ARJohn
Super Member
In response to a thread for a cleaning service I am putting this up for all of us non shop guys. I live in an apartment with no work shop , so had to make it very simple . Reading on here about others design I did the following .
tore out the guts from a Sear's belt drive , leaving the platter as a spinner . $8
Bought a red Shop Vac that came with 1 crevice tool , $25
Bought a set of 4 self stick Nitty Gritty pads , $20
Splurged on a VPI brush , figured they make a good machine brush must be good ? $40
Also got a bottle of VPI fluid as my first try . $15 ?
Then had to figure someway to spin the lp by hand , since no workshop I went all out on a JA Michele clamp ( the R version which fits the Thorens tables BTW ) $70 .
So off I went , I later added a 2nd wand and a dionized water rinse and think this is an important step .Rinse does make a difference .
A spiffy cardboard box for the shop vac to help deaden the howl .
My method requires holding the took over the record at the proper angle etc and spinning slowly by hand with the knob of the clamp . Switch wands , flood with the DI water and spread with one of the those paint pads I had lying around . Vacum again and into a new poly sleeve . 2 spins will dry the LP , if I don't get the angle right might be 3 or 4 .
As for the wands I put the nitty gritty pads on the flat side and marked the ends of the slot , drilled a hole using a drill the same width as the slot in the pad and then a carpet knife and steel ruler to slice the plastic and join the 2 holes . Stick on the pads , cover the opening in the end of the tool with tape , use a pencil to make a hole in the tape to relieve some of the suction and allow air flow as the shop vac really sucks , enlarge as required .
there are many choices for cheaper brushes than the VPI one , lots of threads on here . The sticker for me was the clamp , but I use it on my turntables also so that justified it to me .
this system works great , lots of manual work though , and holding the wand in one hand while spinning with the other means I don't do more than a few at a time . But for the moment I am happy with the results but would like to improve someday with wand holders maybe . Look at it as RCM for dummies maybe ? I have seen many nice machines made on here and envy the quality of the design and work . I'm somewhat basic as far as skills go so this was the best I could come up with for now , but as I said it does a great job . So for all you other shop challenged guys , don't be worried .
tore out the guts from a Sear's belt drive , leaving the platter as a spinner . $8
Bought a red Shop Vac that came with 1 crevice tool , $25
Bought a set of 4 self stick Nitty Gritty pads , $20
Splurged on a VPI brush , figured they make a good machine brush must be good ? $40
Also got a bottle of VPI fluid as my first try . $15 ?
Then had to figure someway to spin the lp by hand , since no workshop I went all out on a JA Michele clamp ( the R version which fits the Thorens tables BTW ) $70 .
So off I went , I later added a 2nd wand and a dionized water rinse and think this is an important step .Rinse does make a difference .
A spiffy cardboard box for the shop vac to help deaden the howl .
My method requires holding the took over the record at the proper angle etc and spinning slowly by hand with the knob of the clamp . Switch wands , flood with the DI water and spread with one of the those paint pads I had lying around . Vacum again and into a new poly sleeve . 2 spins will dry the LP , if I don't get the angle right might be 3 or 4 .
As for the wands I put the nitty gritty pads on the flat side and marked the ends of the slot , drilled a hole using a drill the same width as the slot in the pad and then a carpet knife and steel ruler to slice the plastic and join the 2 holes . Stick on the pads , cover the opening in the end of the tool with tape , use a pencil to make a hole in the tape to relieve some of the suction and allow air flow as the shop vac really sucks , enlarge as required .
there are many choices for cheaper brushes than the VPI one , lots of threads on here . The sticker for me was the clamp , but I use it on my turntables also so that justified it to me .
this system works great , lots of manual work though , and holding the wand in one hand while spinning with the other means I don't do more than a few at a time . But for the moment I am happy with the results but would like to improve someday with wand holders maybe . Look at it as RCM for dummies maybe ? I have seen many nice machines made on here and envy the quality of the design and work . I'm somewhat basic as far as skills go so this was the best I could come up with for now , but as I said it does a great job . So for all you other shop challenged guys , don't be worried .