Record cleaning

[CeruttiA]

You will laugh at me, but i am asking here because of the professionalism of the forum members: what "recipe" do you use to clean records ? Friends recommend Isopropyl alcohol 99 % , but surely it ll attack the shellac ?

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Shellac ? 78 RPM's ? I am not sure what to clean those with as I have only seen and never played them.

I never did anything very complicated personally and used to use whatever was packaged in a Woolworths (an old UK shop) velvety record cleaning kit. If I recall correctly it was a 60/40 mix of isoproyl alcohol and water. But that would be for vinyl records.

For extremely old vinyl I had purchased I used to use dishwashing liquid with a tiny bit of water to make it soap up/bubbly and clean them by finger pad alone and literally watch the grimey water grease and dirt flow off when I ran cold water over them. Though that might be a little extreme for a beloved record.

Hope that helps.

[CeruttiA]

sorry , I meant normal records , not shellac ! Apologies

[Folderol]

sorry , I meant normal records , not shellac ! Apologies

I used to use very slightly warm water with a hint of washing up liquid, and run round the groves with a soft brush, then rinse under a running tap. I didn't do it very often.

[Zukan]

Depends on the music. If Yoko's singing then H2SO4 works really well.

[CeruttiA]

its mostly expensive and rare records from the 1980/90s

[Hugh Robjohns]

Isopropyl alcohol will attack shellac in 78s, so don't do that!

For vinyl, many recording cleaning solutions use diluted isopropyl in distilled water — usually 75/25 water/alcohol. A few drops of dishwasher rinse aid in the mix helps too.

Some people claim that isopropyl attacks the lubricant in vinyl records, but I've never noticed a problem... and its not like you clean records every day. What is really important, though, is to use distilled or demineralysed water — not tap water.

I used to have an Okki Nokki record vacuum cleaning machine, but it wasca messy palava and I upgraded to an Audio Desk Systeme ultrasonic cleaning machine a couple of years ago. It's so much better...but disturbingly expensive. However, it makes new records sound better, and restores second-hand discs to as new condition in a few minutes, without any manual scrubbing and no mess.

[nathanscribe]

...but disturbingly expensive.

Oh my. Googled it, now in need of a sit down and a cup of something revitalising.

[CeruttiA]

Thanks very much, Hugh !

[Hugh Robjohns]

The okki nokki is about £500 and more reasonable if you collect a lot of second-hand records. And there are other vacuum-cleaner based machines — the vacuuming being important in removing any residue after lifting out the dirt.

The ultrasonic cleaner is definitely a step up in cleaning, but I can't justify the ludicrous price.

[ajay_m]

I *certainly* wouldn't try this out on anything valuable initially, but I wonder if any of the low-cost ultrasonic cleaning baths deep enough to accommodate the record radius and filled with water and a touch of dishwashing liquid would work, since you could just put a rod through the centre hole and rotate the record around, or even construct something that'd turn it slowly automatically. These cleaners are pretty cheap, I have a small one I picked up in a charity shop for a tenner that does a lovely job on jewellery and also for glasses which have gone a bit cloudy in the dishwasher (we have very hard water where I live) it cleans them up nicely, though it's only just barely big enough for that.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'm sure it could be done. You'd need a drying system too, of course.

[ajay_m]

I'd guess with deionised water if you had a rinse bath after cleaning and just air-dried vertically (to hopefully prevent any fresh dust getting stuck) that might work. Aren't you missing a trick here though Hugh?. You could amortise the cost of your gear by offering record cleaning as a service.

[zenguitar]

I recall that there was a 'thing' a decade or so ago for cleaning records by applying a coat of PVA glue (watered down IIRC), allowing it to dry and then peeling it off. All the dirt and grime in the groove was securely set to the glue, and was removed when the glue was peeled off.

I never tried it, but was very tempted to give it a go.

Would be interested to hear if anyone did give it a go.

Andy

[Hugh Robjohns]

Yes, I remember it. Peeling it all off intact wasn't as easy as it sounded....

[sonics]

I used to use the cleaning film method (a commercial product) in combination with a liquid cleaner (sometime alcohol mix, sometime a drop of washing up liquid plus a rinse) some decades ago and that always worked very well indeed. Anti-static gun plus a drying cabinet, too.

[alexis]

Depends on the music. If Yoko's singing then H2SO4 works really well.

Yoko vocals laugh at H2SO4!

Most common current usage is, of course, application during the course of "enhanced interrogation".

Yoko, that is!

(Having said all that, it seems she was a positive influence on some. One of the early B-52 songs, maybe Rock Lobster?, always made me think of her, yes that was it
https://youtu.be/n4QSYx4wVQg?si=iUz9xP-bULQfNDCU&t=5m0s ).

[Arpangel]

sorry , I meant normal records , not shellac ! Apologies

I used to use very slightly warm water with a hint of washing up liquid, and run round the groves with a soft brush, then rinse under a running tap. I didn't do it very often.

Unless you want to spend large amounts on a machine, this works well, a very soft wide nail brush, go round a few times, rinse thoroughly.

[tea for two]

Sellotape : it's as removing fluff from our clothes.
Just cleaned a record after reading this thread.

[tacitus]

I’ve tried most things over the years and am currently on my second pro-ject vacuum system (wore the first one out). I added a Vevor 6l U/S bath and a rotating spindle (from Amazon) so my present m.o. is 20 minutes in the bath at 30 degrees, using steam-distilled water with around 10% Isopropyl (not much) and a cc or two of Ilfotol wetting agent. Then transfer to the Pro-ject machine, add a little of the pro-ject cleaning fluid (alcohol-free) abd run the vacuum process.

Over hundreds of LPs almost all the clicks and pops have turned out to be muck, so it’s worthwhile for me. 78s, being shellac, I do only on the vacuum system, and rest the disc for at least 24 hours before playing, in case the shellac softened at all.

This resting of shellac is total guesswork in my part after reading lots of conflicting advice. Any real information on that would be a step forward …