Fixing scratched disk, read about it, tried it, it worked!

[Des]

Felt it was worth sharing this:

I was feeling stubborn today, and was duping a birthday party DVD for a customer today that looked like it had been dragged around the floor for a while. It was throwing read errors at the 97% finished mark, I tried cleaning the disk but no success
I figured I didn't have to much to lose so I decided to try toothpaste to polish out the scratches and no shit it worked!
I had tried those cheap handcrank disk polishers and had minimal success, but this was quicker, easier and mintyfreshier! Disk read no problems and customer was thrilled. Me too.

--dES

[AlanHK]

For scratched up disks I try this in order:
1) gentle rub with dishwashing liquid, rinse and dry

2) toothpaste, rub with fingers, rinse.

3) polish with Brasso, rub with cloth in small circles. Then the detergent to clean off the residue, rinse and dry.

In all cases, take care not to flex the disc as it will crack. If polishing put it on a hard, clean, perfectly flat surface then you can apply pressure.

[Calidore]

Consumerist just had a post about this in the last couple of days, and metal polish did the best.

Whatever method you use, always remember to rub in a straight line from center to edge, never in circles.

[Calidore]

While I'm in this thread, does anyone have experience cleaning old record albums? My friend has a lot that were caught in a flooded basement (she stored them in milk crates! Aagh!) a few years ago and now are mildewed and have their paper jackets stuck to the disc.

[smartel]

for old records i've hear about diluted baby shampoo with a soft brush

i'm curious to see if anyone can confirm that

[Des]

I have a friend who used to clean albums with surgical gauze and glass cleaner.
He would start by putting the album on a moving turntable, spray a pretty good mist of cleaner on it and then let the weight of the gauze rest on it to wick up the cleaner and dirt. He would repeat if necessary. If it required more cleaning he would use sudsy ammonia from a spray bottle and take the album to a sink or tub, saturate it with cleaner, perhaps give it a pass or two with a china bristle bruch and then thoroughly rinse with water and dry on the turntable with the gauze. He protected the label by using two piece of rubber cut to size and magnets to hold them.
His theory was that albums are vinyl and vinyl can be cleaned like everything else.

Another trick he used to do is spray water on an album in a very fine mist while it was playing in order to keep down pops and crackles.

For the most part I have to say that his techniques seemed to work very well. He also cleaned his stylus with acetone and a camels hair brush; figuring that diamond is harder than vinyl so the accumulation was the vinyl on the needle.

Don't know if any of this helps anyone but it was nice trip down memory lane for me.

--dES

[Cornucopia]

Vinyl can be cleaned, but it's SOFT. Like real soft! And its "plasticizers" (the stuff that keeps it soft) can be leeched out with certain solvents, making the disk very brittle and unplayable. So you've got to be really careful WHICH cleaners/solvents you're using. Distilled/purified water is OK (if it gets removed soon), but I wouldn't use ammonia, even diluted.
In the old analog days (pre-CD, c.1983), you used to be able to by a bottle of "Discwasher" solution and then use their velvet brush, which had a nap to it, which cleaned better than water but was also harmless to the vinyl. Too bad it's not available anymore (wonder what that formula was???).

BTW, IIWY I wouldn't use acetone on the stylus, not because of the diamond (no problems there), but because of the GLUE that might be holding the diamond in place. Water or discwasher's solution is good there too.

On topic, I agree with AlanHK's suggestions (except I agree with Calidore that one should NEVER go in circles, but go radially)

Scott

[Des]

For the toothpaste approach I used yesterday I basically put a little ring of paste around the center hub and with my finger gently pushed outward until the whole surface was covered with a thin film of toothpaste, then used a microfiber towel and pushed outward with gentle pressure until the disk became clean of the past. Used a little more paste on one area that was particularly well scratched and repeated the process. Finally rinsed the disk with tap water and dried with another microfiber towel.

I have a travel tube of toothpaste in the shop courtesy of my dentists little goody bag from a month ago, but the Brasso actually makes more sense as a gentle polishing compound. In a few weeks business will be slow for a short while so maybe I'll experiment.

If memory serves the Discwasher D-4 solution was Ethanol diluted with distilled water. Don't recall the ratio though, but 1:32 comes to mind. I used to work with chemist who was a serious audiophile. No connection to the other friend.

--dES

[AlanHK]

On topic, I agree with AlanHK's suggestions (except I agree with Calidore that one should NEVER go in circles, but go radially)
Scott

I said "SMALL circles". Which means about 1 cm diameter, NOT parallel the the tracks.

In astronomical terms, an epicycle, not a simple orbit.



I think that simply rubbing in the same direction is more likely to create scratches. (Small) circles varies the direction, and if you need to work on a visible scratch it's better to do it that way than simply back and forth along a radius.

At least this has worked for me on a dozen discs I've tried it on. Several of them I got to 100% readable, didn't even bother to copy them, as they played fine from then on.

[Calidore]

Thanks to all for your input re. record cleaning. I'll experiment as soon as I can.

[fatbloke88]

Calidore I've used this to good effect on my old Lp's you might be able to track down the manufacturer as its made in the states, also the clear audio brush is very effective thats listed below the picture.

http://www.coolgales.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=160&category_id=51

you might find this helpfull also.

http://www.discomusic.com/101-more/6193_0_7_0_C/

[Cornucopia]

AlanHK, that's a horse of a different color! Epicycle is basically what I would be doing too (although a little bit more elliptical). Ignore what I said earlier then, as you're clearly not doing what I thought you were doing.

Scott

[redwudz]

For vinyl records, I would probably try a very mild detergent, maybe baby shampoo or similar if there are no other additives. But the mold may have eaten into the vinyl surface, so maybe some permanent damage. I would also use distilled water for rinse. The microfiber cloths also sound like a good idea to get into the grooves.

I saved a XP OS disc a few years back that I had just purchased and used once and now had a huge gouge in it, no idea how. I spent a couple of hours with the toothpaste and cotton balls, just working on the gouge and it was successful. Surface polishing won't help much with deep gouges. Fortunately the plastic layer is fairly thick.

If the disc has a lot of fine scratches, I use a cheap orbital car buffer with a synthetic wool pad. Most times with just the pad and a washed disc. I haven't needed to use any polishing compound. I use an old rubber mouse pad to hold the disc in place.

On most discs, you need to buff down to the bottom of the scratches, then polish for a smooth surface that the laser can read. Deep scratches scatter the laser light and make it very hard to read.

[lordsmurf]

Most "scratches" on a disc are just dirt in a linear pattern. And toothpastes and polishes are the wrong cleaners to be using. Too abrasive. In most cases, you'd do better with a simple soft rag, dish soap, and appropriate pressure ("elbow grease"). By using toothpaste, you risk filling in actual scratches with opaque cleaning paste. That makes it worse, not better.

The best way is to use RTI DiscCheck supplies and hardware
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F...reative=390957
http://www.discchek.com/
Even without a DiscCheck, the cleaning supplies can be helpful.

For vinyl, use special vinyl cleaning tools. They exist.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006I5UH/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&link...SIN=B00006I5UH
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Stanton-VC-1-Vinyl-Cleaner-Kit-with-Brush-101183077-i1155361.gc

Easy.

Not all cleaning tools/solutions are created equal. Use the proper cleaning tools.

[TreeTops]

Just saw this at WalMart: Memorex disk repair kit. Consists of a tube of Aluminum Oxide and a micro cloth. I tried it on a scratched non-readable DVD and it worked like a charm.

[lordsmurf]

Those home kits usually just ruin discs further.
You got lucky.

[pandy]

Vinyl's are cleaned usually by clean (optical equipment cleaning purpose) IPA (isopropyl alcohol) - i saw some "smart" devices - very soft and fine brush mounted on arm before pick-up - alcohol cleaning surface and lubricate - this reduce cracks, pops and noises also extend life of vinyl.

[Seeker47]

Most "scratches" on a disc are just dirt in a linear pattern. And toothpastes and polishes are the wrong cleaners to be using. Too abrasive. In most cases, you'd do better with a simple soft rag, dish soap, and appropriate pressure ("elbow grease"). By using toothpaste, you risk filling in actual scratches with opaque cleaning paste. That makes it worse, not better.

The best way is to use RTI DiscCheck supplies and hardware
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F...reative=390957
http://www.discchek.com/
Even without a DiscCheck, the cleaning supplies can be helpful.

For vinyl, use special vinyl cleaning tools. They exist.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006I5UH/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&link...SIN=B00006I5UH
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Stanton-VC-1-Vinyl-Cleaner-Kit-with-Brush-101183077-i1155361.gc

Easy.

Not all cleaning tools/solutions are created equal. Use the proper cleaning tools.

For a prized vinyl collection, they used to sell some fancy vacuum cleaning machines -- Keith Monks, Nitty Gritty, VPI -- that used a special cleaning fluid like Torumat. This was all rather $$$, so I hesitated to even mention it . . . until I saw you had linked a device that runs 7-Large ! Different application, but these ran far less than that.

[AlanHK]

Most "scratches" on a disc are just dirt in a linear pattern. And toothpastes and polishes are the wrong cleaners to be using. Too abrasive.

I don't use toothpaste or polish to "clean", I use them to abrade scratches when just cleaning doesn't work. Then I clean and dry them thoroughly before testing them.

[smartel]

i usually just spit on them and dry them out on my t-shirt