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pics of DIY record cleaner machine

DC

DC

"Manhattan Boy"
Subscriber
Hi all ... I know there are a million threads about home made RCMs, but here is a "low budget" and "low skills" version:

$2: ice cream maker at a thrift shop
$29.95: smallest Sears wet/dry "shop" vac (on sale from $39.95)
$16.95: Nitty Gritty vac sweep replacement kit (from Audio Advisor on-line)
$free: hockey puck found in basement

I disassembled the ice cream maker to get at the "gear" that inserts into the bottom of the frozen bowl in which ice cream is made. I drilled three holes to mount the hockey puck. I inserted a 1/4"x20 bolt through the bottom of the puck so it sticks out the top as a spindle for the record. I screwed it all together and reassembled the ice cream maker base. A simple nut clamps the record down plenty strong.

For the vacuum part, I closed the hole in the end of the crevice/wand tool with electrical tape. (Hi tech, huh?) The I cut a slit along the edge to the dimension of the opening in the RCM cleaning pad using a Dremel tool. The peel-and-stick cleaning pad was attached and Viola! The vacuum is very strong and the record gets attached to the suction wand pad with a "foomp!" sound. The high torque motor in the ice cream maker spins away and soon the record is clean and dry.

While I am satisfied with the results, there is an area for improvement: The ice cream maker spins at about 38 RPM. At that speed, the vacuum wand is zipping by and doesn't seem to get much of the "schmootz" sucked up with each pass. Therefore it takes a minute or two (lots of passes) for everything to be clean and dry. I have experimented with rotating it by hand, much slower, and I am much more satisfied with the end result. It seems that the record is clean and dry in two or three passes. It also seems to me that the suction would be more effective deep down in the groove with a few slow passes than with many fast passes. Yes? No?

Any suggestoins as to how to slow this thing down? I tried a big variac, but no go. (Google searches revealed why.) Re-gearing the output is probably beyond my ability and/or threshold of patience.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for looking ... I am open to critical comments!

[EDIT: PICS ARE A FEW POSTS DOWN. TROUBLE UPLOADING FIRST TIME]
 
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Try uploading the pics again since your other post disapeared. Thanks. And yes a re-gearing is the simplest way to slow it down.
 
Hey I just got mine going on saturday also , used the little shop vac from WM, same deal as you .I bought velvet ribbon but then saw those Nitty Gritty self stick pads in a shop here for $20 . I cut the slit with a very sharp carpet knife , sanded it all around .Sealed the end with duct tape , it has some special audio enhancing properties that plain old electrical tape doesn't:D . I use a junk table as the spinner , all manual . I did buy a VPI brush and was using a puck but now have a Michell record clamp that is doing double duty . It works great , I find about 4 or 5 spins by hand dry the disc well and suck everthing up . I have had great results , a new noisy record was much quiter after and I had an old copy of a Tim Hardins greatest that some one gave me , couldn't play it , but today it sounds ok , still tick's and such but at least as good as some of my old 70's stuff. As I am in an apartment I have the shop vac in a cardboard box to try and keep the nosie down , it helps a bit but not much . that little red beast howls . I also have a small hole in the sealing tape , this is supposed to reduce the suction a bit and help maintain airflow . Next would be a nice cabinet to put it all in . But cost minus the clamp was about $100 with fluid and it does the job . A nice automatic unit would be better but a bit rich for me right now .


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Don Chisholm said:
Well, I uploaded the pics to another thread first and it won't let me upload them twice.
Click to expand...

Nope, no doubling up. In your user control panel, you can access everything you've uploaded, in the left-hand nav column near the bottom: Attachments. Find what you want, right-click and choose "Copy image location". Come back to your current thread, and using the "Insert Image" button in the Post Reply window, just paste the URL into your current post.

Like this:
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Which looks like this when the server parses it:
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I bet that box also helps keep dust from flying around.

I can't tell from your pictures, but are there two nitty gritty tips separated by a gap?
 
Nice! Simple but effective. As a bonus, you can also make ice cream and frozen yogurt with it. :D

I assume you'll use a washer under the nut to protect the label?
 
Looks great Don, I'd be worried about too much pressure on the record with only the bolt. Could look into some sort of label saving washer.
 
I did use a washer at first, but found that it was irritating (I'm not patient ... ) to remove after the nut. Laziness has me just using the nut and I am yet to even mark a label. I think they're more resilient than we give them credit for.

An improved version might include a longer bolt through the puck allowing the use of a real record clamp, with obvious major advantages. However, this one is decidedly "el cheapo" and works quite well!
 
Tanker Desk said:
I bet that box also helps keep dust from flying around.

I can't tell from your pictures, but are there two nitty gritty tips separated by a gap?
Click to expand...

yep , mine is same as the op's wand except I chose to do the slot on the wide part of the wand instead of the narrow one , no reason why , that's just the way I saw it in another post .Those NG pads were $20 at a local store for a bag of 4 and come with a little brush to clean them off with after use . But I really need to soundproof that vacum somehow so I can have a marathon cleaning session . I do about 4 and then stop because I feel bad for making such noise . :scratch2:
 
Don Chisholm said:
I did use a washer at first, but found that it was irritating (I'm not patient ... ) to remove after the nut. Laziness has me just using the nut and I am yet to even mark a label. I think they're more resilient than we give them credit for.

An improved version might include a longer bolt through the puck allowing the use of a real record clamp, with obvious major advantages. However, this one is decidedly "el cheapo" and works quite well!
Click to expand...


I find that 2 or 3 by hand seems to look dry but I read that you should give a few more just to be safe , can't hurt . And after a few records do as the NG instructions say , use the brush while the vacum is still on to suck off the debris from the pads . I'm very happy with results , wish I had one of these years ago .

John
 
What have you used as a pad to cover the slot on the vacum cleaner tube? What type of glue did you use?
 
It is a replacement vacuum pad from a Nitty Gritty RCM. They are peel-n-stick, so it is very easy.
 
Sansui Louie said:
Has anyone tried the felt half of velcro strips for this? I'm thinking that would work...
Click to expand...

Being that the soft-side of velcro is actually a series of "loops" it wouldn't get down into the grooves as well as something like strips cut from the off the shelf paint-pad pad's found at Home Depot or the purpose built pads from the various RCM makers.
 
Here's mine...

The top picture is the whole thing. The next picture is with the tray slid out to be able to clean, and the bottom picture is the bottom drawer pulled out showing the vac I used along with a catch can for any water that makes it that far..

Other than spinning a little faster than my liking, it does a really great job, and amazing the difference in the sound of a freshly cleaned LP...

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SaSi said:
What have you used as a pad to cover the slot on the vacum cleaner tube? What type of glue did you use?
Click to expand...

I use strips of a paint pad ($3.00 for 2 at the hardware store) affixed with 2-sided Scotch tape. It holds well enough for extended use and still allows for replacement when the time comes.

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