The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Is this done? I would imagine there is a preferred method. Thanks.

A search of the board shows that these are generally best cleaned with mild dish soap, greatly diluted, or Labtone cleaner.

Two things you definitely should not use are alcohol and Windex (which contains alcohol) because alcohol will dissolve the camphor component of the celluloid surface.

I usually use just soap and water and apply using a soft toothbrush then rinse well. Just be very careful not to get the plaster core wet.

I use baby wipes. Their moisture content is about 97% water and 3% cleaning agent. They are safe to use on a baby's face (let us not even think about the baby's other end) and are in my experience safe to use on BA's.

epigramophone wrote:I use baby wipes. Their moisture content is about 97% water and 3% cleaning agent. They are safe to use on a baby's face (let us not even think about the baby's other end) and are in my experience safe to use on BA's.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I recently bought a batch of dirty, semi-moldy BAs and thought I'd give this a try. I bought Huggies brand Pure label baby wipes, 64 to a package for about $3 at my local closeout store. I am quite pleased with the results. These wipes have no alcohol or perfume and take off grime with minimal effort. I had played a few of the BAs before cleaning and found them to be quite noisy. Now that I've wiped them off, they are much, much better.

Because the wipes seem to build up a bit of liquid, I do use paper towels to dry the records, then let them air dry completely before playing or re-sleeving. I can get 2-3 records per wipe pretty easily.

Interesting about the wipes! I've always just used mild dish detergent which works nicely, I think. I'll get some and try on some from the haul o'mighty of a few thousand I got a couple years ago and do some testing. Some have that bit of mildew spotting from decades of storage that wasn't always dry, I assume. I'd think a quick follow-up rinse with distilled water may still be best then after towel-drying, air dry for a couple hours, at least.

Sean

Here's my suggestion, which is bound to cause controversy, but has worked well for me for over 30 yrs on Amberols and celluloid Indestructibles... Spray WD-40 on a cloth and wipe the cylinders in a circular fashion... no harm is done to the record and the shine is restored to the celluloid (works well on shellac records, too). I can't wait to see what indignant replies I might get, but try it on one you don't care about to see what I mean. Be sure to wipe off any excess...