Walker Vortex Vacuum Wand for VPI

Tweaks are always expensive way out of proportion to the cost of their manufacture. It's up to the end user to decide whether he or she wants to "roll their own" or pay the price. I am sure that Lloyd gave careful thought to the price point and figured it would sell for that amount. For me, IF I decide that there really is an advantage over the stock suction tube, I would be a buyer in this case, because I don't have the time for the hassle of finding the exact right material and getting it cut to do the job. Further, that's way more than $80 worth of my time right there. In other cases, I do make my own stuff, usually when the materials are more readily accessible. To each his own.

Seriously folks, think about the cost issue for a moment. $25.00 for the VPI wand which has to be replaced at least once a year if you are cleaning records regularly. $80.00 for the Walker wand which will probably never have to be replaced. And you really think the Walker is expensive?

I got a Vortex today, and noticed a couple problems in trying it out: first, the suction-opening of the wand doesn't seem to be long enough to suction up the liquids from the inner and outer points of the record, so that there is a residue of cleaner left. The second part is the more serious part: I noticed some surface streaks-scratches around the middle of the record, caused by the wand. Either I got a faulty wand, or I haven't figured out how to align it properly on the VPI, or the Vortex is badly flawed. I'll keep experimenting with it, since it does seem to clean better than the VPI wands, but I'm a little discouraged. Anyone have any suggestions about getting rid of the problems?

I am not a user of the Vortex, others here can perhaps offer better advice. I'm trying to visualize the whole affair, and will try offering help through a good mechanical background.

I suspect that tower height adjustment, with the Delrin Locking Collar will be critical, in that the Wand doesn't come down too far under vacuum suction, thus causing excessive force upon the record.

From what others have said here, and the reason perhaps why Lloyd has complimented this product with Rubber O-Rings, is that the LP will actually sit ever so slightly above the Platter, and as the Wand goes down upon the LP, the LP supposed to actually come up towards the wand, to "meet" the wand, and thus by doing this, it is not the Wand's downforce pressure, but the LP actually coming up to meet the Wand regulating the degree of pressure, and by this, this must insure a certain level of adhesion-friction between the two which is not overly excessive.

Anymore friction-force between the two will no doubt result in possibly marring LP's, and may be also the cause of fluids being left behind as well?

Perhaps an accurate measurement of your slot, will let others help, as they relay to you what they find.

Again, I haven't used one, and may be in error with my thoughts, but I have probably hit the nail on the head with my above comments. Mark

Jamesbrianc, here's what I'm doing or have done:

Use a microfiber cloth to carefully clean all the accessible surfaces of the tube to make sure nothing is stuck to it from packaging and handling.

Seat the tube all the way into the tower if necessary to get the beginning of the slot above the lead in grooves of a sample LP. There apparently is some variability among the VPI towers and/or deck mounting position from what I'm hearing via some email correspondence with other users. (Remember, VPI has been manufacturing their RCM for 30 years.)

For my tower, I ended up removing the locator pin (push up from the bottom through the top of the tower) in order to push the tube further into the tower. Now, when looking inside the tower from the bottom, I can see that the end of the tube is pushed all the way against the bulge of the back wall of the tower. You may need to do the same.

Use one of your thin LPs and position the locking ring on the tower so the tube can drop down to the surface of the LP. Leave the locking ring at this position. Thicker records should then be fine.

Experiment a bit with orientation of the slot over the LP to get it as directly above the LP as possible.

On non-warped records, when suction is applied, you should not see any light between the tube and the surface of the LP across most of the length of the tube when looking from the side at the level of the LP. You likely will see some gap at the very outer edge of the LP. This location is always going to be somewhat variable due to the varying outer edge profiles.

When aligned, a single rotation should remove all moisture across the grooved area of the LP. If some moisture remains at the lead in groove or in the dead wax area, I use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe those areas dry if needed.

Wipe down the wand on the slot side with another clean microfiber cloth from time to time. I'm still playing around with the need for this and currently am doing it only after finishing a cleaning session.

I hope sharing these steps that I've used may be of some help.
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