NEW DUST COVER CARE AND CLEANING


Howdy fellow turntables freaks,my dilemma is this,a little more than a year ago I purchased a Technics 1200G turntable. I have only cleaned it using a feather duster and never touching the plastic at all when opening or closing it.How do I clean it without putting micro swirl marks into the plastic,I'd love to hear about your cleaning methods-trying to maintain my perfect lid! Thanks

2112oracle

Any eye-'glass' cleaner like you get at the optometrists. All eyeglass' are now plastic and using an eyeglass cleaner with those small eyeglass cloths works for me. Don't use windex or any real glass cleaner. Just what I do.

@2112oracle , Mix 1 part 99% Isopropyl alcohol with one part distilled water and pour it into a spray bottle. Spray the dust cover and wipe off with a clean microfiber cloth. NEVER use fabric softener when washing and drying your microfiber cloths or you will create one big smudge. This mixture is also the best glass cleaner you can buy and dirt cheap. 

If you develop swirl marks over time you can take them out by buffing with any fine automotive compound. I use Menzerna's 3500. If there is a scratch but you can not feel it with a finger nail use 2500 followed by 3500. If there is a scratch that you can feel with a fingernail you can take it out (if the plastic is thick enough) by wet sanding 600 grit to 1200 grit to 2000 grit then 2500 followed by 3500. You have to do this all by hand. A rotary polisher will melt the plastic if you are not trained to use it. It is safer to do by hand using clean microfiber cloth. You never go at it with a contaminated microfiber cloth. If you drop it it goes right back in the wash and you get another one. 

Eye glass cleaner is Isopropyl alcohol and distilled water. I bought a bottle of each and make my own. One ounce Iso to sixteen ounces distilled water.

All the best.

Brillianze Acrylic cleaner.  Available on amazon.  Used by museums for thier plexiglass display covers.  I have used it on a fine microfiber cloth for years on my acrylic TT covers with excellent results. 

It is more a question of your cleaning tools and techniques than product. Clean microfiber, straight lines, no circular motions. Just remove loose dust with a swiffer before anything. There’s a lot of info on cleaning plexiglass on the net. 

@2112oracle I don't have a dust cover on my turntable.  But for all other plexiglass products (screen in the car, plexiglass faceplate on the instrument cluster in the car, etc.) I use a product called Plexus.  It is made specifically for plexiglass and provides anti-static properties on the finished product, as well.  Available on Amazon.  Superior outcome to all other products of this category that I have tried.

As others have stated, use only with a clean microfiber cloth.  Clean cloth is the magic sauce for an excellent result.

@stringreen , and I suppose you wear your underwear for a week. Proper dust covers certainly keep dust off delicate mechanical devices and mounted correcting to an isolated turntable closed dust covers actually IMPROVE the performance of a system by attenuating the sound that gets to the cartridge by up to 10 dB. That is cutting the volume in half. 

Can dust covers decrease sound quality? Sure,  if mounted directly to the same chassis the tonearm and platter are on it can make like a musical instrument. In order to work well the dust cover has to have thick walls at least 1/8 inch and it has to be hinged to something that is not the chassis that the tonearm and platter are mounted to. Examples of turntables that have properly isolated dust covers are; the AR XA, some Thorens tables, Sotas, and the Kuzma Stabi M. 

You can have a dust cover made for any turntable then hinge it to a base the turntable sits on and you are in business. 

mijo....so taken with your interest in my underwear.   I don't use a dust cover because it resonates with the sound of my stereo....unwanted for me.   I've not used a dust cover for years....occasionally dust the equipment, the floors, the blinds, etc.   Everyone should do as they wish