Flattening a warped LP

if you only are flattening a couple of records; it is easy to do this yourself. all you need is a couple of clean plates of glass, an oven, and a way to clean the record. you can purchase the glass easily lots of places.

you clean the record first. then pre-heat the oven to about 180-190 degrees. place the record carefully between the clean sheets of glass. turn off the oven. then place the record 'sandwitch' carefully into the oven and allow it cool slowly.......be patient....wait until it is ambient temperature.

you might need some weight on top of the glass if it is a big warp but not much. this won't hurt an Lp.

i would recommend doing a test with a 'throw-away' Lp first to make sure that you don't make a mistake...the biggest caution is too much heat.

it's been a long time since i used this method. i think a standard residential window pane using tempered glass would be about right. too heavy and you could have the glass make an imprint on the grooves at the high spots. you are better off doing it twice than getting glass that is too thick.

a 12" x 12" window pane has sufficient weight to work.

as far as shattering the glass......make sure the glass is not cold to begin with......run it over increasingly warm water and then thoroughly dry it.

one other note; you want a gradual increase in heat for both the Lp and the glass....so don't pre-heat the glass very much....just make sure it's not real cold.