-outs I can hear clearly. Before these were obscured by the gunk. Case in point is Led-Zeppelin's second album such as the ending of "Ramble On" which I thought was only notable in the cassette release. The quieter, acoustic shades in all the LP's come off clearer and not as riddled with the clicks or pops. This is evident in "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac. Recent ones such as Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic" and "Women And Children First" by Van Halen sound very nice. They really rock. Dare I say, almost "new" in a sense? I have a couple that will be candidates for a second sweep... More of those later down the line.

More titles, I have so far glue cleaned:

"Machine Head" - Deep Purple [Warner Brothers palms label]
"Aerosmith" - Aerosmith [original "sky" cover]
"Layla And Assorted Love Songs" - Derek And The Dominos [ATCO label]
"Electric Ladyland" - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
"The Wall" - Pink Floyd
"The Best Of" - Rainbow
"Destroyer" - KISS

All of the above are first pressings, in decent/very good shape and are over three to four decades old. I'm looking forward to listening to them... I have a stack of the "peels" set aside. Didn't someone mention re-cycling them? I'd like to know if or how you can do so... Cheers!

 

[George W]

This is all great info. Do you think it could remove mildew from flood damage?

 

[DaverJ]

Didn't someone mention re-cycling them? I'd like to know if or how you can do so... Cheers!

I wouldn't bother recycling the peels - a bottle of Titebond II isn't that expensive.

This is all great info. Do you think it could remove mildew from flood damage?

Recommend doing a wet wash with a quality brush first. A wood glue peel might help afterwards.

 

[gcczep]

I wouldn't bother recycling the peels - a bottle of Titebond II isn't that expensive.

Yes...I'd agree with you. I would buy another jug again. It was just a notion I was flirting with.

 

[dfunghi]

Not sure if this has been covered yet so forgive me if redundant.
Many people use moongel to clean styli. Wouldn't it work in the same fashion if spread over an LP? Seems like a reusable, cleanable "mat" type of product would be great instead of all that wood glue and waiting.

 

[DaverJ]

Not sure if this has been covered yet so forgive me if redundant.
Many people use moongel to clean styli. Wouldn't it work in the same fashion if spread over an LP? Seems like a reusable, cleanable "mat" type of product would be great instead of all that wood glue and waiting.

Not sure if Moongel would get into the grooves like wood glue does..? The idea sounds like those roller cleaners.

 

[gcczep]

On deck...

"Wheels Of Fire" - Cream [ATCO label]
"Greatest Hits/Live" - Heart
"The River" - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"Rattlesnake Shake" - Aerosmith [Cincinnati 1974 FM broadcast]
"Atomic Punks" - Van Halen [Pasadena 1977 soundboard]

Once I get another jug, plan is to work on the older albums on up... "Made In Japan" by Deep Purple, "Greatest Hits" by Steely Dan, "Are You Experienced?" - Jimi Hendrix...a couple of Doors albums. Early pressings that didn't sound too bad but could be better.

 

[Bujodrag]

Just used your idea myself, but I added some heat shrink over the scary screw part so my albums would relax and quit clinging to me when I tried to put them on it.

Mine were scared, too, but I'm persuasive enough.

For stubborn ones, there's the ultimatum: Sound good or be impaled.

 

[grottyash]

I wouldn't bother recycling the peels - a bottle of Titebond II isn't that expensive.



Recommend doing a wet wash with a quality brush first. A wood glue peel might help afterwards.

The point of recycling isn't just cost, you know.

 

[gcczep]

I was at WalMart the other day and came across a 16 ounce bottle of Aleene's "Original" Tacky Glue. It was for less than $4 dollars. It was mentioned here that it really gripped the vinyl and likely pulled the grit a bit more. I took a chance on one.

I applied it to record 2 of The Rolling Stones "More Hot Rocks" which was still crackly after the Titebond II treatment. It reduced the noise further and even took out a skip on the last track. Accounts of it difficult to pull was not the case for me. No static too. I was not heavy on the application but it wasn't thin either. The liquid was coarser which required more pressure to spread but not that much trouble. I had to squeeze the bottle more to get it out plus the nozzle had to be clipped for a larger hole. Curing time is an hour less than the Titebond II.

I am using it to re-glue a few LPs that I felt could use it. Is there another version of this below or am I using the correct one? It seems to work...

I put on my copy of Led-Zeppelin's "Presence" and I'll be damned how good it sounded after the cleaning. I can hear the pre-echo prior to a track's start in between songs. Page's studio use of backwards echo during tracks can be clearly heard. The music during fade-outs are not obscured any more. Granted there are still crackles which will never disappear completely but those left-overs have been muted noticeably.

 

[TPettenati]

Going way back to post #1

Update: August 31, 2009
you can choose to “cut to the chase” on page 34 where a summary of the method (at least, mine) and some comparative results in both sight and sound have been posted.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99837&page=34

So now with the new format page 34 isn't what it used to be. Could someone point me to the summary post?
Would save me from searching through 106 pages.

Thanks,


NEVERMIND! Found it is now page 26

 

[gcczep]

Retreated a crackly copy of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" using Aleene's instead. Sounds even more cleaner...

 

[Eddie Edirol]

I can hear the pre-echo prior to a track's start in between songs. Page's studio use of backwards echo during tracks can be clearly heard. The music during fade-outs are not obscured any more. Granted there are still crackles which will never disappear completely but those left-overs have been muted noticeably.

I dont think those are "pre-echos", If they are between every track, those sound like tape bleeds. That was bad master tape storage, back in the day.

 

[zebra03]

I just found this thread and it is off the charts interesting .

 

[gcczep]

SoCal is cooling down...so curing times are taking longer. I am doing two sides a night then gluing the second sides in the morning. Treating the staples of the library then the others at a likely later date. My CD collection has been forlorn of late...

 

[e-hum]

Won't the joke be on me, after all!!!

Months ago, preparing some April Fools pranks & jokes for audio pals in other forums, I stumbled into THIS thread. I knew just then that I had struck gold. What are these guys smoking, this is the perfect prank! So, I saved the link...but then lost it. "Ah well, it was just for fun", I thought then. Little did I know.

For perspective, I dropped off vinyl & all audio in early 90s after losing it all during a move. Had absolutely NO interest in Red Book, nor time & money to replace gear and LPs in those days. I was traveling all the time, for over a decade. Then, in early 2000's, I helped a friend get into SACD audio and some high-def PCM.

Eventually, I also got him into Vinyl. He is not really wild about it but I do enjoy it when I visit him. Meanwhile, much later, I got my own SACD & hi-def PCM stuff. Please don't be offended but I am a happy camper..not missing vinyl, at all. Yeah, well, I know...what the hell am I doing here then?!

Today, at a flea market I came across several LP copies of old favorites in all their musty, dusty, moldy but still tempting allure. I thought that perhaps at least one of these could be saved to show my friend what I liked about these recordings decades earlier. Yet, being out of LP-care hardware myself, the cleaning task was not looking all that practical. I went ahead and bought several discs...if no other choice, 1200PSI pressure cleaner water is a fun shoot out anyway, yeah!

Got home. Kicked the PC on and searched the web. Nothing cheap to wash LPs with. I knew that, of course. With RCM's taken off the list, the rest would be a futile attempt...'xcept the 1200PSI. Hit'em in the garage, right now! So, I tried to turn the browser off but hit the bookmarks list by accident.

Instead, this "wood glue madness" thread came up out of nowhere. Darn, what a coincidence! Oh hell, why not? I read on, got sold, ran to Walmart, found Aleene's stuff first, came home and applied it. It will be a few hours for this to cure. After 3.5 hours, the Aleene paste is almost all transparent. So, I called my friend to explain what I was doing.

He is still laughing at me. Come the Thanksgiving's Day meet, that will be the joke told to our all friends.

Me? Yeah, I pranked myself. So, I think that I may be back to vinyl after all.

 

[e-hum]

Follow up; giving back to the cause (I am counting on you doing your homework; please READ the thread. Hop & skip a little if you have to but...its your LP's!)

My previous post mentioned the application of the "Aleene's Original Tacky Glue" product, highly touted among previously tested glues in this thread. Yet, what I actually did after writing the post, was to run to Home Depot and also get some Titebond II. (This has been the better wood glue for many here.)

After the Arleen's stuff dried up on Side 1, I added the Titebond II on Side 2 of the same LP. Heck, since I am such a Type-A impulsive bastard when it comes to some things, why not do a comparo right away, right?

The old LP that I treated is a jazz direct-to-disc. The surface, when I bought it yesterday, was PRISTINE-looking. The sound, when I played it, was HORRIBLE. All the usual offenses, except scratches, where present. Which is amazing because, it did look great! Like new. It is clear that someone took care to conceal this LP's issues...and got me. (However, they did forget to use a clean sleeve...belatedly after applying the glues, I found that it was a bit moldy...)

How did it all work? Both glues did an amazing clean-up job. Both sides are now very enjoyable. Clicks & pops were incredibly reduced, muted or -- more often -- GONE. Perceivable distortion is largely gone (old damage to some groove segments can be seen, but is far less offensive now). There are some "silence segments" that are now TOTALLY silent (vs nothing playing silently anywhere on the LP before).

Brief comparos:
-- Titebond II
- GOOD: is easier to apply. A breeze to apply with a spreader or card on a spinning TT
- AND: Easy to remove (for reference, I applied at 2am, removed at 2pm)
- Less GOOD: Flows faster but dries slower (about 10+ hours this time, but turntable was not spinning...to avoid spills.)
- BAD: Prolific static promoter. (DAMN it! This was with the A/C at 75F but a rainy outdoors in South Florida that will still push humidity up anyway!).

-- Aleene's Original Tacky Glue
- Acceptable: More effort required to apply this almost paste-like glue. Turntable required help when spreading; better to turn manually while applying.
- Very GOOD: Dried in about 6 hours, with turntable at 33rpm, and I later flipped on TT's mat to add the Titebond II on 2nd side. BTW, it may be that spinning at 45rpm will also work for faster drying. (This "almost-paste" may not fly away or spill, it seems.)
- Acceptable: Harder but "not as hard to remove" as I expected. (for reference, applied at 5:30pm, then removed it at 2pm the following day, together with the Titebond II side).
- GOOD: Hardly any static induced during removal.

Aural perceptions: On this short test, Titebond II's side of the record had slightly better high frequency detail than the Side 1, where I used Aleene's. To be sure, this could easily be that the LP was played more often on Side 1 by its previous owner. OTOH, Aleene's side had decidedly better noise reduction on all counts. This, in turn, could have been the result of a clear advantage with using Aleene's. As often reported before, Aleene's does not easily induce static upon removal. There was no doubt in our minds (a friend was present) that Side 1 came out less noisy, probably due to the use of Aleene's. I may apply it on Side 2 also, later on.

In any event, it seems like you can't go "wrong" with either of these 2 products.

 

[gcczep]

^e-hum, thanks for sharing your experience. I use Titebond II as the first application. If the LP still had some noise which I wanted to clear up further, I resort to the Aleene's for the second treatment. So far, the method has been effective and repeat treatments are only a scant few. The Titebond II gallon is cheap but I can't find an Aleene's in the same size. The price for the latter in a gallon is twice the price too. Your observations on both brands are the norm for me as well.

I've been taking more time to leave the glue on than before like in a few cases near 24 hours. Laziness is the cause plus other things to tend to. I figure it will give the glue more time to do its work. Still have to test those LPs where I've done that to if it is the case.