Vacuuming after ultrasonic vinyl cleaning

@jim94025: I too prefer to vacuum off the water on ultrasonically-cleaner LP’s, and like you own a VPI. What I did was look on the big website for cork and rubber coasters (that are placed under drinking glasses), about the same size as the 4" center label on LP’s. My idea was to place a coaster on the VPI’s platter, to hold the wet LP off the dry cork platter mat whilst drying the topside, then flip the LP over and do the other side.

There were a bunch available, and I chose an 8-pk. of coasters made by a company named Wow Ding. The product listing described it as felt, but it’s more of a soft spongy foam, each coaster being 4-3/8" in diameter and 1/8" thick. You of course must create a hole in the center of the coaster to enable you to slide the coaster onto the platter’s threaded spindle, but that’s easily accomplished with an X-Acto knife. You can stack as many coaster as you need to raise the LP off the platter as much as you want.

I just looked up my order, and that coaster is no longer available. No matter, there are many others to choose from.

For those who don’t yet have a vacuum machine, and are planning on going ultrasonic, another route to take is to buy a vacuum machine that has a small LP platter, rather than a 12" one. The two models offered by Pro-Ject look real good.

I use a thin plastic slip mat sheet for the first side vac, then remove when flipping the album. It came as a protective sheet with a Herbies slip mat. Works great

I also vac my LPs after ultrasonic cleaning. Glued a rubber & cork mat on a 16’’ lazy susan & installed a old spindle (centered), works like a charm. After a few records, I just vacuum the mat.

I vacuum one side, then flip it and vacuum the second side, then vacuum the cork mat, then vacuum the first side again.

I do this with the Monks, simply by switching out mats. But I had a VPI for many years. Help me remember- can't you adjust the wand holder height with a set screw (or Allen/hex nut)? If so, you could do the mat switch and swap out the wand for a slightly higher platter profile in seconds. 

The benefit I found to vac drying after ultrasonic is that it gives you another shot at removing the contaminants, which in my estimation, air drying, whether passive or forced, does not provide. This is particularly true if you use a surfactant in the U.S. bath. You will improve results with a rinse step-- at least that was my experience. I do add a little purified water to the record when I pull it out of the US and plop it on the Monks platter. While I prefer the results I get with the point nozzle type (Monks, Loricraft), you can get very good results with a VPI if you use good methods. One method I employed with the VPI was to use separate wands (and holders-whatever you call that upright pillar the wand mounts in) for fluid and for rinse. 

If I'm thinking straight, that would ultimately mean three wands - one for fluid cleaning if you are pre-cleaning the records before the US bath, then two rinse wands, one "normal" and one "height adjusted" to compensate for the additional mat, as described above. Changing out these wands, once mounted, takes seconds.