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"SPIN CLEAN Record Washing System"

http://www.spincleanrecordwasher.com/products-record.html#1

This has to be a joke,right?
Why would you want to cover a record with an oily coating that attracts dirt?
What next? PAM?,slick 50?

I just take a record to the kitchen sink, quickly clean both sides with mild dish soap and a 'hard' toothbrush, rinse, towel dry completely, then let dry fully till next day because the surface will absorb some water and soften up, even if it looks and feels dry. I run the brush around and around the grooves, back and forth vigorously to pull out all the crud that I can.
I can't imagine even the stiffest toothbrush bristles could cause any harm whatsoever, since the grooves are designed to eat away at a STEEL needle. Anyway this is what I do with my 20s-30s records and seems to do the job.

Ditto on the concoction with Murphy's Oil Soap. This leaves an oil residue as well.

Pledge is another one I've heard of being used on 78s and vinyl, although some guys who are usually against using anything on records besides soap & water, have said Pledge is useful on acetate discs. They seem to think it helps trap oils in the lacquer & prevents it drying out, but I'm still not convinced

On the topic of toothbrushes, recently I decided to check the bristle thickness of all the junky old toothbrushes I had laying around - so I'd know if the bristles were actually able to dig all the way down into the grooves. Used my handy dandy micrometer. I only found ONE that had bristles in the .006" range, a Crest brush, so that's the one I now use to clean all my newly acquired 78s. Rest of the brushes had bristles of .007" and greater, while your average record groove is around .0065" wide from the top of each wall. The bristle size probably just corresponds to whether the brush is soft, medium, etc.

On a few junky, noisy records, I've gone so far as to experiment with using regular old carnuba wax to clean the records, using a toothbrush also. The distillates in it probably aren't good for the record but what the heck, I was just playing around. I let it dry, then buffed shiny. A few plays cleaned all the dry wax out of the grooves, hopefully along with other crud that was in there. I was able to notice a slight reduction in the volume of the backround hiss of the records, which was easier to discern just by only waxing half of the record. But along with the probably ills of using wax in the first place, playing it the first couple of times left a waxy dust that had to be wiped off.

Anthing that leaves a residue isn't good for the record or sound.
Clogging up the very small undulations of high frequencies would hurt the whole musical experience.

<<Anthing that leaves a residue isn't good for the record or sound.
Clogging up the very small undulations of high frequencies would hurt the whole musical experience.>>

Hopefully between the multiple buffings and the needle conforming to the groove and scraping out any remaining wax, there shouldn't be much, if any left where it would affect the sound. I only did this to a couple of records that are worn to heck and I don't even like anyway, the rest of my near-worthless collection I clean only. From what I see I don't recommend it, and who knows what harm the solvents in the wax might do the short time I had them on there.

Sometimes you have a really worn record, say a Columbia from around 1910, that's so worn and grey that the friction slows your Victrola's turntable. In this case Pledge Furniture polish will allow the record to play. I'd never put it on good condition records.

Ken D.

Speaking of records slowing the turntable, I had an incident like that a few weeks ago with one particular Harmony brand record. Slapped it on my vv-210 and it would immediately start to slow down all the way to a stop, even when fully wound.

I jumped to the conclusion there was a problem with the machine, like the springs sticking. But that was very unlikely, given that I cleaned and regreased the springs a couple of years ago. Turned out it was ONLY happening with this one record, it totally blew me away. The record looks and sounds fine, and is in the same condition as several other Harmonys I have that have no problems whatsoever. It's almost as if this one record has some invisible friction-causing material in the grooves. Never have figured out exactly what the cause is. I'll see if I can dig that disc up and try cleaning it real good and try again.

One of the best methods on really dirty records is carpenters glue! Vinyl only, no 78's. I believe Tightbond 2 is the preferred glue. A very thin coat and peal it up. It is one of the best ways to get the dirt out of the bottom of the grooves. There is a full multi page thread on the subject at Audiokarma. Tried it on a record that was literally about to go in the trash and it does work. Do this at your own risk though and remember it still doesn't fix scratches.

Um, you go ahead and waste that glue.

Those weirdos at AudioPhool crack me up.
They're a silly bunch, eh?

I'd guess something like that glue would remove some dirt, but I still think real old non-vinyl records that have had multiple layers of crud scraped into the grooves over and over again over 80 years really need to have those grooves scrubbed out. With a brush and either a special cleaner or soap and water. The thicker the crud, the more the glue is only going to stick to the outer surface and leave lots of crud behind, right? And when you pull the glue up, it would have some junk on it but who knows how much it left behind?

A friend of mine who has been collecting records much longer than I have actually plays them and lightly squirts water on the vinyl while playing and let's the needle do the work then cleans off the excess. I've never personally tried this myself, but I have seen him do it several times, and it seems to work pretty well.

What about using an air compressor to blast the grime out?

How about taking a face mask, letting it dry and then peeling it off?

Just to reiterate, this would not apply to older non-vinyl records, which may absorb the water.

Here's a book that may be of interest:

http://www.amazon.com/Preservation-Rest ... 985&sr=1-1

you might want to check out this site The Talking Machine Forum about your records and cylinders. i was looking on there yesterday and was surprised to find that some make there own blank cylinders

Sorry I didn't think about non-vinyl records. I nor my friend have ever owned any records that weren't vinyl.