audio-talk

I've lashed up a prototype ultrasonic record cleaner. If it does a good job on a few old records, I'll build a nicer version!
I hope the video link works.......

A few close ups....

I used the 0.6 rpm version of this motor & gearbox:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-0-6-120R ... 6YdPK6r7xg

And this cleaner:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6L-Ultrasoni ... 2749.l2649

Very well done Max. I like it.

You beat me to it. Would be interested in the spindle and how it connects to the gearbox shaft. Also you seem to have a solution to the record clamp.

Looks very good and hopefully you are impressed with the results.

Very interesting indeed - nice work.

Not expensive either. Did you see much grunge come out on the ones you tried ?

Thanks for the interest everyone. I'll try to answer all the questions as I go along
The original inspiration was this youtube video:

When I received the motor/gearbox, I was surprised that it included what looked like a decent little bearing on the output shaft. It gave me the idea of a single-sided mounting rather than a shaft going across the bath, and supported by a second bearing at the other end....
Obviously not as robust, but I thought it would make it easier to mount and dismount the records. And records aren't very heavy....?

Then I remembered that Mrs N had bought me a Moth record cleaner kit many years ago which I never got around to building.
I had a look inside the box, and the kit included these 3 very promising looking bits:

There were 2 problems:
1. The shaft on the Moth motor was a larger diameter than the ebay motor/gearbox shaft.
2. I needed to extend the shaft to get the record into the middle of the bath.
So I turned up an adapter shaft: Here's an 'exploded view' of the 4 components:

IslandPink wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2019 5:07 pm Not expensive either. Did you see much grunge come out on the ones you tried ?

Not really, but the discs I've tried so far (and the discs I want to clean) are not really dirty. We have a lot of records which are just old and well-played and noisier than I would like. Mrs N has still got her old vinyl, and quite a bit of her Dad's vinyl as well. It was all well looked after, but has been played a lot and there are a lot of clicks and pops and surface noise. It has sentimental value (plus a lot of good early pressings) so we don't want to replace with new.

Experiments so far suggest that the ultrasonic route alone is not the complete answer. As suggested in the youtube video (not my short one, the other one), I think that a pre-clean step to loosen the particles that are stuck at the bottom of the grooves is necessary on vinyl that is noisy.

Secondly, I made the mistake of using some 'Vinyl Buddy' cleaning fluid. I think this stuff might be OK for 'spray & wipe' cleaning, but I won't use it again in the bath. I only used a very small amount, but it left a residue, and it tends to create bubbles on the submerged surface of the records. Clearly the tiny little bubbles produced by the bath can't do anything if there are larger bubbles on the record. So I need to find something else. I was tempted to try a little IPA (not the beer), but no longer seems to be the flavour of the month. And I have found that IPA doesn't remove many oily/waxy substances. Anyway, I need to clean the bath out and replace the water......

Thirdly, drying. I quite like the look of the big air blaster in the video. Simply leaving the record to drain might work OK with water/IPA, but was not a success with the Vinyl buddy.....

I should just add that whatever the state of the record before cleaning, all the records have looked immaculate after cleaning. So I’m confident that with a pre-clean step the results will be really good.

Does anyone have any suggestions for additives to use in the bath?
Is IPA worth a try?

I am pleased to see your project come to fruition.
I have a Ultrasonic Bath stored awaiting a similar treatment.
I have done research on the process and do lean to your findings, and have a little bit of further info I can attach to yours, to support your findings.

One, is that there does seem to be merit attached to a Dual Cleaning Process, I have been sent images of how to produce a,
simple homemade solution/vacuum set up, that will not break the bank, I have been informed by a 'Vinyl Head' the set up works fine, if images of this method are of interest let me know.

Two, is that the drying process is from as said rack stored and air dried to applying heat to speed up the drying process.
I have searched out options for this, a OTT method I checked out, but totally fit for purpose, and if one can be patient and use the used sale portals such as Ebay or the 'Like', a working Dyson Air Blade or Similar Version can be found at certain times for approx £50.
This is a very powerful Hot Air Blower specifically designed to drive wetness of a surface, leaving it dry.

I hope these are seen as a useful contribution, as always, I'll supply the entertainment, I'm happy to be corrected.

JohnG wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 9:38 am Two, is that the drying process is from as said rack stored and air dried to applying heat to speed up the drying process.
I have searched out options for this, a OTT method I checked out, but totally fit for purpose, and if one can be patient and use the used sale portals such as Ebay or the 'Like', a working Dyson Air Blade or Similar Version can be found at certain times for approx £50.
This is a very powerful Hot Air Blower specifically designed to drive wetness of a surface, leaving it dry.

Cheers John, an air blade would work very well, but aren’t they normally wall-mounted?

Someone on the internet said that de-ionised water was as pure as distilled, so I gave it a try......
Sadly, de-ionised seems to leave a small scale-like water mark, so I shall have to buy some more distilled......