SteveFord 1,070 Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I'm going to have to build one of these suckers.
PDR 1,192 Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 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. 4
SteveFord 1,070 Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I guess the foam hockey pucks are a Canadian staple? So, what do you think about the end result? Oops, you haven't tested it out yet. Nevermind.
madmike46 398 Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 Looking awesome Perry. I might have to build one, I might have found a treasure trove of LP's, some are pretty dirty.
dennismiller55 4,741 Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 Very nice Perry. I am looking forward to hearing how it works.
danowood 2,167 Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 Another great job by one of my favorite do it yourselfers!!
Balok 1,604 Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 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.
Community Admin AndrewJohn 10,022 Posted August 2, 2014 Community Admin Posted August 2, 2014 That's an engineering beauty. Can't wait to hear how it works.
zumbini 6,146 Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 Excellent work as usual Perry. Hope she performs up to expectations.
PDR 1,192 Posted August 2, 2014 Author Posted August 2, 2014 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.
HappyTrails 498 Posted November 30, 2014 Posted November 30, 2014 Thanks PDR! I am following suit with a diy using the china version off of Ebay (159). I had not seen your diy yet but this has expanded my thoughts on mine. Thanks to Dennis Miller for hyper linking me here. Another DIY for those interested. DIY Ultrasonic 1
soulofsound 40 Posted November 30, 2014 Posted November 30, 2014 Let me say that is a very good price! Use ultrasonic cleaners for over 25 years in my work. One that size new is high priced. Never used them for record cleaning tho but I have owned many.
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