A Worthwhile Untrasonic Cleaner
@anovak I have a question about your formula above. You stated to add an additional 200ml of IPA (91%) to the tank before starting the cleaning process. That's a little more than 6.5 oz, seem like a lot for a 5 qt tank of solution. Is that correct? |
All, As a suggestion, substitute Tergitol 15-S-9 for the Triton X100. You can buy this at Talas, one pint is $21.75. The 15-S-9 is very similar to the 15-S-7 that the Smithsonian uses for shellac record cleaning, except it has a higher cloud point which would be better suited for the heated UT tank use. The Tergital is an Secondary Alcohol Ethoxylate NID and should be superior to Triton X100 which is a Octylphenol Ethoxylate NID. With the Tergitol 15-S-9 which has lower surface tension and better rinesability, you should not need the Isopopyl Alcohol (IPA). |
Yes, that is correct.....the original formula in fact called for 300ml to be added but I thought that I would try just 200ml and it seems to be working just fine. The chemist I refer to also suggested that he felt this to be a bit overkill with the IPA, although nothing untowards as far as negative effect on the vinyl itself, so I reduced the amount to 200ml in large part just to be a bit more conservative and not go through IPA so quickly. The original formula is available but I'm not sure I am OK to provide a link to it here. Can a mod perhaps let me know? I will be happy to do that, just don't want to get sideways with the rules of this forum. Thanks for asking, questions are the way I got to where I'm at and I'm very pleased with the outcome! |
Antinn, that is very interesting.....one of the variants of the original formula was to use Tergitol S-15-3 and S-15-9 (not sure in what combination %) but then it was posited using Triton 100-X would work just as well so that is what I went with. This is still a process, and I appreciate all observations to improve upon it. If elimination of IPA is possible, that also reduces the cost quite a bit although it's not hugely expensive. On the other hand, when considering doing about 15-20 records per tank and then cleaning/refilling with the goal of doing an entire collection of >3,000 records, it might become considerable. Thank you for your thoughts. |
Tergitol 15-S-3 is not water soluble, it is intended for oils. Dow has a nice pdf handout with tables on all the Non-Ionic-Surfactants/Detergents, and you can read on the differences. For the Tergitol, use 0.5 to 1.0% solution concentration, which assuming my quick math is correct should be about 0.5 ounces per gallon. Note that that that the 'cloud point' is the temperature were the surfactant comes out of solution. |
