OT: dumpster dive and water/mold cleanup

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Tue Sep 3 23:57:01 2002

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, Chad Fernandez wrote:
> Tothwolf wrote:
>
> > I don't think any of the vinyl is moldy (yet), but some of the album
> > covers probably are. *Thankfully*, AFAIK none of of the records that
> > made it into the dumpster were Shellac 78 RPM records. I did acquire a
> > large stack of 78s from the family this last week. Water would have
> > mostly ruined those, so I think I lucked out. Sadly, about 85% of the
> > 33 1/3 collection was what I pulled from the dumpster.
>
> Shellac 78's? I have some old records, many are 78's. How should I
> clean them? Mine have been sitting in my grandmother's garage, and are
> a bit gritty. A few of them I washed with dishsoap and water. I
> stopped when it was apparent they were 78's.... that I can't play on my
> Pioneer turntable.

I've read it is ok to clean them with distilled water and a mild soap, but
I've also read that water isn't good for them. Had the 78s I got had been
in the dumpster with the 33s, they would have been wet for several days,
which would have quite likely ruined them. Btw, alcohol based cleaners
will completely ruin 78s (they will melt).

> > Does anyone here know of a good place to get record sleeves? I'm on a
> > limited budget (which is making things quite tough), so I'd like to
> > find the best price I can. I'm looking for around 200-250 or so 33 1/3
> > sleeves, and probably 100-150 sleeves for 78s.
>
> Record sleeves are something I'd like to find as well. I have most of
> the old ones, but am unsure if I should use them. As I mentioned
> before, all these records area bit gritty. I don't want to sand them
> down everytime I remove them from there old sleeve.

It seems most collectors I've read about like to store cleaned records in
new sleeves, and keep the old sleeve in the album with the new one.

It would stand to reason that if you clean a record, you'd want to store
it in a clean sleeve. The really old paper sleeves are more abrasive than
a mylar or rice-paper one too, which tends to add tiny scratches to the
records.

> One that I found may be worth money, it is a Disney Snow White record
> set :-)

Nice. I'll have to take a quick digital photo of the "picture records" I
ended up with.

Btw, is there a dedicated mailing list anywhere for this sort of topic?
It does seem like lots of people here have an interest in old records,
wire recordings (...got some of these and the recorder too), etc, even
though such topics are not exactly computer related.

-Toth
Received on Tue Sep 03 2002 - 23:57:01 BST