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Taking a shot here that one of you guys might know this. I just got a usb turntable that lets me record from a whole bunch of vinyl lp's so I can copy to my iPod. Problem is the lp's are have been stored for ages and are really dusty and cruddy. Any idea how is the best way to clean them up so I can play them?
As I remember there use to be a dust type cloth which would not only remove the dust but also was specially treated with some sort of oil for the Lps.
Sorry I could not be of any more help.
Doc
I used to use liquid dish soap - luke warm water and a blow dryer.
Use a soft, lint free cloth, distilled water and wipe in a circular motion.
Thanks for the inputs. The dust is really sticky and water does not remove it. The Wikipedia article (thanks for that reference) mentioned Discwasher, and there is a place on Amazon that sells it, so I'm going to try that.
I never come here without being glad I did.
I used to use Discwasher back in the day. Very good at not leaving residue which is the most common problem with any liquid cleaner.
Distilled water is good too for the same reason and very mild soap for the worse dirt can help.
I use an ancient zerostat gun to rid the vinyl of static. Then I use my ancient D4 Disk Washer. Its works very well. There was also a product called, I think Armor Guard that coated the vinyl to protect it from ware.
LOL... I had one of those guns too. When I first saw one I was pretty skeptical but as you know they really do work as an antistatic device.
I also remember a wet cleaner called Lenco... it actually made the vinyl wet using a small, hollow tube like tonearm and brush as it played lifting dirt out of the grooves and allowing the stylus to track better. It did work but with a price.. if you used it once you had to keep on using it because when it dried the lifted dirt crusted back onto the surface of the record with even more tenacity than before you used it. The only way to lift it back up was to rewet the surface.
I hated the Lenco cleaner.
There's a lot of information here.
I also caution against using any product that coats or "lubricates" the record surface. The only requirement for cleaning is to gently remove dust and other contaminants without damaging the vinyl surface or leaving any residue.
For records that have been kept clean and only require airborne dust removal, the best cleaner I've ever found is the Pixall roller.
Unfortunately the same company also makes one of the worst products I've found to use on records, Permostat. It's a treatment to eliminate static buildup, and that works fine, but some considerable time after appying it, you start getting endless white powdery buildup around the stylus, and you just have to wash it off the records in order to use them sensibly.
Research a good many years ago showed that lubricants and "wet play" systems are not good for vinyl. The reason that well maintained vinyl records play with low noise and extremely little wear is that the vinyl melts slightly at the point of contact with the stylus, in the same way that ice melts at the point of contact with a skate blade, giving the same gliding effect. Lubricants and wet systems interfere with this neat process.
In another life as chief Engineer for the Armed Forces Radio & TV service we always used dish soap and warm water, rinse with warm water and dry with a link free cloth. I am doing a bunch of records right now, still works good...