Cleaning a record with PVA glue!
Well I have seen this done before, so I thought that it would be a good idea to have a play myself.
The sacrificial record was a well used and abused 7” 45 rpm. I had found it in a pile of stuff handed in by a client. I played it and it sounded very bad and actually looked and felt very dirty, making it an ideal candidate for an experiment.
The record was covered in a thin layer of white PVA wood glue. I guess about 2-3 mm thick, hoping that when it had dried, it would not break up upon removal. Left it 24 hours to set, then gently picked at the edges of the run-in grove and gently peeled the coating off. Luckily, it all came off in one go and left behind what looked like a clean record. I now had a reverse print of the record, I’ll play it later. Obviously the surface scratches were still present, but looking at the coating that came off, you could see debris using a string eye glass.
Unfortunately, the video clip made of the playing prior to cleaning was lost. But, I have to say, the reproduction after cleaning was noticeably better. Scratches and pops still present, that cannot be resolved.
I know there are many cleaning products available which the audiophiles will part with hard earned cash for. Over the next few weeks I will sort out some of the LPs I have which could do with some TLC and try and do some cleaning comparisons. This time I will make some before and after videos using a slightly more sophisticated record player. I apologise for the sideways last video. Still do not know why Youtube does that.
How to do it
Removal
Final play