The Vinyl Press

 Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records By Neil Antin Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records by Neil Antin applies processes and methodologies developed by the U.S. Navy for precision cleaning of critical systems—such as oxygen systems on submarines—to the much more prosaic task of cleaning vinyl LPs. Mr. Antin’s work, documented in the paper attached here as a download, is not presented as some extraordinary way to clean an LP that will render all other cleaning methods obsolete; to the contrary, Neil details a very basic, economical manual cleaning process and takes us through each step of his record cleaning process with the sort of detail and rigor usually associated with mil-spec technical manuals.   Much of what is packed into the more than 80 pages of this paper explains the “why” of cleaning methods, a lot of it familiar, some of it not. Neil explains mostly in lay terms what is occurring during each step to the materials, the chemistry and how those affect the results.   One benefit of applying a “mil-spec” mentality to the record cleaning process is that we can largely eliminate the anecdotal or subjective; instead, the methods outlined by Mr. Antin are anchored in previously proven methods that are repeatable. Neil then challenges us with two existential questions: “What is clean?” and “When is a record clean?”   I was not familiar with Naval Systems Sea Command (“NAVSEA”) where Neil worked for more than three decades, but it is the organization responsible for procuring, engineering, maintaining and supporting the entire US naval fleet. That’s not just a lot of hardware. The ships and submarines are designed to last for 30+ years and the systems involved are truly “critical”: national security is involved and human lives depend on complex devices operating under extreme conditions. Cleaning and maintaining such systems to deliver consistently reliable performance in these conditions involves a level of quality and safety … [Read More...]