budget cleaning ideas for garage sale records?

FWIW, The 50/50 solution is direct from Kieth Monks. Haven't screwed up a piece of vinyl yet using this solution. I admit that I don't buy garage sale items so rarely have to do this type of cleaning. Never-the-less, don't knock it unless you try it. I swear, if people believe what they read from the manufacturers regarding vinyl cleaning solutions, you'd be buying their tap water for $100 a half pint.

Go here and read the various recipes:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/fluids.html

There is also a very detailed explanation about cleaning vinyl records that are 33 1/3 rpm from The Library of Congress:

http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/record.html

Go read up and then critique the practice of using alcohol.

Happy listening,
Patrick

Kind of funny how they list Enid Lumley's work in IAR as a reference source at the Library of Congress. How many people back then thought that she was a kook ??? Sean
>

So the Library of Congress is the final word on record cleaning? Do they have better hearing than any of us here? Should we always blindly trust Government Agencies?

The fact is that most record vinyl contains plasticizers that make the vinyl more pliable, to aid the stamping process. The plasticizer of choice is diocytl phthalate, a dibasic fatty acid, which is IPA (ISO-Propyl alcohol) soluable. (It will disolve with IPA). Will you see it with the naked eye? No. The time of contact will determine the ammount that disolves, as well as the solution concentration. I realise the time of contact is short, (less thn 1 minute) and most use a concentration that is less than 50%, however, there is still loss.

I've tried DIY cleaning solutions made of dishwashing soaps, all which left behind a film which caused loss of detail, loss of high frequencies, and dynamics. Granted, this is to my hearing and with my system. Results may vary ...

In my opinion, there are many commercial cleaners that work well, are IPA free, and cost less than 5 cents per record cleaned. Turomat TM/7 and Record Research come to mind. Disc Doctor is also alcohol free, but requires a rinse cycle, so it leaves a film behind. (And also is more labor intensive). With the Disc Doctor, you should also have another wand for your VPI machine so as to prevent cross contamination with the rinse cycle. It shouldn't harm your records though.

My point; the "expensive" cleaners cost pennies per use and won't harm your records. Is it logical to spend a few pennies on your vinyl?

Just to clarify my previous posts, the question was about garage sale vinyl. Keeping that in mind and having tried very hard to acquire vinyl at this type of venue (I have since given up because the time spent exceeds the value received) I have purchased albums which didn't come clean using commercial cleaners. For the record (pun intended) I clean most of my vinyl with disc doctor followed by a deionized h20 rinse, gruv glide and protective sleeves.

I clearly recall buying three Jimmi Hendrix discs that had no inner sleeves but otherwise looked salvageable. There appeared to be hard spots deposited on these discs. Commercial cleaners only broke down the surfaces of these spots and smeared whatever was disolved on the rest of the album surface. It was only through several washings with pure denatured alcohol that the matter was removed. I estimate the number of cycles to clean these records at about ten apiece and each of these cycles required scrubbing, not a mere wipe-down. I was very careful about cross contamination and used old discwasher brushes for the process and washed them in deionized water and rinsed with alcohol between cycles. Eventually I applied the last h20 rinse and used my vacuum machine, applied gruv glide and auditioned the finished product.

The finished product was as good as a freshly opened, factory sealed LP, with even the run-in groove being silent. These records proved to be worth the effort and the RISK. Without the last ditch effort to clean these rare pieces of music history they would have been tossed in the trash. The jackets are perfect and I have since bought junk copies just for the inner sleeves (white) to keep the history accurate.

Remember, the post was about garage sale vinyl, not the care and feeding of your average audiophile's vinyl library. To the nay-sayers, please go buy a junk piece of vinyl and try it. Then post your experience.

I close by stating that I would rather have melted these discs in the attempted process of clean-up than cross contaminating my stylus.

Happy listening,
Patrick