budget cleaning ideas for garage sale records?

If you want to use a warm soapy water solution, try to use the foam that is floating on the top of the water and not the water itself to scrub with. Not only does this have the most cleaning power, it leaves the least residue behind. Keep in mind that the hotter the water is, the better it will clean. Every increase of 15* appr doubles the cleansing / penetration power of water until you reach the point of boiling ( 212* ). At this point, you will be producing steam. Anything above that is overkill and may actually damage your vinyl if you concentrate on one area for any extended amount of time. Obviously, some type of clean water rinse is recommended when using any type of detergent. Sean
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Sean,
Won't the under-boiling temperature hot water create bow-shapes on record?

It won't harm the records if you're not submerging them into the water or exposing them to high heat for an extended period of time. I was suggesting that you literally "scoop" the foaming suds off the top of the HOT soapy water and use those to scrub the records with. You may have to use a small amount of water too, but so long as you don't go crazy, it should not create a problem. If you are going to dip the record in a water / detergent solution, i would suggest using a solution that had a low PH factor. An emulsifier ( water softener with mild detergent action ) should work pretty well.

The fact that some "fanatics" ( and they must be fanatics to even think of such a thing ) have written into Fremer and suggested using a portable steam cleaner on vinyl basically supports my suggestion also. The very high temperature steam will tend to break down the mass majority of "gunk" in the grooves and leave the least amount of residue possible. Obviously, once the steam has been applied, you still need to find a way to safely flush the grit out of the grooves and off the record and then find a way to dry it. Sean
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There's a few DIY vacuum record cleaning machine plans--one of them is in www.enjoythemusic.com. Thank Steve Rochlin, the DJ...

...so there is a way to construct kind-of home-vac record adapter i assume...