Can I clean my records manually?

Read the Record Playing Rituals stickied at the top of the page. There are tons of ideas on record cleaning there.

BTW, as you correctly surmised, the biggest risk in playing dirty records is not to your stylus. There will be some additional wear but unless you play very dirty records for very many hours the additional stylus wear is likely to be minimal.

No, the biggest risk is to your vinyl, and this is a serious risk indeed. Before I knew better I did audible damage to brand new (ie, not very dirty) records by playing them without cleaning. It is no exaggeration to say that a single play before cleaning can permanently mar a a vinyl LP. This is 100x truer if the record is used and dirty.

Vacuum cleaning is the way to go and, as Flyingred pointed out, it needn't be expensive to get into. Search the archives here and on VA for dozens of inexpensive DIY RCM's.

Gadfly and Stltrains,

I'll echo Tbg's experience. I used to clean by hand. I also made and used a DIY vacuum device identical to Gadfly's.

It worked okay but trust me, it doesn't come anywhere close to what a Loricraft can do. It may be expensive, but this is one case where a well designed and well built machine actually does do a better job. An "inconvenient truth" perhaps, but a truth nonetheless.

...you sure gotta go far to do it, doncha?

Sad, but true.

I totally agree that a well operated DIY setup should substantially equal the effectiveness of a $500-$1500 VPI. After all, they both rely on the same technology: a felt-covered vacuum slot and a honking big motor (I used a 1HP Shop Vac). It's hard to argue convincingly that either would be more effective than the other.

FWIW, there's a guy on VA who keeps talking about DIY'ing a Loricraft clone. He hasn't actually built it yet but most of it should be easy:

- any old TT with a 78 rpm speed would work.

- any tonearm with tubes added to feed and recover the thread would work.

- the only hard part is driving the tonearm across the record. That requires a motor with a slip-clutch, well beyond my (very rudimentary) mechanical skills.

Contrary to belief in some parts, the thread does not ride "in" the groove and it takes no part in the actual cleaning. Thread is far too thick to fit inside an LP groove. Its only function is to act as a constantly replenishible spacer between vacuum nozzle and record surface. After every pass, a quick twist of the spool supplies a clean few mm of thread for the next pass. Nothing dirty ever touches the record.

I agree with Cjssmithmd BTW. The Loricraft is slower per pass than wand-based machines. But it's much quieter and does a better job so I happily live with that. After all, I can play (some) music and clean records at the same time. Don't try that with my Shop Vac!