Cleaning Records

4yanx ... excellent post on cleaning. If you ever decide to sell some of those well cleaned, used records let me know. BTW what do you listen to (Jazz, Classical, Rock?)
I am planning on building my own record vac using my shop vac and some of your ideas.

There were a few responses in which people described or put links to "building your own record cleaner". Has anyone who has done this seen good results? It seems like the concept behind a VPI cleaner is fairly simple. It's basically a turntable with a vacuum stuck to it. I've narrowed down my options to building my own, buying a used VPI 16.5 , or a Nitty Gritty 1.0. Also, thanks for all the responses--they helped me (and probably others) a lot. Especially 4yanx. My mom has been asking me why I spend so much time on vinyl, so I explained your routine to her, and that put it in perspective.

Let me cast another vote for the Disc Doctor products. My budget for stereo stuff is very limited and I've tried a number of low budget solutions to lp cleaning (orbitrac, diy cleaners, etc.) I've found the DD stuff to be the best for the money. You could get a qt. of the DD stuff, some new vrp sleeves and a carbon fiber brush for around $100. I use an old tt as a cleaning station. I apply the DD solultion with the supplied brushes, clean off with toilet paper, apply distilled water, vacuum mostly dry*. and allow to completely air dry in a dish rack.
*I bought an extra wand for my wet/dry vac, blocked off the end, cut a slit in it, and attached felt to the contact surfaces--works great. Feel free to email me if you have any further questions.

Save your money for buying records. Here's my cheap-o method that works wonders on my old records. I got a crevice tool formy sho vac and plugged up the end with a bit of wood, then cut a slot about record width on one wide side using a roto-tool. I then used two sided foam core adhesive tape (you can get this at most drug and hardware stores as it is used to stick things to the wall)on either side of the slot and put some felt on top of this. I attached the tool to my Sears wet/dry shop vac which,with its 3hp motor will suck up a VPI 17 record cleaner for lunch.
To clean records, I simply place the record on a felt mat and spray it with my home-made record cleaning solution (mostly distilled water with some isopropyl alcohol and a drop or two of dish soap)I brush this in with a fine chinex bristle varnishing brush (new one of course)After letting it set for a few minutes,I suck it off with the crevice tool. To turn the record,simply lift up the crevice tool(the record comes with it because of the suction) turn it 1/8th turn and put it down again. No fancy turning motor is required. You can see the liquid being sucked towards the crevice tool around the record and its left dry after you pass over it. Finally, when I go to play the record, I give it a wipe with a record brush to remove any bit of felt that may have been left. The result is old records that are ABSOLUTELY quiet except for the tape hiss that is inherent to the recording (and scratches but I don't buy records that have them)

Total cost - about $12 for the crevice tool and misc. That doesn't count the shop vac but you could use any vac. The amount of water you suck off is trivial and evaporates in the process. If you are doing a lot of records at once, I would change the bag so it doesn't get moldy. Or buy a shop vac and it can do double duty helping you clean the garage (Try doing that with a VPI!)