So, it is the silly season and we have discussed record cleaning add infinitum before. A lot of the time, people have asked for empirical evidence of whether or not certain regimes work/don't work/are more effective/less effective etc. So, as a vinyl junkie myself I have decided to run a full controlled repeated experiment over the next few days (I have to be in work for other reasons but five minutes here and there is easy to work into the schedule. The solutions to be tested are:
1. Enzyme cleaner
2. Water and sunlight
3. Proper record cleaning solution (with isoprop and a surfactant, ready mixed)
4. Combinations.
The conditions to be tested are:
A. With distilled water rinse and micro fibre cloth (to remove the solution and then the distilled water)
B. With distilled water rinse and vacuum suction (provided by a small vacuum pump fitted with a silicone hose tube)
In all cases the tests will be conducted in triplicate - mass measurements (if feasible) before and after will be taken as well as post-cleaning microscope analysis (I may yet get to use an SEM but that will probably be impossible this week so a high power microscope will be tried first).
Mass loss will be normalised to a percentage (remember, the samples are from one record so although they may differ in mass, the overall dirtiness should be fairly consistent).
All tests will involve minimal brushing of the record pieces with a fine paintbrush to dislodge any dirt that can be dislodged, the samples will, however, be fully submersed in the cleaning fluids for the same amount of time, brushed on removal for a given time, then either vacuumed or cloth dried, then rinsed and cloth or vacuum dried.
The sacrificial record is 'Dan Hill Sounds Electronic 5' which was in a box donated by Mahleu along with a lot of decent classical (and others). Any I didn't want were donated to passersby in the corridor, this one remained........
To see why, try listening to more than five minutes of volume 4 without pushing pencils through your ears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U89T1kTMjdo it gets particularly horrific around 2 minutes in.
I will report on progress as I go along!
1. Enzyme cleaner
2. Water and sunlight
3. Proper record cleaning solution (with isoprop and a surfactant, ready mixed)
4. Combinations.
The conditions to be tested are:
A. With distilled water rinse and micro fibre cloth (to remove the solution and then the distilled water)
B. With distilled water rinse and vacuum suction (provided by a small vacuum pump fitted with a silicone hose tube)
In all cases the tests will be conducted in triplicate - mass measurements (if feasible) before and after will be taken as well as post-cleaning microscope analysis (I may yet get to use an SEM but that will probably be impossible this week so a high power microscope will be tried first).
Mass loss will be normalised to a percentage (remember, the samples are from one record so although they may differ in mass, the overall dirtiness should be fairly consistent).
All tests will involve minimal brushing of the record pieces with a fine paintbrush to dislodge any dirt that can be dislodged, the samples will, however, be fully submersed in the cleaning fluids for the same amount of time, brushed on removal for a given time, then either vacuumed or cloth dried, then rinsed and cloth or vacuum dried.
The sacrificial record is 'Dan Hill Sounds Electronic 5' which was in a box donated by Mahleu along with a lot of decent classical (and others). Any I didn't want were donated to passersby in the corridor, this one remained........
To see why, try listening to more than five minutes of volume 4 without pushing pencils through your ears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U89T1kTMjdo it gets particularly horrific around 2 minutes in.
I will report on progress as I go along!
