Building A Record Cleaning Machine

Happy New Year Everyone!

I recently purchased an old Zenith Console for the purpose of building a RCM. Well, here is the rough layout of it, just wanted to make sure that everything will work properly before I do the final cuts out of the walnut that I have in my shed.

I used a capstan motor from a 1954 Voice Of Music R2R that was in extremely bad condition, the platter and spindle off a Stanton DJ TT I bought and could not resale, 2 dimmer switches to control platter speed and vacuum suction, a Home Depot bucket head shop vac that sits on a 5 gal bucket with a crevice tool attachment, notched with paint pad strips along each side of the notch, I am currently using the mat off my SL1200MKII Until I get a different one to use. I unscrewed the vacuum side lid and hinged it for access to vacuum to empty.

Fromula is 1/4 Isopropyl Alcohol and 3/4 water with just a drop or 2 of Dawn Dish Soap. I vacuum record, then wet with solution and spin with a paint pad, vacuum while rinsing with distilled water. This DIY RCM works great, I just need to get a hockey puck to hold record down as I have to turn vacuum down a bit to keep it from lifting it off the platter. On the final build, the entire inside around vacuum will be insulated to help quiet it down.

My plan for this is to put this unit in my extra room and build a record cabinet around it. Right now, I have it set-up in the dining room while testing it and to my surprise, the wife thinks it should stay there as it is a nice looking piece of furnature, just needs some restore on it. Holy Crap, the wife is starting to come around..hehe

I will post pix of the completed project within the next week. I still am not sure about leaving the tuner installed. I was thinking of removing it for adding storage for paint pads and solutions, etc.


Thank you

Cool :thmbsp:

That'll suck some dirt!

Sweet! Definitely good engineering with the pickup portion of this, it looks like it was mated perfectly.
Yeah, I'd ditch the tuner in favor of storage.

Well, I removed the tuner and made a little holder and a flat area to put things, I also made the vacuum area a little larger so it is not so tight. I am still going to insulate the vacuum area. I also need to shorten the vacuum crevise tool to the label edge and then drill a small hole or 2 in the end plug to help with the drying. That red disc thingy is a baseball donut that I am using for a center weight as the sporting good store was out of hockey pucks for a few weeks. Currently, I am using the RCM as is due to the fact that it is too cold to try to apply any stains and clears so I havent cut the walnut as of yet. Our high temps are about 45 so that portion will have to wait. I went through some of my albums that I remember as being noisy (a lot of pops and such), in which I almost threw out years ago, I ran them through the cleaner and I am not exagerating when I say they almost sound brand new except for a couple scratches here and there. I wish I had built this years ago, or had done some research on vinyl care back in my school days on how to properly clean. I've always JUST used record cleaner and a pad Like the D4 kit. Well, enough rambling, I will take some internal pix tomorrow and post those, but for now, here are the alterations I've made.

Proceeding quite nicely!

Great! I'll add it to the DIY RCM thread. (Sorry I missed doing this earlier ... )

I am thinking of changing out the Craftsman vac in mine in favor of the Home Depot Bucket Head vac. I have more uses in the shop for the Craftsman than stuffed in the bottom of a RCM cabinet. The Bucket Head, however, I will not break my heart to be left in an RCM cabinet forever. How's the suction?

DC said:

Great! I'll add it to the DIY RCM thread. (Sorry I missed doing this earlier ... )

I am thinking of changing out the Craftsman vac in mine in favor of the Home Depot Bucket Head vac. I have more uses in the shop for the Craftsman than stuffed in the bottom of a RCM cabinet. The Bucket Head, however, I will not break my heart to be left in an RCM cabinet forever. How's the suction?

Click to expand...

The suction is just as much as a regular shop vac, which is why I have the Dimmer switch to bring it down a bit. I am working on the insulation of the bucket head now to help quiet it down. I'll get the last of the photo's posted after that.

I have a question about a motor. My motor I was using is having a problem so I rebuilt it with a ceiling fan motor, that way I will have a reverse phase as well. Anyways, how can I improve the torque on a ceiling fan motor? you have to give it a slight spin to get it going and then when you apply the cleaning pad, it slows down.

Thank you

David

I think a ceiling fan motor would not be a good choice for a RCM.

I (and many others) have used the motor from an ice cream maker. (Thrift store for a few bucks at the most.) LOTS of torque and very steady speed. Mine ran too fast, though, at about 38RPM.

Some folks have made that work, but I eventually opted for a slower motor. I got a 12vDC gear-reduction motor from eBay (Korea or someplace, Hong Kong maybe) that I run at 6volts. It turns about 10RPM with plenty of torque and is reversible. At about $10, it was a lot cheaper than the Dayton motor that is used in the VPI machines and mine does not get hot when cleaning lots of records.

Thank you DC, I do have ice cream maker motors laying around I could use.

Improvements Made Using Pioneer PL-L1000 Boards and Motor!

Well, here it is. I have been trying different motors but didn't care for them. One was an old turntable motor from a beat to hell Technics that I purchased at the swapmeet. This did not have quartz lock so both the vacuum suction and the cleaning pressure would stop the motor, The Ice Cream motor that I had was too loud and was on it's last leg, bad bearings. So, I went on the bay and found a Pioneer PL-L1000 Turntable motor, main board and power board with transformer. I had some problems trying to figure out how to trick the circuit board to get the motor spinning without the rest of the internal parts of the turntable, but thanks to Ed in Tex, got it spinning. Although I can't seem to get the 45 speed to work, I will eventually. I also picked up the wand and tube from a VPI RCM and used that as well. Made new wood cuts and found some wood paneling from a Walnut bunk bed that my son had as a kid.

On the vacuum wand, I originally had a spring from a sprinkler, but, it was a bit too stiff, so I heated it up to soften the coils, but the wand would not sit flush to the record, so out with the spring. I altered the wand by adding a small screw and put a notch in the vacuum pipe coming up from the under side for a keyway to prevent from rotating with the record. Sits perfect.
I also use a Teac R2R hub to clamp the record.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the improvements. I am going to make a video with my little digital camera and post it later.

More Pix!

Here are some more pictures! A little trim work, match the outside color, add a light and it'll be complete.

So how does that PL-L1000 motor work when you apply vacuum to it? I wouldn't think it would have enough torque to keep spinning.

Tarl Of Gor said:

So how does that PL-L1000 motor work when you apply vacuum to it? I wouldn't think it would have enough torque to keep spinning.

Click to expand...

The motor does quite well, never stops even with the shop vac at full pressure. The vacuum wand is just barely resting on the record, not able to travel any further down and add more pressure. It does slow down a little bit, however, so I use the vacuum at about 3/4 full speed. Thank you for asking.

Nicely done!

Your wife will probably have several display items to put on her new "sideboard", which will have to be moved everytime you want to use your RCM. Consider this: Make a full size top, nice finish, handles on each end to match decor, felt padding on bottom, and registration holes or something to keep it in place. That way you can just pick up everything and move it to the dining table when your LPs want to be cleaned.

Thanks for the pics and the step by step.

Thanks ghazzer. The wife hasn't put anything on it yet......yet. I don't think she will as the RCM is in the office which is really my area. She does, however, continue to set things on my Turntable Lid, I just can't seem to break that habit of hers. I was thinking of removing the dust cover for a while, but I think she would set things on the platter instead. I Dunno!

I did get the 45 speed working on the unit. It turned out that everytime I shut the unit off, it automatically reset to 33, so I have to add a extra switch on top. All in all, the DIY RCM works great.

Very Cheesey Video

Here is an uploaded video of the DIY RCM working. Please excuse the video quality as I can't locate my video camera. Also, I am not a good narrator, as I hate speaking into camera's. I re-incorporated the spring onto the vacuum tube as the thicker albums require this to reduce pressure. Anyways, here it is.
http://img404.imageshack.us/i/syr.mp4/

I also forgot to mention in the video that the cleaning solution has 2 drops of Dawn Dish Washing soap.

I would like to thank Ed of AK for all his help with this on the wiring of the main board.