about moldy vinyl.....

honda cber

i am able to answer my own questions about *removing* mold from vinyl, as i have done it successfully, or so i think.

but

(and there is always a but)


is it going to come back? i did *not* use enzyme cleaner like HI, or any sort of mold inhibitor, save for what may be inherent in antibacterial dish soap (if at all).


i know mold can be some pretty nasty stuff.

i cleaned this way:

-pre-rinsed in cold tap water

-with an extraordinarily plush washcloth dunked into lukewarm water (about a gallon, with a large drop of dish soap--- the wife likes ultra palmolive antibacterial; is there any reason this is bad?), i "scrubbed" the grooves (very delicately) for several times around. obvious problem spots got extra attention. the cloth was wet, not damp.

-rinsed under the tap in lukewarm water for 30 seconds longer than i thought would be enough.

-rinsed with my ghetto homemade juice (about a pint of 99% iso in the remainder of a gallon of distilled water--- i just poured out the difference, and a tiny drop of dish soap). i used about 1 1/2 gallons on approx 100 albums.

-toweled dry with plush and lint-free towel, then laid them out on another one for an hour or so to *completely* dry.

i will, of course, still clean before play as i always do. i use both a carbon-fiber brush and an older discwasher brush with my ghetto rcf. i can only dream of the day that i own a cleaning machine...............

virtually all of the sleeves were destroyed or of questionable integrity, so i pitched them. they are in anti-static film-plastic type sleeves ATM, and will go into these as soon as they arrive.

thanks for the sleeve town (sleeve city?) link, and the other help from my previous thread. i am listening to "band of gypsies" as i type, and it sounds great. surface noise is at a minimum, although *not* nonexistent. some are better than others, but i have yet to play any real clunkers. que sera sera.

a

Fongolio

If it makes them playable and you are happy then it's a beautiful thing. If the sleaves are new and the jackets gone and mold growing conditions no longer exist (warm and damp is what mold likes best) then the chances of it coming back are very near zero. My question to you is about the labels. Did you save them and if not how are you identifying the LP's now?

honda cber

almost unbelievably, almost all of the labels survived intact. a few obviously have had trauma, but they are still stuck, whole, and readable. there were 4 or 5 sides that had mold on the label, and they basically fell apart in the wetness. on all of those, it was only one side of the disc, so i still know whats what. i can always write the tracklist on the new sleeves, i suppose. i will need to come up with a better filing system however (which currently is simply alphabetized)--- they are in a bookshelf and only the spines are visible. since there will be nothing on the spines of the new sleeves, i was thinking of cataloging everything into an excel spreadsheet or something. that way, i will know where i am in relation to what i am looking for.
a