Velvet Vortex ultrasonic vinyl cleaner

HiFi
1

Having seen the ultra expensive, ultra cool, ultrasonic vinyl cleaners I figured it must be possible to build something to do a similar job.
So today I spent an afternoon with a ultrasonic bath off eBay a sheet of plastic and an idea :bulb:.
It’s a bit rough and ready but it is functional and it’s doing a really good job on a few records that I’ve struggled to get really clean and dramatically reduced the pops and clicks.
I’m calling it a prototype, having got it working I’ve had a few ideas on how to make it a bit prettier.
Of course it can’t help where there is damage to the vinyl but I reckon it’s getting them pretty clean.
The process I used was a quick scrub with homemade alcohol fluid and a brush on greasy looking finger marks, 10 mins in the bath, vacuume off the excess fluid with my KAB KB1 thingy bob and allow to dry for a minute or two before playing.
That’s it.






18 Likes
2

Have a chat with OCTH

He has one but I’m not sure he has got as far as you yet !

3

Do you need an electric drill to get some serious rpm going?

4

Mkii might have turbo charged drill motor. :joy:

Used a high torque 12v motor 0.6 rpm.

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This has reminded me that ultrasonic cleaning is something I’ve been meaning to have a go at. Ultrasonic bath on order.:+1:

6

Looks like a great effort Tim, nice one. :+1:

Maybe try to source larger rubber clamp thingys, otherwise the edges of your labels will get water damaged.

7

Some baths are better than others, it seems.
All to do with the number of things inside them.
Trouble is I can’t remeber what they call them or how many to aim for.
Not much use, and google isn’t helping!

The cheaper baths only have one to three, and I seem to think up to seven is best. Might be the variety of frequencies you can use?

8

Transducers is the word that you are looking for. The parts that make the vibrations.
Frequency is another matter…

9

That’s it. There was a recommendation there needs to be more than one or two.
This was quite useful (if a bit anal) on cleaning fluid.

10

Will be trying to make a prettier version in the near future.
So far labels have been fine, the fluid doesn’t get splashed about much, but l might have a look at making something that reduces the chance of damage to the labels in the future.

11

Which size of cleaner did you go for?

12

Did you use just water in the cleaner,or some record cleaner solution mixed with water?

13

The 6.5L seems to be the best size to fit an album. It took about 5 litres to fill it to the right level to clean the vinyl and stay under the label.

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14

Interesting Tim. Thanks for post. I’m told that the bath temperature is an important factor . Is there a water heater/ thermostat arranfgement? And is a brush necessary as in Discostat machines?

15

Great prototype mate, I’m still waiting on those chips though :wink:

16

I’ve read up a lot on these… and was interested in a diy solution as well.
The consensus seems to be that the main issue is not overloading the bath (trying to do several records at once) reducing the wave effects, and that a brush isn’t essential. Drying seems to be the only issue and the slow rotation speed helps.

Anything needing a brush would be best dealt with by a pre clean.

17

There is a heater built in to warm the fluid and a read out to tell you the temp. I think it’s only necessary to give really dirty records a scrub before cleaning in the bath.
New ones could just go straight in.

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18

Still waiting for the dxf files :wink:

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Now I know a few measurements I’m working on mkii which you can CNC for me if you wish. I’ve had a few ideas to make it a better solution.
I need a drawing package to produce the dxf files. :+1::wink:

3 Likes
20

If be in for buying any cnc kit to help economies of scale and get costs down by volume.

I agree that it’s worth waiting until it’s got past the prototype stage. If it’s made to accommodate different baths that’s ideal.

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