Post by sub on Jan 11, 2018 15:58:48 GMT 12
On our fortnight trip to town, found 5 records in a box outside an op shop, free! Best of Bread, two by Carol King, Best of Gene Pitney, and ten 5th. The theme music to Bonanza!
Gratefully picked them up, left in car while we shopped etc. but when we got home found they had buckled in the heat.
Memory cells brought up an idea and I placed 3 records between two heavy sheets of glass, left in the sun all day, and it seems to have worked, records nice and straight again. Will put through US RCM later and check if any damage. Will put the other two LPs through the same process tomorrow.
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Post by Owen Y on Jan 11, 2018 19:42:16 GMT 12
Take care using the plate glass method to flatten records. I have ruined a record that way in early experiments - you can't control temperature easily & the glass can also come into contact with the groove area & can damage the grooves.
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Post by sub on Jan 12, 2018 11:31:39 GMT 12
OwenY, you are right! The plate glass is 3’ long and 12” wide so able to put three LPs side by side. Put a weight at one end and a lighter weight at the other. The album at the weighted end is unplayable, the album at lightly weighted end has damage to track one on both sides, but rest of album fine, while the album placed in the middle plays perfectly.
Lessons learnt, at least the LPs were free, and still have three LPs to straighten out.
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Pundit
Post by SL1210 on Jan 12, 2018 18:20:52 GMT 12
This is what I did and it worked really well. I did the glass plates thing. First I thoroughly cleaned the record with my SpinClean. Then laid out a towel on a flat surface. Then glass plate, record, glass plate, wooden slab (kitchen cutting board), brick on top. Left this in the shade in the porch for 4 or 5 weeks. When I remembered it, it was about 80% better and I left it for another couple of weeks, after which it was good - not perfect but easily playable.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2018 9:27:49 GMT 12
I too have used the two plate glass sandwich method for a couple of decades, left in the sun. As mentioned previously you have no control over temperature, especially in the NZ summer where I managed to melt all the grooves off of Rod Stewart. This method will remove most warps but wont cope too easily with smaller more localised bumps and dips. Some LP's you just cant recover, but I am surprised what the turntable and arm will cope with - bumps where I don't like to look when its playing actually sounding OK. Anyone experimented with a microwave?
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Post by Owen Y on Jan 26, 2018 19:01:36 GMT 12
An oven + an oven thermometer, is a proven method (from around the internet) when using the plate glass technique. Even so, many ovens suffer from non-uniform temperatures inside.
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Post by guitardude on Jan 27, 2018 6:36:12 GMT 12
As above with Owen. IIRC there was quite a thread on this back in the old audioenz days ? I've used an oven and baking trays quite successfully: The cooling cycle is also very important, you need to let them get back to room temp very slowly and gently. In the heating cycle time and temp are related, a lower temp for a longer time is a good starting point. NB Glass isnt a very good conductor of heat, so I used baking trays which worked fine. Time is easier to control accurately than your oven temp most probably. And microwaves work on exciting water molecules. I have tried hot water but the results were not good. Dont forget to have a few Paul Mccartney albums about as practice ones ! Good luck
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