Damaging records with a hand turned machine.

Yes you can.
If the dry side of the record is facing a dry pad and you are simultaneously dragging the vinyl with a downward pressure across a dry pad, then any dirt on the surfaceof the vinyl will be scraping across the vinyl. Just be careful to never drag vinyl dry over any dry surface: no matter how soft except the dry micro carbon brushes like the Hunt E.D.A or Audioquest. After using the manual Nitty Gritty record vacuum a while, I realized it is best to keep the record stationary and rotate the wet applicator with a strong downward pressure back and forth while the vacuum brush is providing support.

I've found that vinyl lps are more resilient than I originally thought they were, but agree that you don't want to scrub them with a dry pad, and don't need to scrub extra hard. I have the manual nitty gritty RCM, and I have an old junk turntable next to it which I use to wet the first side of the LP. That is, I wet side one on the TT, flip it over and place it in the RCM, wet side 2 which is the up side on the RCM, scrub both sides, and then vacuum them. I do one wash cycle with cleaning fluid, rinse with pure distilled water.

I don't press really hard during scrubbing, but I'm not gentle either.

A "technical" person at Musicdirect advised me to scrub as hard as I like with their brushes, it would not hurt the vinyl???

Xiekitchen,

Let's not forget that MD wants you to buy their brushes. I'm not saying they'd lie but they do have an incentive, FWIW.

I have scratched records with a dry Hunt EDA brush. That is easy to do. Be careful with that one.

I've *tried* to scratch them with a dry MD brush - vigorously - and it's not easy. It is possible though. All it takes is some grunge between brush and vinyl. But once the brush is wet vinyl damage does become very unlikely.

But IME hard scrubbing isn't beneficial, at least with RRL fluids. Gentle scrubbing works better than none, but there's no upside to going medieval on your records. It's important that the fibers carry the solution well down into the grooves, but that's about all.

Doug

The surfactant(s) in the cleaning fluid allows it to penetrate the grooves sufficiently enough that hard scrubbing is unnecessary to remove the grunge. Use good brushes with light to moderate force then vacuum and rinse well. Piece of cake.