New Record Cleaning Machine

We purchased a Loricraft Professional Record Cleaning Machine recently to replace our Keith Monks machine, and Ethnic American Music Curator Nate Gibson is giddy about how great it works. We had been using the Keith Monks machine for years, and it had been repaired several times, but it finally gave up the ghost. We had a VPI machine, but it was inefficient and incredibly loud. We have thousands of records–45rpm, 33 1/3rpm, 78rpm, 7″, 10″, 12″, and 16″. They get dirty, even housed inside sleeves and jackets. The Loricraft machine works swiftly and quietly. We hope it keeps working for many years to come.

Here is Nate holding “Mistr Vokulka ve stare country” (Mister Pickle in the Old Country), by Václav Albrecht a Spol, Victor 79444-A, prior to cleaning. This is one of our 78s Nate is digitizing as part of the NEH grant-funded project Local Centers/Global Sounds: Historic Recordings and Midwestern Musical Vernaculars.

Nate applies cleaning solution to the record prior to placing it on the machine, which will vacuum the contaminants out of the groove.

Nate pointing to the cleaning arm while the Loricraft machine works. Here is an excerpt from the instructions describing operation: “The arm places a mini tornado via a PTFE nozzle over the record groove. This intense vortex intimately searches out each section of groove. The suction force is provided by an internally housed vacuum pump that relentlessly pulls out the contaminants. A nylon thread separates the nozzle from the record. The cleaning of a record side will take approximately one minute.”

Here is Nate holding Victor 79444-A after cleaning. He will let it air dry for a while before taking it to the sound studio to make a digital transfer.