New/Record Warping Help

Sounds like you are over tightening. You want to hold the record firmly to the platter but you don't want to cold weld it to the platter either! The center of the VPI platter has a slight recess to permit a small amount of deformation, but the rubber washer is intended to prevent you from bottoming out the record onto the platter in the recessed area. The fact that the washer is sticking to the record and coming off with it indicates to me you are using way too much pressure. Also, never leave the record on the platter clamped for an extended period of time, i.e., when finished playing loosen the clamp (if you are not going to remove the LP from the platter). When I was using the VPI record clamp (I use the weight and ring clamp now) I never had the washer stick, though I did dish a record or two from leaving a record clamped over night. For records that are dished already you could try clamping them the opposite way which caused the dishing, but there is no guarantee you'll be able to remove the dishing.

Autodexr, are your lps leaning at all? They should be held upright by the ones next to them but not jammed in.

If you have to tighten the clamp a great deal to bring the record into contact with the platter at the edges, you may want to try a somewhat thinner washer.