a sticky subject - cleaning damaged CDs

G

ginahoy

New Member
I own a number multi-disc sets of classical music, some 25 years old. Most are on the Polygram Archiv label.

This morning I was horrified to discover the foam sheets used to keep the disks separated in the case were severely deteriorated and had stuck to the disks! A four-disk case typically has a sheet of foam over each disk. I've kept these foam sheets because the hubs don't always hold the disks in place without them.

Fortunately, with all disks installed properly in the case, damage was limited to the label side. However, until and unless I can remove the foam, I do not dare insert them in my disk player for fear of contamination!

I attempted to peel off the foam but it simply crumbled, leaving a coating of tiny foam bits stuck to the disk surface. I tried to clean with detergent, but the foam acts like an adhesive. With some effort, isopropyl alcohol removes the foam, but it removes the label ink as well.

I only wish I had caught this earlier, before the foam began to stick to the disks. The foam sheets appeared normal the last time I played these disks, which was probably 3 years ago. If any of you have disk sets with foam inserts, I recommend you discard the foam immediately. I only wish someone had warmed me.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can clean these disks? As a last resort, I guess I can clean them with alcohol and forfeit the label markings.

David
 
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You might want to try some "Goo Gone", available at most grocery and hardware stores. Citrus based and has always worked for me on removing adhesive type gunk without harming the surface, although I've never tried it on CDs.
 
I second trying the goo gone.. be careful though, you get through the silver on the label, the disk is trash..
 
Thanks for quick responses!

I just tried Goo Gone but it removes the ink. At this point, I'd be ok with that. So I relegated one of the disks as a guinea pig.

As it turns out, neither the Goo Gone nor the alcohol does a good job on the foam. The foam apparently bonded to the protective coating on the disk. Using a solvent with any force will begin to break down this coating. It was hard to tell what was foam residue and what was remnants from the protective coating. In other words, I created a frickin mess. I stopped before I destroyed the silver layer.

I'm now convinced there's no way to remove the foam without destroying the disks, so I'm going to rip the tracks using an old CD Rom drive and then copy over to a fresh disk.

I checked my other Archiv box sets and even though the foam inserts had all turned yellow, none had deteriorated far enough to adhere to the disk.

David
 
I'd stay away from nail polish remover, or anything else that has acetone in it.
 
If you have decided to sacrifice the printing anyway, could you "scrape off" the foam with fine, wet sandpaper or 0000 steel wool, followed up with a plastic polish? You'd lose the printing, but you'd end up with a clean, shiny disc. As long as you didn't remove too much and hit the silver layer that carries the information, it would still play fine.

Seems a shame to lose the printing, though; I'd exhaust everything else I could try, before resorting to this.

Of course, you could always scan and print a replacement label and stick it over the original one. It would add a slight bit of mass to the disc, which might increase its stability during play. Just be sure that the adhesive used to glue it down doesn't eat plastic!
 
Yeah. I saw the same foam to dust thing on some of my box sets too. Fortunately, they rubbed off easily with my fingers.

I think you have the right idea. Get as much as you can off by rubbing it off with your fingers or a moist cloth to maybe help clean and seal the remnants so they don't fly around and contaminate your burner. I would not use any solvents at this point before ripping.

Then rip them. And then if you want, try more aggressive tactics.
 
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