cleaning off old acetates

[cymbalism]

question for everyone

i buy old recorded acetates at thrift stores or garage sales all the time just to check out what people have recorded from the past and sometimes i run into some that have almost like a waxy film on them.

anyone know how to get this off to preserve the grooves so you can actually listen to them without surface noise overload?

any advice is appreciated, i have a bunch i've never been able to actually listen to because of the wax build up culprit

[piaptk]

I always cleaned them with alcohol and a lint free cloth. I have a ton of them myself that i need to go through. Found a treasure trove of them at annantique store an never got around to listening to them. Must have 100+. mike

[emorritt]

I've done archival work with old lacquer discs and the white substance is palmitic acid separating from the coating. Don't use alcohol for cleaning lacquers. Use a mild ammonia solution preferrably made with household ammonia and distilled water; a 10% solution is sufficient. You can also use a small amount of a commercial agent called Tergitol in addition to the ammonia, but the ammonia is a palmitic acid solvent which will not attack the lacquer coating. It minimizes the amount of rubbing or brushing needed to remove the deposits. You will be able to get rid of the palmitic to do a transfer, but in a short amount of time (days, weeks or a few months depending on the age and condition of the lacquer disc) it will return. You can clean it again, but since the coating has started to break down it will continue to return. Proper storage may in some cases deter the palmitic separation.

Some people have used Windex to remove palmitic, but Windex contains a slurry of other chemicals that can cause problems. Plain household ammonia like the Bo Peep brand (or other) and distilled water is the best bet. Hope this helps.

[piaptk]

Yup... sorry, I was actually jsut coming back to correct myself... Ammonia and water for Lacquers,
Alcohol for Nintendo Games... hahaha.

It's been a while, which reminds me that I need to check out those lacquers now that I have a turntable with 78.

[emorritt]

Alcohol for Edison Diamond discs; mild dishwashing solution (5% in distilled water) or Tergitol for shellac discs and Tergitol or mild distilled/isopropyl with a wetting agent for vinyl or polystyrene pressings.

[JuanPabloCuervo]

why not dry ice blasting?

[emorritt]

That's recommended for engineers who try to cut masters on a Recordio