CD cleaning machine?

[mr hump]

HI all,

 I was wondering if anyone has come across a decent cd cleaning/scratch removing machine or technique? If so what would you suggest, I'm after something that will remove minor scratches, I'm going to go through my collection and do them all!

big job.

 

cheers

[LogicprObe]

I have done this and this machine works.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-SIMO-ZDAG-CD-DVD-Game-Fix-Scratch-Remover-Repair-Machine-PS2-PS3-XBOX-360-/121083975069?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c312ad59d

 

I got mine from a DVD wholesaler in QLD..............off ebay.

Doesn't seem to be there ATM.

Mine cost $160 Aus................I used about half the supplied stuff to do over 100 CD's that had vaying degrees of damage and wouldn't rip properly.

Great little machine and good value.

[Addicted to music]

Yep, the cheapest and most cost effective way is to use Brasso, or Silvo, these are metal polishers that you apply to metal to polish them up, they work wonder on CDs because when I borrow CDs from the local library some of them are that bad, i can get most of these scratches out and get the laser to read. 

 

Brasso and Silvo are on the shelves of evey Coles/Wollies/BigW stores in the cleaning section.

 

Happy poishing

[emesbee]

Minor scratches usually don't affect playback, so aren't worth worrying about. I reckon you stand more chance of creating more such scratches by attempting to clean them.

 

If the scratch is serious enough to affect playback, then it might be cheaper and easier to simply replace the CD.

 

One thing I have noticed though, is that scratched CDs which don't play properly in a CD player will sometimes play perfectly well in a computer's CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) drive. I have a Van Morrison disc like this (dud 2nd hand purchase). It has a small, deep scratch on it which affects several tracks when I try to play it, but it ripped ok in my computer's DVD-ROM drive, so I made a copy.

 

I take the point with the library CDs though, nothing to lose there!

Edited March 27, 2013 by emesbee

[Keith Anderson]

While sometimes it can be easier to buy another CD in some cases this is just not possible. Finding a original copy of early CDs that have not been remastered and compressed can be hard.

If you think Brasso is no abrasive, use a Perspex polisher.

[daemon d]

Main thing if you hand polish with brasso or perspex polisher, is to rub only in a radial direction. The fine polish marks, which are still micro scratches, can be read through if they are radial, but not if they're concentric. Plain old toothpaste on your finger tip works well enough for all but the deepest chips and scratches, and again, the hazy radial pattern caused will still allow the CD to read.

 

If you want them to look perfect again, you need a machine, which isn't worth it if only for one or two, but a good investment for doing allot of them, Or, you need a micro-mesh polishing kit, which has a series of different abrasive that you use one after the other until the final polish is glass smooth again. Micro-mesh kits are nearly as expensive as logicprobe's machine above. Some cheap machines leave a poor quality polish finish, like using brasso, but in a radial pattern. These are usually good enough for DVDs but may not work on CDs 100% of the time. Machines that do this usually rely on an abrasive disk, and not an abrasive paste.

 

If a stuff one and need to play or rip it, I use the toothpaste method; I always have it around, it's quick, easy, and it works fine.

 

If the CD has gone bad due to mould, and not scratches, and the mould is between the layers and not on the surface, you have a coaster and it can't be fixed. Interlayer mold looks like shadows in the shiny side. Surface mold can be taken off with a damp cloth, or toothpaste if it has attacked the plastic, and looks like smears of crap on the shiny side surface.

[LogicprObe]

This is not to mention the ones where the label is the reflective layer!

You scratch that off and your music disappears!

[daemon d]

I hate those ones. Delicate on both sides.

 

The only sort we've left out is hard laquered ones. They take allot more polishing to fix and if the laquer is chipped you have to polish off the entire hard coat to make them good, as the polished bump into and out of the hole in the laquer will read as a pop or a click.

[Milo]

In the '90's an American product came out called 'CD Hydrobath'.  It was a non contact disc cleaner that operated by spinning the disc and forcing (hydraulic pressure) their own proprietary surfactant against the surface of the disc.  Spin dry cycle too!  I remember doing my entire collection at the time.

 

They went out of production some time ago.