The Wood Glue vinyl cleaning method

That is clever but I would consider balancing a glue covered record on a glass fairly risky business.

 

No it really isn't.
Spreading the glue from a bottle doesn't tip the disc, and when I smooth it have my left hand on on a label, keeping the record against the glass. And the smoothing doesn't take force, so if you pay attention to what you do it's not difficult.

Try it and you will see.

 

I'm good for now

 

Tommyboy, thank you for your knowledge and xperience in these things.Personally I am pretty positive about the whole challenge and still have an interest in Titebond gluing records.I regret sometimes that I did not make digital notes of before and after listens , so now I just go by my ear for the most part. Any cheap Enzyme cleaner you could recommend ..do you suggest the cleaning of smudges,fingerprints FIRST before wood-gluing?

 

I'm surprised that I'm in the minority here, but I see fingerprints disappear consistently with TBII. Isn't that what the glue is actually doing, dissolving oils?

 

As to your last quote above, I have had superior results with glue over the Spin Clean, for some records...but I don't glue up a moderately dusty record. The glue method is reserved for LPs with lots of crap on them that the Spin Clean, for whatever reasons, doesn't get adequately clean. The glue obviously doesn't bond with the vinyl. I'm still playing records from 9 or more years ago that I cleaned with wood glue - no discoloration, no streaking, no ill effects to the vinyl itself.

 

Probably depends on what the residue on the fingers was. I've had to Spin Clean some LPs with fingerprints on them to kind of buff off the 'prints that wood glue didn't take off.

 

That's encouraging indeed. I have been using wood glue for approx 2 years now mainly on LP's ,started doing that before I got the Spin Clean. I have to say that I am not thrilled about wiping off excess water from the Spin Clean thing; I would have to invest in more drying rags because only having 2 is not enough when you are cleaning many LP's or 45s in one session. I got tons of 10 inch records for my 100 year old Victrola...which is another clean-up job I would have to take up at some point- but that would be keen; get out all those hundreds of foxtrot/vocal/jazz/orchestral and opera disc from the early-early years and then just go and have a field day of many Spin Cleans and see the water at the bottom of the basin ,which should have very dirtied water~~~ .

 

This only works if you are simultaneously playing "The Sabre Dance".

 

The wife has a 78 collection and we've tried the Spin Clean on those. The water turns black after about 2 or 3 disks, so it wasn't really worth the time. Instead, she scrubs them at the sink with a light brush and detergent.

Those old shellac records are fragile to braking/cracking, but aren't nearly as damaged by cleaning (or playing) as vinyl LPs.

 

Wood glue (Titebond II with the blue label, specificailly) is a cheap and amazing way to clean your records. I've been doing this for quite awhile, primarily for LPs I buy used. Sure it can take awhile to dry, but it truly does leave the LP clean. I then run them through my DIY vacuum system usually. Anyway, I have never had a problem with using wood glue and only have positive things to say about it other than its long drying time.

 

People really get worried about stuff don't they? Chemical reactions between vinyl records and wood glue? I don't think so. Do a little research on vinyl and you'll find its highly resistant to chemicals and is used in the packaging industry to hold both acidic and alkaline substances.

I bet the bottle the Titebond comes in is make from vinyl itself!

 

Don't use wood glue on a 78! I'm sure you know they aren't made of vinyl.

 

Right. Vinyl is oil-based, wood glue is water-based. They won't permanently bond. That's also why the glue doesn't lift out fingerprints, as they are imprints of your own oil.

 

Oh but it does lift out them fingerprints. Just checking you here to tamp down on misinformation. Nuttin' personal.

 

It lifts out the dirt deposited there, but some oil will remain, unless it's old, oxidized oil, which can come up with the glue.

 

Again, it probably depends on what the residue actually is, because the wood glue doesn't get out all fingerprints on an LP.

 

I find the FUD regarding the wood glue cleaning method to be a little funny. People have been doing it long enough to notice if there were any major issues.

In fact, if you're gonna be worried about cleaning methods, I kinda wonder about cleaning methods that rely on pushing the dirt around (which is a good percentage of them). Wouldn't those run the risk of scratching the microscopic surface of the vinyl with abrasive junk, stuff that's much harder than vinyl, like tiny particles of glass or ash?

 

Something to consider.

 

The trick to cleaning relies on putting all of that "dirt" into a fluid suspense and removing the fluid (and the dirt with it). That is the beauty of a vacuum cleaners.

The glue method comes into play when enzymatic and other types of fluid cleaners don't budge those stubborn hold outs and they need to be ripped out by adhesion.

 

I heard of this method to clean records and I was going to try it out. Unfortunately, I was too scared to choose a candidate worried that I would ruin the record. Also, that glue is not cheap. Dawn dish washing liquid will go a long way toward cleaning a lot of records.

 

The static is annoying, I'm having to give them a quick wet clean with just distilled water after to kill it.

 

I've tried wood glue a couple times and noticed no improvement when I've done it, but I've also only used it as a last resort when nothing else has worked, so I'm left thinking that I've only tried it on damaged (vs. dirty) records, in which case it's not going to matter what I do.

 

Oh, there are some LPs that are just damaged, groove distortion or scratches or other mishandling, and not even a top-of-the-line ultrasonic cleaner is going to correct that. I recently found a WEA Canada pressing of "Sticky Fingers", and though it reeked of smoke and was quite nasty, a Spin Clean bath followed up by gluing it did greatly improve the sonics. It's still pretty crackly, but not as severe as it was before.

 

I am a big fan of ultrasonic cleaning, but have a few albums that still came out with some remaining surface noise. I was about to chalk this up to groove damage. (I get a lot of used albums from the thrift store) Many of these albums had mold/mildew as they were stored untouched for God knows how long under Virgin Island temps and high humidity conditions.

I finally got past my freakish fear of pouring glue on an album, and tried this technique on a back up copy of Ole ELO. I had given up on ever getting the surface noise under control on this one despite trying several different cleaning methods. To my amazement and joy, after the glue treatment it came out as quiet as my go to copy! I have now cleaned several of my problematic albums using this technique with astonishing success. I still love my ultrasonic cleaning machine for general use, but the wood glue technique is one Hell of a good tool to use for those really stubborn records with deep groove contamination. I do a quick ultrasonic rinse in Lab grade water after glue cleaning and haven't had any problem with any residual "glue fragments" or static charge. It is so nice to sit back and thoroughly enjoy a really quiet and clean album afterwards----worth the trouble in my book!