There is a renewed interest in vinyl. It conveys nuances of music that are inaccessible digitally. But the sound quality deteriorates sharply due to dust on the surface, which is aggravated by the tendency of records to accumulate static electricity.
There are a number of techniques for cleaning vinyl from dust. Some of them are not very effective, others require expensive equipment. But there is a simple and inexpensive method that can be considered an alternative even to the vacuum cleaning method.
Will need
To show the proposed method of removing dust from the grooves of a record, we should have the following on hand:
- record player;
- dusty vinyl record;
- tube of wood glue;
- small thick cardboard.
The process of deep cleaning a record from dust
The sound from an uncleaned record is accompanied by noise in the form of crackling, hissing and other distortions. These are the undesirable consequences of dust and dirt accumulating in the grooves of this music medium.
Using wood glue, for example, a one-component composition, as a cleaning agent for plates, gives exceptional results.
We put the dirty record on the player and turn it on.It is advisable to remove static electricity from the sound carrier in some accessible way before starting cleaning.
Stepping back a little from the central paper circle, we begin to squeeze wood glue out of the tube and at the same time move the tube of glue from the center to the periphery of the disk.
If we are careful enough and match the intensity of glue extrusion with the speed of rotation of the plate, then evenly spaced concentric glue rings will form on it.
Then, using a rectangular piece of cardboard, spread the glue evenly over the entire vinyl disc.
After this, turn off the player and leave the record with a continuous thin layer of wood glue on the surface for about one day.
After waiting the specified time, we begin to separate the adhesive circle from the vinyl from the edge of the disk until we remove it completely. Moreover, along with the dried glue, all contaminants, including dust particles several tens of microns in size, will be removed from the grooves of the record.
We install the plate cleaned with wood glue on the player and make sure that no spurious sounds are heard, and the main one has become clear, clean and natural.
Watch the video
You can get an example of the sound of a record before and after cleaning by watching the video.
