My experiment removing record warp
As like many others I am also having few warped records and keen on removing (?) those warps from records. After google and search in forums I decided to try the common method of placing warped record in between two Glass Plates in warm environment. The result and conclusion after six months experiment is as below. May be useful to vinyl lovers
First I sourced two 14 x 14 inch size 8mm thick Glass. I selected a warped thin CBS India record Love in Goa album. Since in my house direct sun light is limited, decided to warm the glass by other way. I used a 10W night lamp just above the glass. After an hour just checked the glass surface and still it was cold. Concluded the 10W lamp is not sufficient and increased to a 40W lamp with a metal reflector (believed this radiate (?) heat towards glass). This was given a mild warm over the glass area.
I left the setup for a week and taken out the record. Surprisingly the result was shocking. The warp increased and record edges are fully like small waves.
I just asked myself what went wrong to increase the wrap and concluded two things.
1. The record surface is not uniform. The inner lable area and outer edges are thicker than the grove area. This does not permit uniform pressure of glass plate over record surface.
2. The constant mild heat may be the other reason to deform.
To outcome this I decided to use natural day and night temperature difference. Usually the day and night temperature difference is almost 10C in most places. All materials invisibly expand in day and shrink in cold night. If we apply uniform pressure in right direction desire shape may obtained. The speed of this process depend factors like thickness and Plasticity of the material, Temperature difference, amount of Pressure and duration.
To apply uniform pressure over the record grove surface I used paper board. Bought 250GSM thick Paper board and prepared two circular cut sheets with 300mm outer diameter with a center hole for the record lable area as shown in picture.
Placed this paper sheets between both Glass plates just above and below of record. Please note here once you place record over the bottom side paper sheet it is not possible to align the center of paper sheet. To overcome this I marked edges and center hole of the record with a marker and pre aligned the sheet then fixed it with thin paper tape.
This time I selected a medium thick Polydor record (Boney-M Take the heat of me album) which was wraped in V-Funnel shape. Left this for a month period in a place where Direct sunlight falls from 2.00pm to 3:00pm. After one month just taken out the record and observed there is a marginal improvement on surface flatness. But information lable of the record fadeout and becomes almost white by direct sunlight.
Third time I chosen a Kapco International made Indu Music lable devotional record which was a mild wraped one. Followed the same as above and additionally used a small piece of news paper on the record lable area to prevent fadeout. Kept this setup in mild sunlight and checked the records after three months. The result is not satisfactory and in fact more or less no improvement. While playing the record observed heavy cone movement on speaker and this implies the record is deformed in wave shape.
So after almost six moth study my final conclusion is as below.
1. The warps in records are some form of deformation. Any warp removal process means that should be any type of shrinking process. The controlled shrinking process is complicated one.
2. The common methods what we are trying such as placing under sunlight is simple elongation process which will further deform the vinyl.
3. Two piece of 14 x 14 inch 8mm glass piece cost you around Rs.400. For this we may buy 4 common LPs. So this not a worthy for common albums and in my view simply waste of time and money.
4. We may try the above method on rare warpped albums and may get little flatness but not perfect. The final result will be little waved surface record. While playing I have observed up-down movement of Tonearm and oscillation of needle which leads heavy cone movements on speaker. If system having subsonic filter then speaker cone movement can be prevented.
As like many others I am also having few warped records and keen on removing (?) those warps from records. After google and search in forums I decided to try the common method of placing warped record in between two Glass Plates in warm environment. The result and conclusion after six months experiment is as below. May be useful to vinyl lovers
First I sourced two 14 x 14 inch size 8mm thick Glass. I selected a warped thin CBS India record Love in Goa album. Since in my house direct sun light is limited, decided to warm the glass by other way. I used a 10W night lamp just above the glass. After an hour just checked the glass surface and still it was cold. Concluded the 10W lamp is not sufficient and increased to a 40W lamp with a metal reflector (believed this radiate (?) heat towards glass). This was given a mild warm over the glass area.
I left the setup for a week and taken out the record. Surprisingly the result was shocking. The warp increased and record edges are fully like small waves.
I just asked myself what went wrong to increase the wrap and concluded two things.
1. The record surface is not uniform. The inner lable area and outer edges are thicker than the grove area. This does not permit uniform pressure of glass plate over record surface.
2. The constant mild heat may be the other reason to deform.
To outcome this I decided to use natural day and night temperature difference. Usually the day and night temperature difference is almost 10C in most places. All materials invisibly expand in day and shrink in cold night. If we apply uniform pressure in right direction desire shape may obtained. The speed of this process depend factors like thickness and Plasticity of the material, Temperature difference, amount of Pressure and duration.
To apply uniform pressure over the record grove surface I used paper board. Bought 250GSM thick Paper board and prepared two circular cut sheets with 300mm outer diameter with a center hole for the record lable area as shown in picture.
Placed this paper sheets between both Glass plates just above and below of record. Please note here once you place record over the bottom side paper sheet it is not possible to align the center of paper sheet. To overcome this I marked edges and center hole of the record with a marker and pre aligned the sheet then fixed it with thin paper tape.
This time I selected a medium thick Polydor record (Boney-M Take the heat of me album) which was wraped in V-Funnel shape. Left this for a month period in a place where Direct sunlight falls from 2.00pm to 3:00pm. After one month just taken out the record and observed there is a marginal improvement on surface flatness. But information lable of the record fadeout and becomes almost white by direct sunlight.
Third time I chosen a Kapco International made Indu Music lable devotional record which was a mild wraped one. Followed the same as above and additionally used a small piece of news paper on the record lable area to prevent fadeout. Kept this setup in mild sunlight and checked the records after three months. The result is not satisfactory and in fact more or less no improvement. While playing the record observed heavy cone movement on speaker and this implies the record is deformed in wave shape.
So after almost six moth study my final conclusion is as below.
1. The warps in records are some form of deformation. Any warp removal process means that should be any type of shrinking process. The controlled shrinking process is complicated one.
2. The common methods what we are trying such as placing under sunlight is simple elongation process which will further deform the vinyl.
3. Two piece of 14 x 14 inch 8mm glass piece cost you around Rs.400. For this we may buy 4 common LPs. So this not a worthy for common albums and in my view simply waste of time and money.
4. We may try the above method on rare warpped albums and may get little flatness but not perfect. The final result will be little waved surface record. While playing I have observed up-down movement of Tonearm and oscillation of needle which leads heavy cone movements on speaker. If system having subsonic filter then speaker cone movement can be prevented.
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