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Flattening a warped record

MFX101

Member
Just playing some old albums today and came across one that is very warped but otherwise fine, any suggestions for sorting it out. I am thinking about just putting it under a heavy book of sandwiching it between some books, but suspect there may be better solutions ? Anyone have any thoughts?
 
I would be interested too. One of my fave Orb records has a warp which is not extreme but is noticeable in the wavering of the sound. I think it is worse when the imprint is not central and causes the tonearm to move in and out, especially on ambient stuff. Not sure you can ever flatten a record though?
 
There are places that do it using machines designed for it, prices start around £5 or £6.

https://everyrecordtellsastory.com/2020/03/13/warped-record-heres-how-to-get-it-fixed/

Not sure how effective they are at getting a record completely flat, but if it makes a previously unplayable disc playable, then it’s worth a go. I suppose it depends on the severity of the warp. Off centre spindle holes are pretty difficult to sort.

DIY methods like putting a record between sheets of glass in a low oven seem to give extremely mixed results, ranging from no difference to destroying the record, and all points in between.
 
DIY methods like putting a record between sheets of glass in a low oven seem to give extremely mixed results, ranging from no difference to destroying the record, and all points in between.

I have used this method.
Heat needs to be low. < 70°C
If possible, work up from 40°C.


Destroyed a few records, got a few good results.

Find a pile of worthless records and experiment.

I used metal g-clamps to hold the glass sandwich together.
 
Ignore it.

If your TT and arm cannot cope, I am sorry for that. But otherwise sandwich between other LPs in the rack and leave well alone. It will faltten or not but I have never found an LP that really cannot be played.
 
A record clamp on tight usually helps enough to make the LP playable.
 
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, I am a bit nervous about irons & ovens so I think I will go with the putting it under something heavy approach
 
In the distant past, two pieces of quarter-inch glass, place in oven, allow to just heat up to around 50 degrees or so, switch off oven and leave to cool naturally. Haven't destroyed any. Glass must be clean, obviously. If the record is properly made, with the ridges at label edge and rim, these will take the weight, and there won't be contact with playing surface.

If you put it under something heavy without the element that contacts the record being straight and level, like a piece of glass, then surely you risk driving parts of that element into the playing surface?
 
It has been a while since I had a warped new record, but one arrived yesterday :(

It plays okay, despite 1cm+ gentle waves of warp - the tonearm tracks fine, but the look of it grates. If it was a dish-warp I wouldn’t be that concerned.
Out of interest, it is Duke Ellington ‘Money Jungle’ - the De Agostini 2016 pressing. I have a few of these reissues and they have all been flat, unsure as to whether the Seller stored the album poorly?

Anyhoo, I have dug out my glass sandwich/G-clamp contraption, got the oven to 40° C. and baked it for 10 minutes (oven off and oven door cracked open) - it is cooling now.

I remember that the approx. temperature of ‘bad’ is from about 70° C. upwards, so have avoided getting the oven anywhere near that, (using a rather nice digital meat thermometer) I thought I would start gentle.

I am aware that others have tried kettle/steam, and irons but I think that is too hot.
Also, I don’t want to just leave the record sandwiched twixt glass, or with weights on top for several months… I have tried that before and got no positive results. I think heat is required.
I have also tried leaving a warped record sandwiched between glass and clamped in bright sunlight, but that didn’t work for me either.

At worse I have ruined the record. At best there will be a small reduction in the warp. My gut feeling is that nothing would have happened.
It has passed an hour, the record wasn’t expensive.
Worth noting the record arrived ’sealed’ so I cannot expect the Seller to be liable…

If it was an expensive record, and the Seller had opportunity to check the vinyl, I would be returning the record rather than playing silly boggers :)
 
I’ve got a ‘Vinyl Flat’ and its additional ‘Groovy Pouch’ electric heating bag thing. It is effective on certain warps without doing any damage. I’ve found it most effective on dished modern 180g albums, it really does fix them. The area it is hopeless at is 1970s thin vinyl with edge warps. Barely has an effect there.

I get best results with a very long heat and very long cool-down. The pouch has three temperatures, I tend to use the middle one for 8 hours and allow at least 24 hours cool-down in the weighted Vinyl Flat. I’ve deliberately avoided the higher temperature as I’ve read reports of folk damaging vinyl that way. I’ve come to the conclusion the medium setting does absolutely no harm no matter how long you leave it. I’ve done 12 hours on some records. In many cases it doesn’t entirely flatten the record, but it gets it from a situation which is unacceptable to one that is fine, and does so without any issues either sonically or visually. Obviously I only use it on freshly wet-vacuumed vinyl. I’d not want to heat any dirty record.
 
I’ve got a ‘Vinyl Flat’ and its additional ‘Groovy Pouch’ electric heating bag thing. It is effective on certain warps without doing any damage. I’ve found it most effective on dished modern 180g albums, it really does fix them. The area it is hopeless at is 1970s thin vinyl with edge warps. Barely has an effect there.

I get best results with a very long heat and very long cool-down. The pouch has three temperatures, I tend to use the middle one for 8 hours and allow at least 24 hours cool-down in the weighted Vinyl Flat. I’ve deliberately avoided the higher temperature as I’ve read reports of folk damaging vinyl that way. I’ve come to the conclusion the medium setting does absolutely no harm no matter how long you leave it. I’ve done 12 hours on some records. In many cases it doesn’t entirely flatten the record, but it gets it from a situation which is unacceptable to one that is fine, and does so without any issues either sonically or visually. Obviously I only use it on freshly wet-vacuumed vinyl. I’d not want to heat any dirty record.

Any idea what the temperature of the heat settings are?
 
Out of interest, it is Duke Ellington ‘Money Jungle’ - the De Agostini 2016 pressing. I have a few of these reissues and they have all been flat, unsure as to whether the Seller stored the album poorly?

I sold a sealed De Agostini Mingus Ah Um on Discogs and when the buyer opened it there was a very similar warp. Just bad luck I think.
 
Any idea what the temperature of the heat settings are?

There are several huge threads over on Steve Hoffman’s site. I did measure it at one point, but I’ve forgotten. I think mine (they vary) is around 38-41c on medium after a very long time, something like that. Next time I have to do one I’ll check (I don’t use it often at all, I’ve done maybe five records so far).

At this point I’m at the point I’d not buy-in warped records to flatten and resell as it doesn’t seem consistent enough. Some stuff just won’t flatten IME, but if I get a new record myself that is in perfect condition cover and vinyl aside from a warp then I’ll give it a go in the VF before returning it. So far I’ve not had a fail there. As I say it seems to be thin stuff from the 70s, especially ‘oil crisis’ era US stuff that just doesn’t want to know. I gave a Rufus/Chaka Khan album two 12 hour shifts and barely altered it at all! Thankfully it’s still perfectly fine and sounds great, but it isn’t flat!
 
@Tony L

I think your comment about consistency tells it all. I have had some good results, and then the same method and temperature repeated has failed. Not just related to the weight/thickness of the vinyl as well.

I am on my third go with the current album, increasing the temperature by 5°C. each time.
The last effort is cooling now, that peaked at 50° C.
 
Don’t rush the cooldown. Leave it in whatever flattening device you are using for 24 hours or so.
 
50°C. did a little better - still warped, but less so. I am rather nervous of taking it up by 5°C. - what I will do next week is try a donated album that is for the bin at 55°C. see what occurs.
 


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