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hobbyists's
views for hobbyists |
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Page first published on June 29, 2009
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There
are various methods
for correcting warped records. |
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2.
Using a special machine that brings the vinyl gradually to a set temperature
and then cools it down overnight. 3.
Making use of time. |
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Use
Time and Patience to Prevent and Fix Warps in LPs.
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The
employee in the pressing plant would lift the freshly pressed record
with the index fingers of left and right hand off the matrix before
it was sufficiently cooled down. This was especially the case when thousands
of records had to be pressed in a short time. On those records there
were generally two warps. In modern factories the pressing process is
mostly automated. |
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Those warps will generally not be corrected or you will have difficulty correcting them because vinyl has a memory. However most warps you will encounter are the result of temporarily exposing a record to a heat source, be it the central heating or the sunshine. If the room temperature is rather high and the records are laying about or not stored with care, one or more light warps can be the result. Warps can gradually manifest themselves over time when records are packed in a box with too much room.
It is difficult to correct warps. The method with glass plates does seldom work to satisfaction; in my experience it never works! The main reason is that the vinyl is clamped in between the heavy glass plates and a gradual flattening over time will be obstructed by the heavy glass plates which do not allow the vinyl to move/expand/stretch/relax. The only effective method to correct warps is to use a special component like Clearaudio's Vinyl Doctor or a similar device. The vinyl record is put into the device, slowly heated to a safe temperature and then it is cooled down over several hours or even overnight. But such a machine is rather costly and only pays off if you have too many warped records. And in some cases it does not have the desired effect. |
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This is how you can do it.
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Light
warps of thin records can generally be corrected on the turntable during
play using a  Peripheral
record ring. But after the record has been played, the warp just stays.
To correct more severe warps in heavy records a heavier ring must be used.
But then correction is not always possible - this is so in my experience
as I have both a light weight peripheral ring and a heavy metal ring as
well. |
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| So what to do with warped records? First let's have a look at those in a box. Examine what sort of warp you are dealing with. Is there a curve at the periphery at one spot caused by sagging or does the record have the shape of a dish? First of all get rid of the soft plastic foam. Plastic foam was maybe right at the time of production, but after so many years it certainly has deteriorated and has lost its elasticity and consistency. If there is a cardboard filler, it should be sturdy and completely flat. If it is not, throw it away as well or keep it but outside the box. |
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Now measure the size of the compartment: height and width.
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| Cut out squares of thick cardboard and make sure that they can be placed into the box easily. |
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| Cut off one small corner so you will be able to take out the cardboard filler easily if necessary. |
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| Use the cardboard sheet as a replacement of whatever filler there was in the box before. See to it that the cardboard is flat and sturdy. You can choose the thickness in relation to the space (room) you want to fill up. In the picture at right you see ordinary cardboard. If you want you can buy a nicer material in the art supply shop. But it should always be completely flat and have no tendency to bend easily. |
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| Put the records in the box. See to it that there is no room left for sagging. |
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| If there is room left it is necessary to put an extra square sheet of cardboard on top of the records before adding the document (book or inlay). Hopefully the documents have the size of a record and are not the smaller booklets often provided by EMI in Great Britain. Then close the box and store it vertically. This will prevent warping and will help correcting light warps over time. As a matter of fact in this way time is your aid. |
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So if you encounter a box containing warped or concave records, do not throw these away. Just fill up the empty space and make sure that there is no room left when the box is closed! A tight fit is necessary. Store the box on the shelf so that it is supported on both sides by other boxes and records. It is better to store records and boxes rather tightly instead of loose. You may discover that after a couple of weeks or a month the records will have flattened. It goes without saying that the records should be cleaned or at least dusted off with a carbon fiber record brush and with a velvet brush as well. And see to it that the paper sleeves are free of dust particles also. |
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I bought a box with the complete chamber music of Johannes Brahms. The records were hollow shaped like saucers. I did put several sheets of cardboard in the box. And guess what? After 2 months I discovered that the records were flat again and remained so. And it also worked with Mozart's Violin Music played by Henryk Szeryng and Ingrid Haebler as illustrated on this page. |
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| It is important to check the LP cover. Sturdy cardboard covers may be no longer completely flat. Chances are that a new warp will be produced easily. Also gate fold covers may do harm and be the cause of a slight warp at the spine, typically when it contains 2 records. In some cases it can be wise to put one or more LP's in a generic cardboard cover. | |
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Pressings
of 180 and 200 gr can be tough to correct.
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A
warp in a pressing from the 1950s and 1960s needs some time to be corrected.
"Flimsey" 1970s and 1980s pressings can be corrected rather
easily, although care has to be taken that the memory of the vinyl is
fully erased over time and the record does not "flip back".
Warps in heavy 180 and 200 gr. pressings are a different matter. They
are not as easily corrected. I have a special section on one shelf reserved
for all the records that need correction. Again all these records are
taken out of their original cardboard covers and are stored in their inner
sleeves in between flat card board sheets/separators. A stronger sheet
of card board or even wood devides the correction section from the rest
of the records on that shelf. See to it that the records are dust and
dirt free. It is best to clean them first and have new inner sleeves before
they are stored in this way. The records on that shelf should be in a
very tight position so that it is not easy to get them of the shelf. Leave
them there for a couple of weeks. You may want to check after some time
to see if there is an improvement and to what extend.
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Prevent and Correct Warps in 78 rpm Shellac Records.
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| The same goes for warped 78 rpm shellac records. For single discs in individual sleeves as well as for albums. Albums can have too much room (separation) between the subsequent Kraft sleeves. |
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| Use sturdy cardboard which is completely flat. Cut out square sheets measuring the size of the paper sleeves of the album. |
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| Insert these cardboard sheets between all discs as shown in the picture. |
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This is how it should look like. Now store the album vertically on the shelf in a tight way so that sagging is not possible. You will see that after several weeks or a month the records have become flat again. It
is easier to correct 12 inch discs than 10 inch discs. I used this method
for a Deutsche Grammophon box with concave (dished) vinyls as mentioned
above. But I also used it for the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals 78 RPM album shown
above. In
both cases the results were very good. The DG Tulips had become completely
flat. And the shellac discs were now really playable. I expect that this
method is also valid for most of your warped records and that it will
improve your collection and your listening pleasure. |
Other pages of interest:
Page first published on June 29, 2009
Sound Fountain
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