The "ARK"

Automatic Record Kleaner

Build your own automatic record cleaner that performs better than VPI and Nitty Griity and costs under $200.00!

This is a cool little project. For the last year I have started getting back into spinning vinyl again - and I love it. But more than ever it is important to keep your records clean so that they will last longer. There are several ways to clean your records. The most common method is to use a cloth and wipe down your records. Well call me lazy or say that I have too much time on my hands, but I thought it would be cool to build an automatic record cleaner. And I wanted to build it for next to nothing. There are a few companies (namely VPI and Nitty Gritty) that sell automatic record cleaners, but their $1000.00 and up price tags reminds me of communist China - no thanks!

Most of us are strapped for cash nowadays. I have a new born daughter, a 2 year old son, an 11 year old daughter, a wife, and many, many more bills. I just can't afford to spend the minimum of $600.00 for a fully MANUAL record cleaner, not to mention $3000.00 for a full blown automatic version. And I'll be the first to admit that my project does leave a little to be desired in the cosmetics department. But I really can't complain since I was able to build this unit for no more than $200.00! The performance is also pretty good. It does a very good job at cleaning the surface of the record, and the vacuum sucks all left over residue. I learned about a few things doing this project that I will improve upon for the final version of this record cleaner (which will be a brand new totally new Automatic Record Kleaner). But for the casual user and one who is on a tight budget this unit does quite well.

I took a trip to my local Goodwill store and picked up a few things for the ARK. I knew that I would need a very high torque motor for the platter. The force of the brush scrubbing the record and the suction of the vacuum would quickly halt ANY regular turntable motor. I also needed some type of vacuum - maybe a small DustBuster type, as well as a record platter from one of the millions of cheap and abandoned record players that litter the store shelves. I found them all in one fell swoop. An old Ice Cream maker/ice crusher would work. Remember the old Ronco units? "Make your own ice cream at home for free!" Well if the motor in that thing can crush ice, then it must be able to handle the ARK. $4.99. I also saw a Hoover upright vacuum with a 10 amp motor - YES!! It was also a broom type of vacuum which made the motor and housing rather small - perfect. $4.99. The girl at the check out counter didn't even charge me for the lone record platter that I brought up with me - free is good. Next I took a trip to the Home Depot where I picked up 2 feet of 1" black tubing - $2.00, and a fine haired cleaning pad - $2.99, and some butt-ugly speck paint - $7.99.

Now to my workshop. I dismantled the vacuum and cut away everything except the motor and it's housing. I had a sheet of 3/4" MDF that I cut and shaped the needed size box. The Ice Cream unit was also dismantled and I tore out just the motor. I mounted the motor to the plinth after carefully measuring where the platter would rest and where the spindle would be. Next the vacuum was mounted on L-brackets on the right side of the box. I used one of my son's plastic playhouse plant pot and hot glued it to the suction entrance of the vacuum and attached one end of the black tubing into this plastic pot (secured with hot glue for a leak proof seal). I added a fuse holder to the rear of the unit for safety reasons. The incoming AC gets routed to a pair of DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) switches for the platter ON/OFF, and for the vacuum ON/OFF ($2.99 each), and also wired in a pair of 120VAC lights ($5.00 for the pair) to each switch to show operation. The vacuum and motor was wired to these 2 switches.

Now comes the hard part (yes, what I had just done so far was the easy part). How do I make a "swivel" for the vacuum and for the brush? And what do I make those out of? I found an old camera tri-pod in the closet that had pretty hollow aluminum legs of just the right size. I cut 2 to the size and sealed the open ends with hot glue. I swear I messed around with how to make the swivel for at least 2 whole days!! I thought about elaborate stuff, wood stuff, hard stuff, toy stuff, and pretty much anything else. But I wanted to do this cheaply. In the end the cheapest solution was the best - a hollow tube from an old BOSE speaker mount and some washers (plastic and metal). The wand for the vacuum had to have a small slit cut into the underside of it to allow the dust to be picked up. A dremel tool handled this nicely. Next I attached a couple of pieces of velcro (the soft side) to the wand on either side of the slit so that the wand would not scratch the record as it spun under it. On the scrubber side I cut a strip of this scrub pad and super glued it to the underside of the scrub wand (the scrub pad has a hard plastic backing - very nice). The platter also gave me a headache, but I managed to pull that off rather respectfully too. The ice cream maker had this plastic "socket" type of mount that was used to attach a spinning plate to the motor. I hot glued this plastic socket plate to the bottom of the record platter and mounted a 3" threaded screw up through the bottom of this plastic mounted so that it came out the top of the platter. I used a 2X4 to cut a round block to use as a record clamp and threaded it with a nut so that I could screw this onto the record and securely fasten it to the platter. A cork mat ($10.00) was used to keep the other side of the record clean and safe. I added some feet to the underside of the box (2.99 for a set of 4) and was ready to give her a spin.

I used a very dirty record for the test run. Wow, what a difference. It got cleaned! Finger prints, smudges, grime, dirt, and dust - all came out. Total cost? $41.00! Not bad at all. Below is the step by step pictures of the ARK. It really wasn't that difficult to do. Most of the stuff I had around the house, the rest were bought very cheaply at Goodwill. Please note in the following pages that additional tweaks and cosmetic changes were added to the ARK since it's inception (version .1). The total cost of the ARK as it now stands (version 1.0 final) is just under $200.00.

Go to the pictures