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Vinyl, car parcel shelf, sunshine = disaster.

O

ossy

pfm Member
After visiting Stroud yesterday, which by the way, has three excellent record shops, I left my newly purchased vinyl on rear shelf of car….doh! They are beautifully warped and unplayable. One of them is a sought after blue note record so I am feeling a little bruised.

I am aware of various techniques from perusing the internet, but am after any real world experience anybody might have of re flattening a record.

Advice would be much appreciated. I’m feeling like a right idiot!
 
I’m sure that I saw someone recently with a machine that flattened vinyl. No idea of the cost, probably cheaper to re buy the album
 
It all depends on the extent of damage. The Vinyl Flat thing I have is pretty good at reducing dish warps on modern 180g vinyl, but has proved all but useless on many other types of warps. I may be being overly cautious with it, but I have had absolutely zero success with say 1970s US pressings which tend to be quite thin and if stored as sealed NOS can often be anything but flat on opening. I suspect the machine Analogue Solutions have is vastly superior and more consistent in use.

PS A parcel shelf in the sun will likely have done irreparable damage, i.e. actually impacted the groove wall. A picture or YouTube vid of the record would help a lot.
 
Ooooooo, ouch........................

It depends on extent of warp.
If it is slight, maybe 2mm or so (sounds not much but is pretty horrible), just jamming between other LPs in the rack will do the job over a few weeks.

Otherwise..........................................................

You are never going to shrink the expanded bits, it will always be careful stretching of the rest.
I have binned some great records on occasion due to stupidity on someone's part............
 
Look it's probably beyond repair. So, try. If you don't it'll always be warped and wont play, and if you do, it MIGHT play after some fashion. maybe
so try.
And yes, ouch, sorry.:(
 
You're not fixing that. Records that have been warped by poor storage you've got half a chance but melted in the sun, they've had it.
 
Try the oven technique. Turn up to about 50°c sandwich the vinyl (1 at a time) between two panes of reasonable thick & weighty glass, those that you find on a system rack will do of 5/6mm or so and cook for approx 45 mins. Always best to check on progression/condition about 30mins in. Preferably looking through the panes of glass so not to upset the process. Allow to cool between the glass before checking record. Further cooking may be required for badly warped records like maybe your poor ones. It's a little trial and error but I have done this in the past with success, not sun drench on a parcel shelf tho' :eek:
 
per-Sony-fied said:
Try the oven technique. Turn up to about 50°c sandwich the vinyl (1 at a time) between two panes of reasonable thick & weighty glass, those that you find on a system rack will do of 5/6mm or so and cook for approx 45 mins. Always best to check on progression/condition about 30mins in. Preferably looking through the panes of glass so not to upset the process. Allow to cool between the glass before checking record. Further cooking may be required for badly warped records like maybe your poor ones. It's a little trial and error but I have done this in the past with success, not sun drench on a parcel shelf tho' :eek:
Click to expand...
Why not
or do you have any very hot heavy mates coming to the BBQ? Sandwich the LP between two flat sheets of something and invite them to rest on top?
 
Rockmeister said:
Why not
or do you have any very hot heavy mates coming to the BBQ? Sandwich the LP between two flat sheets of something and invite them to rest on top?
Click to expand...
I'm confused. It's not a BBQ. I'm not suggesting layering it with mustard, tomato sauce or something for a hearty lunch.
 
I understand the problem. I did that myself back in the 70’s with a borrowed record. Had to buy a new one for the person who loaned it to me. Personally I would think the records left in the sun are beyond salvation..
However, I have flattened several warped records using the oven method, as follows:-
Get 2 x 6mm sheets of toughened glass and two felt turntable mats. Place a turntable mat on either side of the record and then sandwich between the two sheets of glass. Put oven on at 50 degrees and place the sandwiched record in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and weight down the sandwiched record with several heavy books until it all cools down. Remove once cool and see if it has achieved the desired result. You may need to repeat or extend the oven time if it has not completely worked. Depends on how badly it is is warped as to whether it resolves the problem or not.
 
I had one record (Paul Simon) which was warped when I bought it. Where I was working at the time, they were working with perspex, and they had a lab. oven for 'welding' perspex together. So I put the warped record between two pieces of perspex (about 10mm thick) and set the oven to 55 degrees centigrade. In the morning, most of the warp had gone. I would suggest I could have got perfect flatness if I raised the temperature slightly, or left it for longer, or both. HTH
 
If in a hot sunny part of the country glass sheets and a monitored time in the sun may be all you need. Likely to be a more even heat than an oven. I’d advise against clamping too as there is a real risk of squishing the vinyl. The Vinyl Flat I use is very specific about not over-tightening and just using the weight of the device (which is actually quite heavy, though so is glass).

The risk you run with most records is the ‘groove guard’ profile where the label and run-in are raised above the profile is the vinyl sagging on the bottom side.

I don’t know what vinyl we are talking about here, though if the Blue Note is a real one worth LOLprice then I’d get it done on a proper machine. The Analogue Seduction link is a £1.5k machine (I know as I was toying with buying one), and their price is lower than I’d want to charge had I invested in such a nice machine! This one has different ring inserts to cope with groove-guard profile etc.
 
Vinyl records - PVC - are thermoplastic by nature which means they can be re-shaped by applying heat.

The tricky bit is applying just the right amount of heat and pressure to flatten but not to damage the grooves.

PVC has a Tg of 80degC, so definitely keep it below that, around 50 to 60degC should be a good starting point and just enough pressure to flatten.

You want to avoid frozen in strain so a slow cooling time would probably help.

Advice offered without any guarantees of course !
 
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