DIY Outlaw RCM I Manual Record Cleaning Machine!

My DIY Outlaw RCM I Manual Record Cleaning Machine!

Part 1

Well I have been working on an RCM lately, Not the powered version that I have mentioned previously. I think I’m scraping the motorized version I was going to use this TT platter on, and have come up with an all new powered concept that shall remain undisclosed for now. That one is waiting till I’m working and can justify the $$ it will need. Stay tuned for more on this when I’m gainfully employed again!

This one is a manual version, that I am doing because I can do it for next to nothing (All I bought was the Epoxy, Rubber feet, and the paint pads), and I really need/want to clean some of the collection.

I’ll start with the parts list:

o Akai TT platter and pad with its bolt on bearing assembly

o 3 screws and nuts to attach the Bearing assembly to the base

o Scrap 3/4” Melamine shelf – 12” X 14-1/2” (Go for 16” if you try to duplicate this)

o Leftover Iron on plastic edging to cover the exposed MDF

o Old steel vacuum extension from garage collection. Cut down and tip cut to fit.

o A plastic box, sans sliding lid (Extra points if you can tell where this came from!)

o Scrap Hardwood, Birch and Oak Flooring/Baseboard)

o Scrap of aluminum to seal off the open part of the vacuum tube.

o 4” x .120 SS disc of steel – From the garage collection

o Paint pads from hardware store, (Also bought a Styrofoam handled throw away paint “Block” for use as a cleaning/scrubbing tools when the time comes ot put this into use)

o Epoxy to assemble the vacuum attachment

o Some craft felt from SWMBO’s collection for padding the storage blocks (More on this later)

Part 2

After cutting the melamine shelf to size and boring a recess for the Akai TT bearing assembly, I ironed on the hot glue backed edging. Tape helps hold it if you don’t have a helper (I did) and the recess was positioned to allow the edge of the TT platter to overhang. This was done to allow me to spin the platter easily by hand in use.

I put the rubber feet on the bottom so it would not slide around the work surface it sets on. (Kitchen table?) A word on these; the feet were ¾” square “Vinyl” feet. The clear ones are actually some form of silicone rubber and grip well; I’m not so sure about the white or brown ones I saw, they looked like a hard material and might slide too easy. Make sure they are rubbery, or you will be chasing the RCM in use.

Then 3 holes were drilled for the bearing assy. The screws are countersunk on the bottom, but as usual, they sunk themselves in (at this size) just by tightening. The length of the screws is not critical, as there is a lot of space under the platter.

Part 3

Next I set my self to making the vacuum head attachment. I didn’t like the Wand” designs I have seen unless they are made into the table like the ARK and commercial tables do. Regular vacuum heads had two problems; angle and width. So I decided to make one.

Finding a suitable plastic box proved to be the trick. Any guesses as to what I used?

Once the box was found, I cut the vacuum extension tube by approximately half to reduce the shop Vac’s hose weight leverage in use. The tape you see was there before, as this was from an old canister vacuum with snap locks to keep things attached. This may be removed later if I need to reduce the amount of suction. The tube’s length is about 11”, it was eyeballed as being “about right” for my plan.

I did have to adjust the final angle of the head cut on the tube with a file, both for the angled wall to bottom of the plastic box. And to finalize the head angle so it would set flat on the record.

Actually I had to do this fit and glue up twice. Once before I decided to make the support block, and once after I did and realized I wasn’t tracking flat…

The cutout for the tube opening was tricky, as the plastic box is made of a very brittle acrylic type plastic. This was done by scribing and scribing and scribing; then deciding a fine tooth hacksaw blade wrapped in tape would cut the straight cuts, and then more scribing. Eventually the pieces popped out, and I filed to fit.

In retrospect while the hacksaw blade worked Xacto makes a tiny back saw just for this type of work. I’d recommend this blade instead. If you use a hacksaw blade, break it off so you can cut with the tip mostly. That was where I did most sawing.



I also epoxied up the inside long corners of the box, as I could see there were fractures beginning to form, and I super glued one crack that had started. This box is entering at least its third life…

Now I was ready to mock up the head angle and epoxy the tube on, but you need a way to attach the soft paint pads on. The plastic backing is very flexible, and the vacuum suction will suck it in I’m certain.

I used some fairly thin oak flooring material left over from my baseboard project in the house to make a face plate. Cut a little larger than the box, I decided to grove it to accept the box lips that the sliding lid used. (I had considered using the lid grooves to slide the paint pads into, but they are way too flexible.) Once this fit, I decided to cut 3 vacuum opening strips to allow suction. Why three? So I could overlap them and place 3 paint pad strips in rows. These will get glued onto the wood using RTV.

Once the face plate was cut, I gave it a lot of coats of Deft to seal it. I made sure to get it into the grooves and the suction slots. This part would be better if made of plastic, (Wood warps,,,) but I didn’t have any handy, so…



With all the head parts available I mocked up a record, (A scrap thrift shop freebee already scratched beyond use) and the paint pad, faceplate and head, to the tube, and set the tube on the support block. Then I mixed up the epoxy and glued the tube to the bottom of the box head. When this had dried, I set the assembly in a vertical position and epoxy the side of the box to the tube. The last two items left to glue are the plug for the tube, to seal it, and the faceplate to the box which I’m thinking I will do with RTV as this will allow me to remove it if I need to modify something.

Part 4

I also cut the support block and vacuum attachment storage blocks out of some scrap birch, and will line the “Saddles” with felt. All three blocks will get attached from underneath by screws, which will be very strong for the use.



One thing I’m going to add to the vacuum attachment assembly is a “Hook” which will be a simple angle tab of sheet metal to make it so I can hook it onto the support block, and keep it steady against the rotation of the platter while vacuuming. I think electricians tape will do to keep it attached to the tube.

So its not yet ready for prime time, but the Outlaw RCM I is in it’s final assembly stages, and once complete it will be coupled to my little 1 gallon wet vac I picked up a couple of years ago at a yard sale for $5. I think this whole project was done for under $20 all told, the Akai TT was part of a $3 receiver deal, so basically free, other than that, painting pads epoxy, rubber feet and paint pads and the shop vac which is shared use….



I also still need to do two things to the 4” steel disk. Drill a 7MM hole dead center (Turns out 7MM drills are hard to come by, and .284 Dia US drills don’t exist in fractional, number or letter drills…) I’ll probably center drill it small on the lathe, and taper ream it from both sides to get it to fit. Then it needs an edge of rubber or soft plastic and painted and it is ready to protect the labels from the wet.

Comments and suggestions welcomed on my project so far! I know this is a little crude in paces, but it’s also a quickie and a proof of concept, and will be replaced later with a completely different approach.

My cleaning process will be simple. (I’ll not get into solution mixes here) Two spray bottles, one with a cleaning mix the other with distilled or DI water for rinsing. One Styrofoam handled “Scrub brush” (A “Sure Line” edging paint pad) the shop vac and the Outlaw RCM I

Set the record, cover the label, spray cleaning solution, rotate and scrub. Let set a minute or two, spray and scrub again, vacuum Clean. Spray from the “Rinse bottle and give it a last vacuuming.

Turn and repeat…

Nice project, I am looking forward to your tweeks and refinements. :yes:

The "box" looks like it came from a habitrail.

- Pete

Nice project. Is the box from .22 LR?

Strawman said:

Nice project. Is the box from .22 LR?

Click to expand...

That was my first thought.

Looks nice and I bet it will get an opportunity to clean quite a few records. Such a boring job though. One of the things I don't like about vacuum cleaning is that it's too loud to listen to music while you are cleaning...but it gets the records clean so I do it that way.

LBPete said:

The "box" looks like it came from a habitrail.

- Pete

Click to expand...

Nope!

Strawman said:

Nice project. Is the box from .22 LR?

Click to expand...

Close, but no cigar!

Are you going to gig me on the caliber???

Strawman said:

Are you going to gig me on the caliber???

Click to expand...

Only because you specified .22 LR.

It's a .22 Winchester mag Box. CCI to be exact. :thmbsp:


I did complete all the gluing and screwing of the Vac head and support blocks on the the deck. All that is left is drilling the 7mm hole in the SS disk, and finding something to act as a rubber seal to the record,

The paint pad strips are RTV’ed to the Head face plate, and I gave it a quick test with water and the sacrificial record I’ve been using for mockup.

I discovered one thing fast, it has a TON of suction with only that tiny 1 gal Wet vac! I can rotate the record, but I mounted the paint pad strips so the knap was “Scrubbing” while I turned the record, (Clockwise seem easier to do with this rig) I’ll want to take them off and reverse the knap. It works much better for vacuuming in the opposite direction. The actual scrubbing will be with the Styrofoam handled paint pad.

I also discovered I need a foot switch for this sucker, as I can’t easily remove the vacuum head from the record surface until the vacuum is off.

I need to scrounge up 2 squirt bottles and mix up the cleaning solution, and start in on some records. :thmbsp:

Tonight or tomorrow!

So, I had the caliber, where's my prize?
One of the reasons I haven't built my own RCM is because every time I turn around, there is another design, more cost effective solution to this issue, etc. I can't decide. I'm also lazy and like watching you guys work.
I can't wait to see your powered version, as if I do build one, I would want "more power". :thmbsp:

Straw man, you win, 100 extra points!

(I did say it was for extra points, that and a buck should get you a cup of coffee, somewhere...

OK! I’m in production! At least low volume production, I need to come up with a rack to allow the LPs to fully dry to get into higher production. The RCM does a great job of sucking off the moisture, but some residual dampness remains.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! The head hadn’t been fully assembled in the last photos, and the paint pad had not been cut and RTV’d on.

So cutting two ½” wide strips, and one ¾” wide strip was easy, just use a heavy set of succors and trim off one of the keeper lips, and then mark off the strips paying attention to the knap of the pad. I got enough for 2 sets out of one pad. It wasn’t planned that way but 1-3/4 X 2 came to the 3-1/2” width of the pad!




Then I RTV’d them to the head, again paying attention to the knap, I had originally thought that pulling the record into the knap would be beneficial, but the vacuum suction make this very difficult against the nap. I do want to reverse the knap when I replace the pads. I think the Counter Clockwise rotation will be more comfortable to use.



You can also see the scrubbing pad (Also a Paint edging Pad) in the completed head pics. This pad doesn’t appear to have any specific knap, and seems to work well for this purpose.

On to cleaning!

I have done 3 records “Officially” The first one was a copy of the Guess Who Best of, that I bought new years back. How it got so bad sounding I have no idea. In any case, the last time I listened to it, it sounded horrible. Looked clean enough, but SOOO muddy sounding and muffled. Number two was a 180 GR copy of in search of the Lost Chord, And number three was Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads, Demonstration (Not For Sale) copy I recently picked up.

I gave it a quick dusting, then set it up. Oh yeah, I did discover on the sacrificial test record that I need a foot switch to shut the Vac off otherwise it will pull the record right off the platter! Well not having time for another mini project I installed an “Automatic switch” that is voice controlled! The victim is my 16 YO daughter who as you can see is THRILLED to be involved! :scratch2: (You can also see the evidence of her younger sister “Celebrating” St Paddy’s day) But she is never too grumpy to ham it up for the camera…





So I needed two spray bottles, one for the cleaning solution, and one with just DI/Distilled/Reverse osmosis (Your choice or availability) water, the scrub brush, and of course the record to be cleaned.



As mentioned, a quick dusting, then I set the record up, spun it, and sprayed the cleaning solution. I found the scrub brush fit against the Vac attach support making control much easier (Dumb Luck and Ignorance, there IS no substitute!) :stupid:



I scrubbed pretty hard then sprayed again and scrubbed again. Vacuumed it off, I then sprayed more cleaner and scrubbed a third time. After vacuuming that off, I sprayed it with rinse water and gave it a final vacuuming. I also discovered something. The plain water without any wetting agent, needs to be spread, so I gave it a spin just to spread it with the vac head without any suction, and then using the voice controlled switch, completed side one!



A little water overspray was on the label, so I took that off with a paper towel. Flipped it over, and repeated the process.

I let it dray the damp residue off, and played the Guess Who on vinyl for the fist time in ages, and the sound was,,,








GREAT! All the muddyness was gone! You could hear everything!


All in all I’m pretty happy. A few things I would do different or don’t like:

Reverse the knap on the vac head pads… :yes:

Finish the label protector (Need a rubber edge for it…)

The pads shed just a tiny bit. Maybe 2-5 bristles a side. I’m thinking this is from the cut pads in the vac head. A small problem as a carbon fiber brush knocks em off in a jiffy.

I need a drying rack. I have in mind one of those old fashioned wire album stands they made in the 50’s and 60’s with every two of three loops removed so the record leans on the edge and label, .but I fear I’m 20 years too late… :scratch2:

As before, any comments or suggestions are welcome!

Looks nice!
As to a drying rack, just vac it dry. It only takes about an additional minute or less of vacuuming.

NICE JOB THERE !!!!!

OK another thing I wanted that I didn’t have and forgot on my missing list, a foot operated switch to replace the voice activated one I use during the tests. I have built it using a 4x4 electrical box, a plain flat cover, a 600V momentary switch, a couple of cord clamps to fit the box, 2 wire nuts and a couple of stray cord ends.

I'll add rubber feet so it doesn't scratch the floor, but it's ready to go. All stuff out of the garage, I didn't buy a darned thing!

Pic's tomorrow, If SWMBO can make time.

OK pic is done.

All leftovers/junk from the garage. A recovered power cable, a cut off extension cord remnant where I needed a flat grounded chord, some parts from my E box and conduit parts bins, rubber feet leftover from the RCM project, (They come 3 sets of 4 in a pack) and so you know what is inside, another identical switch to the one I used.

Power is only on if my foot is on the switch, otherwise normally open. :thmbsp:

performance!

Overall very good. :yes:

However,

My left thumb is numb from pressing the center pin while turning the platter with my fingers during the vacuuming process… Now I know why powered units are popular!

It's amazing to see the volume of water flow through the translucent head during the first revolution of the record.

I need to adjust the vac tube support to be slightly lower, the leading edge pad of the head is wearing too fast. :sigh: No biggie just a little bit needed.

Be sure to cover any wood surface you use as a working surface with plastic, I used an old plastic table cloth for this, and it’s a good thing I did, I don’t like to think what the Alcohol, even in low concentration would do to the wood finish. An amazing amount of water landed on the table, some dripping from the Vac head while it was in the rack. I used a small tray under it to catch the drips after awhile.

I’m not sure I like the Alcohol in the cleaning solution, on at least one label the mist of the overspray when wiped off with paper towel showed ink on the P towel. I think I’m going to go with just Tergitol and water for the next batch of solution. If it’s good enough for the Smithsonian, it’s good enough for me. I was counting on the Alcohol to make complete drying (There is always a tiny bit of moisture left no matter how much you vacuum) faster, but the concern is the labels. I still have not completed the label protector.

That's all for now!