Glue from inner sleeves leeching onto records


I have gone through some of my collection of 'audiophile' records that were pressed at RTI pre-2010 (Cisco, Analog Productions, Classic Records etc.) when they used an inner sleeve that was made up of paper on the outside and a poly liner on the inside, which was held together with a line of glue about 1" from the perimeter.

I have found quite a few records with these sleeves where the glue has leeched onto the vinyl. I tried cleaning it off at first with my Degritter RCM, but it did not remove much.  I also have a Keith Monks Gemini RCM, but it won't be ready for use for a little while.

I was curious if maybe using one of the 'glue' record cleaning process might work for this?  I never thought I would try such a cleaning method, but it may be the best for this scenario?

Has anyone had this issue and found a successful way to clean the glue off the records?

Thanks
rich121

Showing 1 response by millercarbon

Wow, thought I knew all the reasons to avoid "audiophile" reissues, and now one more! Tom Port looking better and better all the time. 

Glue calls for chemical removal which calls for research and testing different chemicals. Xylene, toluene, etc. Or maybe you get lucky and something like Dawn dish soap will work. There's a wonderful organic cleaner Citra-Solv that has worked on an amazing number of seemingly impossible to clean things like tree pitch, you might try that. There is also 3M Bug and Tar remover. A lot of these will get your glue off. The question is can they do it and still leave the record in good condition. Test a little spot on one of the least important records until you find what works.