rare warped vinyl ?

[seti]

I found some vinyl that has been in a box for a very long time problem is the person that packed the vinyl left other items between the vinyl which caused it to warp. I have taken the vinyl out and have some heavy books on them to press them over time. Is it possible to unwarp the vinyl and is there a better way to do this? I would normally just look replacing the vinyl but most of it was very very hard to find to begin with.

thanks

seti

[garymd]

I've never been able to unwarp vinyl. It'll be especially difficult if they're older, thicker lps. I doubt your method will work but I wish you the best of luck. Let me know if you figure out a way to do it.

[ChrisK]

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On 9/15/2004 1:23:59 PM seti wrote:

I found some vinyl that has been in a box for a very long time problem is the person that packed the vinyl left other items between the vinyl which caused it to warp. I have taken the vinyl out and have some heavy books on them to press them over time. Is it possible to unwarp the vinyl and is there a better way to do this? I would normally just look replacing the vinyl but most of it was very very hard to find to begin with.

thanks

seti

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Seti,

Have you tried playing some of them? Sometimes a warped record will play just fine. Also, you can try one of the various record clamps available. They start at about 20 bucks or so and go up to the hundreds. However, clamps will usually only help with slightly warped records. Lastly, go over to www.audioasylum.com and click on "Vinyl". You can then do a search using the word "warp" and get tons of info on how to deal with warped records.

Chris

[dmk]

This question has come up from time to time. Although I have never tried this, one suggestion is to place the record between 2 sheets of tempered glass (13 x 13), preheat the oven to about 250(?) degrees, turn the oven off, place the record and glass in the oven, and allow the oven to cool on its own, then carefully remove the record.

Before you try this, you may want to search on this website to verify what I have said. The last thing you want is a vinyl sandwich (tastes terrible).

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Doug

[D-MAN]

That sounds like its worth a try. I don't know what the melting point of vinyl actually is, but you want to stay well below that by about 50 degrees, I would think...

The trick would be to apply even heat to the lp and "remind" it of its original state, and the glass should do it fine; but I think that 250 is a little too high, IMO, but I could be wrong. Try 100 first and work your way up gradually. I am thinking of the albums that I've had warped in the past from being too long in the sun from a nearby window...

DM

[Ray Garrison]

This page has some interesting ideas. Be careful...

[seti]

A couple of the albums still play they just wobble abit but the rest are in bad shape. I think I may actually try this oven idea but I will try it with the worst album in the lot not sure how john denver got mixed in with my stuff LOL. I'll let you how this goes...Thanks for all the advice!

[JohnA]

Mark's right. One of the basics of material science is that once a thing in bent or warped in one direction, it has to be bent/warped the same distance in the opposite direction to remove the damage.

If you can change a few bigger warps into several smaller ones, it may play well enough you don't notice.

[seti]

Hmm I hadn't thought of that but it does make sense.I really really hope I don't hear a difference but this is a last resort as pressing the vinyl doesn't seem to be working. There are only 6 that are worth trying to save as I don't think I could find them again.

Thanks!

[colterphoto1]

"This question has come up from time to time. Although I have never tried this, one suggestion is to place the record between 2 sheets of tempered glass (13 x 13), preheat the oven to about 250(?) degrees, turn the oven off, place the record and glass in the oven, and allow the oven to cool on its own, then carefully remove the record.

I had posted this suggestion a while back. read carefully. the glass must be larger than LP (about 14" square) TEMPERED. you preheat the oven then TURN IT OFF, so the LP is not subjected to oven cycles. once out, leave LP between glass as it cools totally. This has worked on moderately warped records. I AM NOT CERTAIN ABOUT THE OVEN TEMPERATURE. please experiment on totally scratched or useless vinyl before putting valuable LP's through this process.

[colterphoto1]

btw, as a teenager I had subscriptions to both Audio and Stereo Review magazines, probably where that comes from, but we did it and it worked. No kidding. I don't think one of those magazines would have posted something that wasn't safe or didn't work. I don't recall there being a big hoohaa about the tips in later issues.

Another idea would be to change your cartridge. I used Stantons 681EEE, which had a little weighted brush at the leading edge, it would both ground static charges and help dampen smaller warps. Worth a try.

[seti]

unfortunately they are warped to the point to where a cartridge change would not help. Thanks for all the suggestion really hope this works.

btw and off topic but i have 6 gmail.com (google email) invites left if anyone wants one send me a msg. It is still in beta and not open to the public.So far very good and no problems plus it has a 1gig limit and 10mb per attachment limit which is better than most free services.