Record Store Day 2024: How to Flatten Warped Vinyl Records at Home

Report Retailer Day is one among my favourite procuring holidays. Whereas it is not as large as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it is one of the crucial thrilling days of the yr for me. I let myself top off on all the information I’ve stored myself from shopping for over the previous yr. 

Nevertheless, among the best elements of Report Retailer Day is shopping the used information at your native document store and discovering an absolute gem of a document. Possibly it is one you have been looking for for years, or perhaps it is a brand-new discover that is captured your consideration. 

The worst half about Report Retailer Day realizing that your used, however in in any other case first rate form document is warped. When this occurs, you have got a few choices. You may dejectedly put the document again, and hope that you’re going to come throughout one other copy in good situation, or you can flatten the document by your self. 

Data can change into warped as a consequence of a mixture of warmth and strain. So for those who’re storing your vinyl incorrectly by leaning them at an angle, stacking them on high of one another, or for those who’re leaving your information uncovered to direct daylight or excessive warmth, you can be inadvertently warping your personal vinyl assortment. 

If you wish to flatten your vinyl information your self, we have some strategies. For extra music suggestions, this is one of the best document gamers of 2024 and for those who choose to take heed to music digitally, listed here are one of the best music streaming providers of 2024.

Use strain — and time

In case you do not need to threat reheating your vinyl (we’ll get to that later), you possibly can flatten your vinyl utilizing two books and a complete lot of endurance. 

What you will must do is take your warped vinyl and place it in between two heavy books (assume giant, hardcover books). You are additionally going to need to ensure your document is clear and freed from particles.

In accordance with Home of Marley, a turntable retailer, this methodology will take a substantial amount of time. In case you pursue this methodology, you will be ready weeks and even months to see any outcomes, assuming all goes as deliberate. 

Purchase a document flattening machine — or simply pay an expert 

Different protected choices are to shell out for a document flattening machine, or to pay an expert. Report flattening machines can price you a fairly penny — with costs starting from as a lot as $3,000 to only below $200. Alternately, there are some on-line providers that may flatten your information for a charge. Good Vinyl Without end is one such service. 

What I like to recommend doing is looking round to native document retailers to see if they’ll flatten your vinyl for a charge. In my expertise, used document retailers are likely to have a option to flatten out warped vinyl, and it may be an excellent likelihood to help your native retailers. 

At nice threat, you possibly can flatten it in your oven

If warmth and strain are the reason for the warps in your vinyl within the first place, it solely is smart that warmth and strain can flatten it proper again out. It is a very high-risk, however doubtlessly high-reward methodology for returning your discs to the right alignment. It is a fairly nuclear choice with regards to flattening a warped document, so be warned that you can wreck the album completely by doing this.

First, discover two panes of glass measuring at the very least 12 by 12 inches that may slot in your oven. Every of those panes will go on both aspect of your warped document. Once more, make sure that your vinyl is clear and freed from particles. 

Preheat your oven to its absolute lowest temperature, and as soon as the oven has reached that minimal warmth studying, put the glass panels with the vinyl in between them into the oven, then set the timer for half-hour and wait. 

As soon as half-hour is up, fastidiously take away the glass and vinyl from the oven and let it cool to room temperature earlier than eradicating the disc from between the panes of glass — we might suggest an hour to be protected. Then take away the document from between the glass, cross your fingers and put it in your turntable to see the way it sounds. 

For extra, this is why the AT-LP60XBT is the right newbie turntable.