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Best manual record cleaning brush?

irons1965

irons1965

pfm Member
Hello everyone

I own a PHK record cleaning machine (Teddy Ray an occasional poster on here swears by it and I agree it is a great machine)....The only thing I would like to try is to apply the cleaning fluid manually and hence I need a good brush to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_vVecWymrk&feature=player_detailpage

The current method uses what looks like a bristle that looks like draft excluders used on doors, works well but I was questioning how deep into the grooves this gets....Recommendations on a new brush please?

Cheers

Darren
 
irons1965 said:
Hello everyone

I own a PHK record cleaning machine (Teddy Ray an occasional poster on here swears by it and I agree it is a great machine)....The only thing I would like to try is to apply the cleaning fluid manually and hence I need a good brush to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_vVecWymrk&feature=player_detailpage

The current method uses what looks like a bristle that looks like draft excluders used on doors, works well but I was questioning how deep into the grooves this gets....Recommendations on a new brush please?

Cheers

Darren
Click to expand...

Why not ask the RCM manufacturer?
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Maybe I'm not making myself totally clear but the self adhesive backed bristles are quite soft (about 5mm in height) but quite dense ('3M' is printed on the backing of the strips).

The manufacturer do sell spares but it is quite expensive postage wise to purchase from Brazil...I thought that maybe an alternative manual brush would be another option if it did the job as well or better.

I must admit I do like the idea of the shaving brush.

Does anyone use one of these or something similar;-

http://www.analogueseduction.net/br...ve-micro-fibre-wet-record-cleaning-brush.html
 
I use the one supplied with the Moth rcm, which does appear to be draught excluder and have had no issues with it.
IMO I am not sure a shaving brush would do the trick as the bristles may all clump together, when wet, and not clean deep inside the groove.



Bloss
 
Loricraft have a special brush for their RCMs, prolly some dead animal hair...not sure...
 
I use paint pads, the flat cream-coloured things with loads of soft bristles. B&Q have some that are about the right size to do a 12" side. They are cheap and I've yet to find a brush that does the job better. It is possible to scrub fairly hard without leaving any marks on the record. The only potential downside is they can hold a fair amount of liquid, which is great if you are cleaning a stack of vinyl (as I tend to) but less good if you are just doing one.
 
Bought a paint pad a few years ago in response to a thread on the forums, but couldn't get on with it, so reverted to the VPI brush.

As Tony says, it does absorb a lot of fluid before becoming fully effective, but I also found it to lack manoeuvrability when 'directing' the fluid and scrubbing, with more liquid pushed over the edge. Cheap alternative, however.
 
I use two types of "brush": the first used, a coarse and reasonably stiff bristled affair, came with the SOTA RCM and just acts as a "spreader" for the cleaning fluid (for 2-3 revolutions); the second, is a MoFi soft felt pad on a rubber frame, that is used for the actual cleaning (another 2-3 revolutions), before the vacuum pump is engaged.

P1010353_zpso4kwyeyj.jpg


For really filthy albums, I use a different fluid (MoFi deep cleanser as opposed to the MoFi standard fluid) for a preliminary cycle (same as defined above), before repeating with standard fluid.

The SOTA uses a cheap-but-effective plastic pump bottle for fluid feed and I keep three of these: one, with deep-clean fluid; two, with standard fluid; and three, with distilled water (sometimes used between the deep clean and standard fluid for albums that have been really dirty). These are easily switched - as are the suction tubes (spares kept handy).

For every newly acquired album (new of pre-owned) the disk is cleaned using one of the above options and then placed in a new MoFi archive sleeve before returning to the jacket - there is no sense in cleaning an album and stuffing it back in an old sleeve. The RCM is situated above a pedestal which includes a drawer for new archive sleeves and a rack for records for cleaning (and after):

P1010352_zpsqpczgate.jpg


At replay time, each record is first given a couple of revolutions on the LP12 with a carbon fibre brush to remove any airborne debris that may have snuck in - and also to take care of any static build-up from sleeving/unsleeving.

This work very well...
 
Mike Reed said:
Bought a paint pad a few years ago in response to a thread on the forums, but couldn't get on with it, so reverted to y VPI brush.

As Tony says, it does absorb a lot of fluid before becoming fully effective, but I also found it to lack manoeuvrability when 'directing' the fluid and scrubbing, with more liquid pushed over the edge. Cheap alternative, however.
Click to expand...

The pads I use are 120x85mm, which are the smallest I've been able to find and great for LPs. I've had no issue with liquid spilling either on the label or onto my RCM, though one certainly develops a technique in putting the liquid exactly where one wants it (the bottle is an important factor too, the one supplied with my VPI 17i being very good indeed IMO).
 
Chaps

I have a Loricraft record cleaner and it came with a goat hair brush. Natural bristle is less static I suppose.

The thing will probably last longer than me and if I should ever lose it etc, I would simply order another one.

The biggest problem with cleaning is the sheer utter boredom. After 15 minutes, I have had enough.

Regards

Mick
 
TONY, my pad (Anza Solutions from B & Q) is the same size. I also use the original VPI squeezy bottle to dispense. Unfortunately (or the reverse) I don't need to do batches any more.

MICK, I never get bored cleaning records as I'm either doing the ironing or the forums concurrently. I do, however, frequently forget what I'm doing so that I have to re-apply fluid. Never was a multi-tasker !:)
 
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