The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've been going through the 200 or so 78s that I recently bought. Some of them are warped. This doesn't seem to effect their sound quality, however. Still, aesthetically it would be nice if they were flat. Is it possible to de-warp them? I assume heat had something to do with it. Could the application of gentle heat and proper pressure between two flat plates restore their original shape?

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Excellent. I will need to find the time to do this. I may try the flat plate of glass with nothing on top first. I'll see what happens.

The method employed in this household is to sandwich the disc between two 6 mm (¼") glass plates (with ground edges) and leave on a sunny window-sill to regularise. In the absence of sunlight, we place the glass/disc/glass package on the mildly hot exterior warming plate on the Aga cooker/oven.

Thank you, Marco. I see that the general technique is to put the disk on a flat surface then subject the disk to heat, either in the oven or from sunlight, or some other source.

On a different topic, I have travelled many times to your beautiful country. I spent much time in the Abruzzo province over by L'Aquila, the little towns of Paganica and Assergi, and near the Gran Sasso where there is a funivia and Campo Imperatore. I miss it.

Yes, basically. It's almost winter now, but if you happen to live in a sunny area I'd suggest to try the sun first. It's almost impossibile to overheat/melt a record under the sun, while the natural heat provided is more than sufficient. With the oven it's easier to loose control of the temperature (the dials are often awfully inaccurate) and I'd suggest at least to try the process with a scrap record first.

I re-did the process many other times since that thread and I have found that often you have to put A LOT of wheight over the upper glass. The lower marble or glass (or whatever) should be wheight-proof accordingly! Quite obviously the wheights are to be added when the record is already hot and flexible, ohterwise it may crack. In some cases, with very stubborn records, I had to put one of those circular wheights used with bodybuilder's rockers. In average, newer records (late '50s) seem to get more flexible than older ones.

Thanks for your words concerning Italy. I happen to live over the Alps and the hills of Monferrato (now U.N.E.S.C.O. humanity heritage), though. A completely different scenery!

I failed to understand if you write from the US or the UK, I'm afraid. In any case, I visited both countries repetedly and have fond memories of both in return.