Re: [ARSCLIST] Does anyone fix broken records?

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Alex Hartov wrote, and I wish I could be in complete agreement with him:

  Once everything is in place, I use a needle dipped in
> cyanoacrylate (crazy glue) so that it forms a small drop on the end.
> By applying the needle to the outer end (on the edge of the record) of
> the crack(s) the glue is sucked into the crack by capilarity.

----- this type of repair is what I taught for certain problems from about
1991 to 1998 at the School of Conservation, but the household cyanoacrylate
has changed. It used to set when it was starved of oxygen, but in later years
it sets when subjected to humidity. Pre-moisturing the broken parts is no
good, because then it sets before the capillary action has completed. The
good thing was that the old type had a very low viscosity and would really
penetrate a narrow interstice, where it would set because the oxygen was not
available to the surface. Possibly you may still get professional types that
work according to this principle, but some of them are dependent on certain
metals being present instead. Obviously the gel types are no good!

However, the question was not concerned with replay but with display, and
here a warning is in place: the fumes from the liquid cyanoacrylate will
attack the surface of the shellac compound of the record and a repair will be
very visible. For display purposes it would conceivably be possible to
support most of the edge all the way round, and a polyvinylacetate cement
(possibly diluted somewhat with distilled water) could perform the slight
attachment needed between pieces. However, cracks would still be evident. So,
cheating could be resorted to: make a first-class colour print of the
original label and stick that on a similar whole record. I stress similar: it
must have run-in and run-out grooves that look more or less than the
original, or someone will pick up the strange appearance.

Kindest regards,

George