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Most commercial RCMs do a fine job. On the other hand a commercial RCM rarely gives you the flexibility and ease to accomplish intensive cleaning. Also their vacuum systems are based on older technology and engineering that does not provide state of the art vacuum extraction.Here is a picture of my current RCM. It is a Rek O Kut model L-743 idler table mounted on my first plinth project I built in 2006.
Specifications include a 7 lb platter, an RCA high torque AC motor and a 9.5 lb plinth built from birch plywood. The ROK is coated to repel corrosives and the plinth is finished with clear Polyurethane.
I actually built this first idler project with potential RCM use in mind. It has worked perfectly suited to RCM use.
The beauty of the ROK as an RCM is the torque from the RCA shaded pole motor. On 33/45/or 78 rpm the ROK platform has no problem turning the LP regardless of the force I apply from the cleaning wand. You can purchase a used LP-34 or LP-37 for under a hundred dollars for this work.
The platter mat is a sorbothane rubber blend I purchased back in the 70's.
Many of my thrift store albums are near mint to VG and have just a light coat of dust and dirt from storage. These clean up dead silent with my basic cleaning method that I will outline below.
Some of the thrift store albums have finger prints and smudges of grime that require heavier cleaning methods. A handful of albums come with either mold or heavy grime. All these can be made silent or near silent with the methods listed below.
The shop vac is a table top model with a 1 horsepower motor and an easy to use 1 inch flexible wand with a 7/8 ID. The small shop vac is quieter than the standard models but is still noisy. Put it inside a box or case to make it more ear friendly.
The RCM cleaning wands are DIY items contructed with parts and pieces available at Home Depot or Lowes home improvement. I bought a 4 ft piece of schedule 40 1 inch and a 3/4 inch PVC sprinkler riser plus some threaded adaptors. I also purchased 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch copper water line plugs to glue into the end of the wands. These parts and pieces were less than 2 dollar per wand. In fact I built 7 initial wands for under 12 dollars.
The magic of the cleaning wand is using a 1 inch ID and a wide 3/8 inch slot for the vacuum. This gives you high volume - low vacuum extraction that is superb in every way.
The 3/4 inch wand was my first test of the high volume low vacuum theory and I use this on the really dirty grimy LP's as a precleaning step.
It is very simple to remove the wand from the Shop Vac and use the shop vac to vacuum clean the RCM wand.
I purchased some 1.5mm tall 100% synthetic velvet upholstery fabric from my local fabric store. This was 8 dollars for a yard of material.
I cut the material so it goes 85% around the circumference of the wand and is glued with regular school type rubber cement just on the edges. This allows me to use a few inches of material each side of the vacuum slot to use as a cleaning brush.
You can also see some chinese manufactured paint brushes used for oil painting. These are very fine synthetic material and cost 2.95 each. I use these to brush out heavier grime from the records I have purchased. I also use them for enzymatic cleaners for mold removal.
During the week I will post my heavier cleaning process. For now I will list my light cleaning process that delivers completely silent LP playback for most albums.
First I place the album on the platter and start at 33rpm. I squirt or drip on some distilled water and place the velvet fabric onto the surface. Then I add more water to create a small pool of water at the edge of the velvet album interface. I then switch to 78 rpm and let it spin. After a minute I turn on the vacuum and rotate the wand to the slot position to pick up the moisture. You can rotate the wand and go back to more scrubbing if you feel it is necessary. On some albums I clean with only distilled water. That is all it takes to get a silent album.
My distilled water is purchased at my local grocery stores. The water costs an average of 56 cents per gallon. It is filtered, distilled, and deionized.
Then I rotate the wand the other direction and drip on some of Olly's cleaning material at a dillution of about 45 parts water to 1 part cleaner. I let this run for a minute at 78 rpm then restart the vacuum and rotate the wand back to the slot to pick up the material.
Then I repeat the distilled water primary step and most albums play completely dead silent. No pops, clicks, or surface noise of any type.
Olly's cleaning agent removes more of the surface contaminants than any material I have ever used. The vinyl is not only silent, it also exhibits more detail retrieval. You should hear piano and guitar after cleaning with this material.
On the very few albums that have noise after this basic clean up I subject these LP's to a more substantial clean up that I will post later this week.
So for less than 40 dollars plus the cost of a used ROK idler you can have silent albums. Cleaning is easy, efficient, and you can see and hear the results of clearly.
Cleaner LP's mean two important things. Less wear on your stylus and less damage to the groove. More importantly you will hear things in the recording you never knew existed.
So if you cannot afford a Loricraft, VPI or Moth then here is a 40 dollar method to clean your albums that delivers silent albums.
I have cleaned up a couple hundred albums with this methodology. It has produced 195 dead silent albums. I threw one away....and the rest have just a sprinking of crackles that might be vinyl damage vs dirt or grime.
I have sent out three wands to some other inmates for them to try out. If you want to consider posting your cleaning results let me know and I will include you in the group. You can email me at jim_howard_pdx@yahoo.com.
Let me know if you do not have the ability to build your own wand. You can email me at jim_howard_pdx@yahoo.com. I am happy to give everyone a shot at silent albums.
Follow Ups:
I have been playing with the Spray and Wash. With a small amount added to the mix, and a couple of spritzes on dirty spots, it seemed to be only marginally better than my alcohol/filtered water/2 drops of dishwashing detergent mixture. Despite probably using too much, am I doing something wrong.Note, I use a paintbrush to apply and kind of run around the grooves, then let it soak for a short time, go over the LP with a velvet brush (the old record cleaner meant to be filled with some fluid in a plastic container), then rinse off with water and drip dry.
Built a couple of years ago using a QRK broadcast TT and a rolling file from Ikea.It works well, is self contained and can be closed up so I can ignore it for long periods of time...
of overblown hyperbole, such as "dead silent lps", "totally silent albums", "superb in every way", "many factors more quiet". And etc.
I think I will go with the same IKEA type cabinet.
1.5mm velvet? Hmmmm not me. I tried that in a DIY configuration before. Waaaaaay to much material and after one cleaning it "loads up" with cleaning product and microscopic dirt. One needs a much finer material like the fine felt material that is used on big holiday bows and such.
Since the upholstery material is built to allow air flow, it allows the moisture to draw directly through. This carries the dirt with it.I vacuum the top surface between albums and when I sense the need.
I am talking totally silent albums here other than the vinyl scrapes and scratches due to physical vinyl issues.
As for pitting and so forth, not all vinyl can be cleaned to a silent state. Each of us probably knows which of our albums are poor pressings. At least you can get them as good as possible.
You are correct that this is not a miracle brush. The 1.5 mm velvet material is superb in every way. Don't go lumping this in with velvet. Upholstery fabric is built much tougher, with better wet handling property.
And be done with it. Select the vacuum of your choice to use with it.
Such a simple and effective device. Try and enjoy your routine.
The scrubbing action and draw of the high volume low vacuum makes for a much quieter album.
Generally speaking no cleaning regime can consistently produce dead silent records. The reason is simple... cleaning cannot remove physical damage due to scratches, pitting, and chemical crazing.Even brand-new-never-played records typically suffer minor pitting due to contamination during pressing, i.e. pitting that is actually pressed into the vinyl.
Mind you good cleaning, and I'm a big fan of RCMs that vacuum the liquid/waste, is enormously beneficial, but to suggest dead silent results is a fantasy pure and simple, one that risks creating false expectations that may lead to disappointment/resentment with a RCM purchase (or effort gone into a DIY project).
The link provided has a good discussion of typically encountered physical damage, especially with older LPs.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
Setting a CD burner to Monitor and watching the meters between LP tracks, and one soon realizes that dragging a gemstone through a plastic groove generates a *bit of background "ambience."
Yes, but between tracks the point of the needle stylus literally rides on the vinyl whereas in the groves this does not occur. Hence between tracks noise is not representative of in-groove noise.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
If I read your contention correctly, in an unmodulated groove cut (intra-cut, lead in/out) the stylus tip contacts the very bottom on the groove. But in modulated grooves, there is a vertical lifting moment to cause the stylus to elevate, removing the stylus tip from contact from the bottom of the groove channel.That, is some very deep physics. My subjective experience *does support this as intra-track spacing grooves are prime territory for tics 'n pops.
Any referential links to technical discussions of this would be appreciated.
I think we;re just splitting hairs (my fault). I only mean that intra-cut, lead in/out is not the same as an unmodulated grove because the stylus only rides along one side (of a grove wall) and bottoms out until an adjecent wall puts it back into *in groove* state proper. As for intra-track spacing grooves being prime territory for tics 'n pops I agree, sorry if I implied otherwise.
The only point I was making was that re: surface (scrape) noise intra-cut, lead in/out is different than a true non-modulated groove case... the result may be similar, I don't know, but in any event those results, all things being ideal (no pitting, dirt, etc.), would likely be an attribute of the particular vinyl compound itself (i.e. dictated by the materials' smoothness).
You will never achieve silent lead ins or lead outs in my estimation. They will be quiet but not silent.Dead silent is what I hear from any decent LP. I have lots of beat up and damaged LP's that will never play silent. I also have vinyl where the surface looks like a lava flow in miniture....
Your point is well taken.
we have The Genius That Is Tubesforever to point us down the road to Vinyl Nirvana.
You probably listen to a lot of stuff with little dynamic range, most popular music over the last few decades for example. That type of program is remarkable at masking record noise, even minor ticks and pops can go unnoticed.When it comes to a lot of classical and even much jazz the masking effect isn't nearly as effective.
But it no biggie it seems to me, heck anyone particularily bothered by record noise would likely have abandoned vinyl long ago. Just the same no sense in raising false expectation either, no one likes a let down.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
...if it crackled a lot and now it crackles a little, then you can pat yourself on the back and open a cold one. :)
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No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
I've got this plan in my head of exactly what I want. It's just finding the time. :) Anyway, that looks great!
Hi Jim I have a Nitty Gritty 1.0 the manual one, what I would like from you is a detailed step by step cleaning process using this RCM.
I have cleaned most of my LP's with some sucess, buy I think I am missing something and can do better
nt
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