prk@charm.UUCP (Paul Kolodner) (04/30/85)
The commercial version of the Keith Monks record-cleaning machine costs on the order of $1000. Consumer versions cost around $300. I made my own for about $75. I bought the same air compressor KM uses from a surplus house for $30. It makes a sort of thumping noise, so I had a carpenter build a little pine box for it (stained to match my stereo cabinet) which, when lined with carpet scraps tighty sealed, and mounted on foam, completely muffled the noise. I snuck into our machine shop for a morning to make the "tone arm", whose end is capped with a teflon tip for sniffing up the fluid and is connected, using stolen tygon tubing, to an expropriated vacuum flask. I also made a little mount for it to swivel on. I mounted this on my old record player, which I now use ex- clusively for cleaning records. Yes, installing the little thread on which the tone-arm tip rests took a little enginuity. I bought a fine-hair brush from a KM competitor for $20 to spread on the fluid (50% ethanol/water) onto the record to be cleaned.Cleaning consists of brushing on a liberal amount of fluid for 10-20 seconds and then moving the tone-arm slowly over the record surface to sniff it up. I find that the thread gets worn and flattened after about 6 records and has to be replaced ( the real KM machine has a spool of nylon thread which is constantly reeled out as the machine is used). I have yet to identify the best thread, although I think nylon beats cotton; certainly undyed thread ought to be best, although I use black thread and see no discoloration of the used fluid due to the thread. The main problem, aside from the obvious pain involved in using this wonderful instrument, is that it really doesn't do a perfect job of sniffing up all the traces of the fluid. Since I use deionized water and 200 proof laboratory-grade ethanol, I'm not really worried about stains left by evaporating fluid; I just don't have all day to wait for the stuff to disappear. I generally follow a cleaning with a treatment with LAST record preservative; since I've resolved to rub my beautiful, clean record with the LAST applicator brush anyway, I give it a wipe with a second LAST brush to dry it off after cleaning. I clean new records this way once, and that's it. Further cleaning consists only of blowing with canned air. I've been doing this for about two years. It's apain, but I think it's worth it. But I bought a CD player...