Cleaning a Record with Wood Glue

Rabs

Anyone ever tried this?

fandango

Reminds me that conservationists did something similar using latex to a whole wall of the Great Hall in The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) to clean the stonework. And by gum it worked. They then hung the latex sheet intact with all the dirt on the back for all to see. That was wow!

As for this Miles Davis record, there is some improvement prior to the music, but cant tell much different after he starts playing. But then i am not listening on expensive hi-fi equipment.

Love the way the chap in the video uses Titebond glue. There must be a Gibson link somewhere in this.

SimonC

I wonder if you flipped that glue disc over and put it back on the turntable if it would play in reverse.

Handy for all those Led Zep hidden messages.

chillidoggy

Jazz - no improvement to my ears. It's all bad.

Emp_Fab

Put the record in the bin and just download the MP3.  Problem solved in ten seconds.

Ravenous

Heard about this idea many years ago... but have never had the nerve to try it.

Maybe I should dig out a single and have a go...

BigMonka

That's pretty clever, although using that amount of glue on each side of each record is an expensive way to clean them!

jamiexsilver

Yeah I do it, very hit a miss results though sometimes they sound better sometimes there's no difference what's so ever. Use good glue though and it takes ages to dry.

These are the pictures of the last one I did.

bloodandtears

Blutac is known to work well too

WezV

is this like charging your phone in the microwave

Rocker

This is the daftest suggestion I have ever read...

SteveRobinson

fandango said: 

Love the way the chap in the video uses Titebond glue.

It would surely sound better if they used hide glue?

robgilmo

Play your records wet, really, goovle it

viz

robgilmo said:

Play your records wet, really, goovle it

Once you've played it wet you'll never be able to play it dry again because you boil in all the crud into the groove (I think)

robgilmo

Yeah thats what I read, the trick is never use tap water, even for cleaning, it dries and leaves calcium on the record and causes crackling, buy battery top up water from halfords, its well cheap, I did it a few times.

impmann

Seriously, this works well if you use the right glue. The physics is simple - a pva glue will not stick to the plastic used in the vast majority of LPs and 45s. Don't use it on Shellac (78s) though...

The glue dries and all the grot in the grooves is gripped by the glue. You peel it off and the grot goes with the glue. Simples.

I had an original copy of Aretha Franklin Live at the Fillmore West that had been unplayable for years - so much surface noise. I'd even paid for 'professional' cleaning that improved it but it wasn't great. I tried the glue trick and now its perfect.

However, be aware that using glues that aren't quite as good as they were can be a nightmare. I tried using some Titebond that had been open for a while and it was impossible to remove in one piece from the disc. I've since redone it with a fresh tub of Titebond and its removed the grot and the scratty pieces of glue.

I've had the best results with Titebond II (blue) but equally cheap PVA works well.

robgilmo

A new stylus for my cart is 185 quid, I wouldnt risk it.

impmann

robgilmo said:

A new stylus for my cart is 185 quid, I wouldnt risk it.

Not far off the same here. :-)

No risk - certainly no more risk than playing a s/h record you bought at a record shop...

bingefeller

Bit like those pore strips you get to remove blackheads from your nose.

mellowsun

jamiexsilver said:

I reckon you should be able to play the dried glue disc on a turntable just like one of those Flexi-discs you used to get with Smash Hits.

Gagaryn

Read about that a few times but seems a hassle. I have a Knosti Disco Antistat and they work brilliantly. Make my own fluid 80% distilled water, 20% IPA and 5ml wetting agent for a litre - I use Ilford Ilfotol. Works out mega cheap and is as good as any commercial fluid I have bought. I recently replaced my Ortofon 2m Blue with a Audio Technica VM740ML which has resulted in much less surface noise even with fucked second hand records - pretty much all my vinyl plays now with zero pops or crackles.