Where 2 buy 3x distilled water and 100 alchohol?

Bill, We use a great deal of 100% isopropyl alcohol at work in the course of making photogravure etchings. It is purchased in 5 gallon lots from Pittman, a printers supply firm. It costs about $75.00 for a 5 gallon metal can. Will.

Yes, I've been outed. I'm really looking for a substitute for my sudo-addiction to old armagnacs.

Perhaps you've been right. Maybe I'm really looking for my record cleaning supplies.

I figure 80/20 of the purist water to purist isopropyl alcohol is what I will use and maybe a dab of Kodac PhotoFlow as others have described. I believe it's been said that two drops per gallon. Is that correct?

I appreciate all the help on this one. I have a VPI-17 and have a collection of 50-70's classical plus new audiophile labels. I'm in the look-out for jazz and rock from the 50-80's. Is there a difference in the liquid that should be used for vinyl of different age? Is there anything unique that I should know about when and when not to clean with liquid and which liquid.

Thanks all for your input, ignorance is not bliss.

Bill E.

Fischer Scientific sells reagant grade methanol for about $20 a liter. http://www.fisherscientific.com We use it to clean optics in lasers. If you know someone who works in a hospital they should be able to get some.

05-10-02: Rushton
For many years I have used the following simple solution with very satisfactory results, and, most importantly, no harm across several thousand LPs:

20% Isopropyl Alcohol (91%), with no additives
80% Distilled water
12-20 drops of Kodak PhotoFlow per gallon (to reduce surface adhesion)

Mixing this up is simple: Buy a 1 gallon container of distilled water, pour off a little more than a quart into a separate clean container, then pour 1 quart of isopropyl alcohol into the gallon container, add the PhotoFlow, and top off the gallon container with some of the distilled water you poured off at the outset.

Some people contend that a surfactant should also be added as a "detergent" agent to be effective, but I've yet to find a recommendation with which I've felt comfortable so I've stayed with the formula above. There is also some contrary opinion about the use of the PhotoFlow, but I've not observed any problem in over 15 years. In my experience the PhotoFlow is necessary to get the fluid into the record grooves.

One can work multiple options on how pure should be the alcohol and distilled water. I've always used what I find in the local drug store.

Bill, as long as your records are vinyl, and not shellac, the small amounts of alcohol is fine. Never use alcohol on shellac. Mostly old stuff on 78 is more likely to be shellac. I'm not sure when the change-over occured, but I have had many albums from the early 50s and never encountered a shellac 33 1/3 record.