Getting Reacquainted With My Ultra Sonic Tank

[Neonknight]

So I got a bit ambitious today and fired up the ultra sonic tank/record cleaner. I have a 11 liter tank and a Vinyl Stack spinner. I use an accepted DIY mix of distilled water, 1 pint iso alcohol, and a bit of Finish for a wetting agent. I also just bought a lightly lightly used Record Doctor V to use as a dryer for the records.

So I give them a 10 minute bath, as I can do 3 at a time. The unit is in the garage and I bring the cleaned record stack in the living room and run them on the Record Doc and do a quick dry. I just spun an Oscar Peterson that is 60 years old and probably only played on vintage turntables and cleaned with a Dischwasher brush. Its amazing how much quieter it became. Physical flaws are still there as there was a click at the end of side one for about 4 revs. But the noise level was at least 50 times reduced, it was actually more like newish vinyl than majorly old used vinyl.

The process is a bit labor intensive, at least the drying part is. The whole thing take longer than tossing it on a VPI 16.5 and scrubbing a record, but man I get better results than I ever got with my VPI. Its hard to go wrong with this system. My problem is I get lazy, and cleaning vinyl is not something I get excited about. But the results are worth the effort, well it seems that way I guess.

[savvypaul]

Could you use the VPI for drying?

The long drying time is what puts me off an ultrasonic.

[Neonknight]

Could you use the VPI for drying?

The long drying time is what puts me off an ultrasonic.

When you pull the records out of the tank both sides are wet, and that is the issue in using the VPI for drying. A wet side of the record has to face down on the cork platter and the wand dries the top side. Problematic, but you can use a rubber turntable mat to solve this, but not an ideal solution. I ended up air drying instead, and it was adequate as the Vinyl Stack comes with two sets of spindles, and the records could dry while the second batch was cleaning. However it often left a water spot on the run out area.

This is the reason I bought the record Doctor off the used market, I found one that had minimal use and was like new. Cost me $180 shipped, they sell for about $299 new I believe. The Record Doctor is built in the style of the Nitty Gritty, so the wet side goes down and the slot dries it, then you can flip it over for the second wet side. Much better arrangement for drying records coming out of the ultra sonic tank. There are other vac machines built in this style, as KAB USA offers one where you supply an external shop vac do supply suction. I find that if I leave the first batch air dry a bit while I load the second spindle the records are mostly dry and I am just doing the final bit of touch up before they get new sleeves.

In the last batch of records I did last night I found I had a Harry James album recorded on Sheffield Direct to Disc. This one is from the late 1970's, and on the used market sells for $40 to $50. I gave it a clean and found it to sound excellent, with just the very slightest noise in the dead wax between tracks, and a bit on the run out groove. But the music passages were flawless. I got the record in a trade along with Ella Fitzgerald on Verve, and some Oscar Peterson, for some extra headphones I had. I was very pleased with the Ella copies I cleaned, and this Harry James was the icing on the cake.

Ultra Sonic tanks are cheap, and essentially disposable. I bought one that was a bit more expensive than the standard ones, as it had separate power supplies for the heater and the ultra sonic devices. The real money is in the device holding the records. The Vinyl Stack is not cheap, but it works very well. I know people who DIY this element using a barbeque rotisserie motor and get the whole thing built for under $50.





At least this way you can replace the tank if it fails, versus buying an inexpensive integrated ultra sonic cleaner. I have about $500 into the combination when I bought it a couple of years ago.

[Neonknight]

This weekend I ran 21 records through the cleaner, some of them had previously been cleaned on my old VPI . Excellent results, and even the previously cleaned records improved. The majority of them I got to a point where there was no record noise at all. The ones that had a bit of damage from a previous owner were pretty quiet in their own right. This process works remarkably well, and compared to other options is somewhat cheap. It costs about what a good vac machine costs, but the results are improved. Also you spend less time hand scrubbing records, and I think you get through them quicker. Finally the cleaning solution is cheap compared to the ones bought for the vac machines. A gallon of distilled water, a pint of iso alcohol, and a touch of surfactant such as Photo Flo or I use Finish which is a dishwashing machine drier.