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Ultrasonic album cleaner


PDR

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So off I go to Home Depot today.
Bought a 3' piece of 1-1/2 by 1-1/2 aluminium atewangle, a 1/4" brass rod, and a piano hinge.
Bought 4$ worth of brass electrical fittings as well.
 
On the way home I stopped at a pharmacy and picked up some Isopropanol 99% and 8 litres of
distilled water. From there off to Canadian tire and picked up some soft foam hockey pucks, using
them for spacers. 
 
From there a stop at a photo shop and picked up some Kodak photo-flo. Then came home and started to build
my new ultrasonic record cleaner.
 
Took about 2 hrs and there it stood.
I was going to make it nice and fancy, but then I gave
my head a shake....its a album cleaner, not a piece of front end gear.
Besides.....I really should be spending my DIY time on my SP-15 project.
 
It works well, spins smoothly and holds the albums without slipping, the hockey pucks work well.
I use a harder blue one to hold the spindle while I load the albums up.....3 at a time.
 
I havnt had time to give it a test with the fluid and a cleaning cycle...maybe later tonite.
I'll let you guys know how it works cleaning albums then.
 
Total Cost:
Ultrasonic unit shipped to my post office..........$397.00
Aluminium Angle................................................$22.00
Brass rod............................................................$13.00
Hockey pucks.....................................................$10.00
Rotisserie...........................................................$17.00
Misc parts............................................................$4.00
Photo-flo ...........................................................$10.00
Iso......................................................................$12.00
Distilled water.....................................................$6.00
 
TOTAL...............................................................$491.00
 
If it works thats a savings of close to $4000.00......lets see......fingers crossed.
 
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Went shopping today at Princess auto.....a "big sells everything" store up here.

 

If Princess Auto had an in-store restaurant, I'd never leave the place. The only place I would say is better, is a store called BIG R in Great Falls.

 

Your cleaner looks real good Perry. Can't wait to hear the results.

 

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Thanks for the compliments gents.
 
Ok, on to how well it works.
It works VERY well.
 
One small modification, actually an addition.
The factory model I saw turns the record by 2 rotating
scrub brushes under the fluids surface.
I've added a very SOFT brush to each album, shaped like a "U"
It stays on its own by friction, and because there is only about 3/8"
clearance at the end of the album to the tank it rides the
album just under the surface of the fluid. 
 
I've washed 9 very dirty albums, most from goodwill, and about the same
from my "good" collection. I've used up my distilled water, including my second stash
I had at home. So about 8 litres total. 
I set the water temp to 110F.....one drawback is it takes about an hour to heat up a tank.
I then set for 25mins.....so about 25 rotations.
  
Now that I know that it works I'll make a filtration system to save on fluid. 
 
This is a very cool unit, if you have a bunch of albums, this would be an asset for sure.
 
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