[78-L] Repairing cracked records

[Malcolm - Venerable Music]

Hey Glenn - I recently found a rare Ray Brothers country record on Bluebird 
for a $1, but it was cracked through a lot like this Blind Blake - maybe 
even a little worse.
You could definitely see light through the crack at least 3/4 of the way 
through the side. I had been holding some other similarly cracked, but 
common records for awhile to test on and finally came up with a decent 
method using a heat gun, grease pencil and razor.

First I would lay the record on a flat surface with the heat gun on one hand 
and the grease pencil in the other. The heat gun will soften the pencil 
enough to drag along the surface of the crack. Be as careful as you can not 
to get too much of the pencil wax into the actual grooves as you can easily 
make it noisier than it was with the exposed crack.
After I have covered the crack, I shave the excess with a straight razor to 
get the wax & the top of grooves at the same level.
I then apply some more light heat to slightly soften the wax again & bring 
it over to an old victrola to re-cut the groove through the wax.
Don't use too much heat at this last step or it will melt the wax into the 
grooves causing noisy playback. Once the wax has dried, there is no need to 
use glue.

Of course it will not play like a new record, but it will turn a nasty 
thumping crack into a lightly ticking one. This also only really works if 
the crack is big! If you can not see light through the crack, applying the 
wax will only make it worse.

I also tried epoxy once (read some other online tutorials) and completely 
destroyed the record I was working on - so I don't recommend it! The wax is 
somewhat forgiving & epoxy is not!

Malcolm in GA

Venerable Music - http://www.venerablemusic.com/
78rpm Auctions - http://www.vmauctions.com/
On Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/venerablemusic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glenn Longwell" <glongwell at snet.net>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 10:29 PM
Subject: [78-L] Repairing cracked records


> The following record sold recently and it brings up a question I've 
> wondered about.  Check out ebay item 350396814577.
>
> This wasn't mine nor did I buy it.  What I'm interested in is how would 
> you fix a crack in a record like this where the crack is separated?  I've 
> heated up records before and the crack gets wider.  Has anyone 
> successfully closed the gap on a record like this and then glued it?
>
> Thanks,
> Glenn
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