cleaning vinyl records

i’m having a little vinyl resurgence but when getting out my old LPs, many of which have not been out the cover for maybe 30years, there’s a fair bit of dust and stuff to be seen.

i used to have some sort of glorified dusting pad i bought from woolworths along with a small brush for the stylus. but whats best to wipe down records these days, any tips or recommendations?

dishwahser?

. apparently not!

Wash them up with warm water (not hot) and washing up liquid, but not much. Recently saw a photo of Freddy Fresh, arguably the best DJ to ever live, washing up his old disco 7″ at the kitchen sink

Cleaning Your Records? – A How To Guide, or or ‘the Toilet seat that played Punk’

I initially wash my new arrivals in the sink in warm water and washing up liquid (as above), rinse, and leave to air-dry in the plate rack. Thereafter I use a mix of pure Isopropyl and distilled water in a squirty bottle with a soft cloth.

Edit, try not to get the labels really wet when washing them in the sink. They can peel off.

sink works for me too

I’ve tried a few things and the best I have come up with is one of these:

Gets most of the dust off, then play it and the rest of the dust will be on the stylus. The next time you play it, it will be purfik. 😉

I wouldn’t use a machine, as I couldn’t bear the thought of cleaning 800+ records. 😯

Oh vacuum cleaner and the brush head works quite well, but watch out for the static build up!

Milkie, that’s pretty much all mine get nowadays if I’m honest. If I was preparing for a gig however, I would give the set a wash up to avoid the stylus tumbleweed at volume.

Apparently , they can be cleaned by coating them in PVA and peeling it off once dry. Mate of mine, big into his music from a listening and performing point of view does it. I’ll try and find the link to the method he uses .

Here you go chaps, haven’t taken the plunge to do this with mine….. yet

http://lifehacker.com/5495614/use-wood-glue-to-clean-and-restore-old-lps

Incidentally, I’ve inherited a few vinyls from the father in law that I’m not going to want (don’t call me ungrateful!). Was thinking of listing them on here, see if anyone wants to do any swapsies?

Hunt EDA Brush

Here we go…

Google cleaning vinyl records with PVA , there’s loads comes up.

I have a spray bottle full of Isopropanol which I squirt onto my old vinyl then carefully wipe round with a soft cloth.
As this is to clean them prior to selling, I’m not too obsessive about it.
I’d forgotten the wood glue trick, I’ve got a load in a bottle that I obtained from work, the dregs left from 25ltr bottles I was using for waste chemicals. Got two or three litres out of those, so I’ll give it a go.

I use a VPI cleaning machine with a mix of isopropyl alcohol/distilled water plus a drop of surfactant. It does an amazing job and can resurrect records that seemed bound for the bin (many’s the time I’ve bought secondhand vinyl for a pittance after being told “they’re totally knackered” only to give them a good clean and find they are actually totally fine). However it’s not a cheap option so you need to have a lot of vinyl to make it worth your while.
Without a proper cleaning machine the key is to ensure that all the fluid which has dissolved the crud from the vinyl is totally removed (a cleaning machine basically sucks it off).

ok, i was’nt expecting washing in the sink let alone wood glue… yet again stw comes up with the goods and then some. cheers chaps.

This fellas got all the answers………….I would encourage you to watch it through before trying any though!