Ultrasonic album cleaner

[SteveFord 1,070]

I'm going to have to build one of these suckers.

[PDR 1,192]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SteveFord 1,070]

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]

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]

Very nice Perry.  I am looking forward to hearing how it works.

[danowood 2,167]

   Another great job by one of my favorite do it yourselfers!! 

[Balok 1,604]

 

 

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.

 

[AndrewJohn 10,022]

That's an engineering beauty.   Can't wait to hear how it works.

[zumbini 6,146]

Excellent work as usual Perry. Hope she performs up to expectations.

[weitrhino 1,441]

Speechless.

[PDR 1,192]

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.

 

 

 

 

[chiroacademy 833]

When do you go into production?

[HappyTrails 498]

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 

[soulofsound 40]

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.