Osage Audio Products, LLC

Record Cleaning Machine Museum

RCM by Paul Frumkin

Record cleaning machine built by Paul Frumkin, the developer of the Audio Intelligent products. It uses a Russco transcription turntable built into an equipment stand. The platter is covered in Sorbothane. A small 1 horsepower Shop-Vac is stored on the lower shelf. The Shop-Vac was inserted in a cardboard box, and the sides of the box were covered with ductboard (compressed fiberglass) to reduce the noise. Attractive blocks were placed between the bottom of the equipment stand and the casters to raise the machine to a more convenient height and to allow a foot pedal to slide underneath. The foot pedal provides foot-controlled operation of the Shop-Vac, leaving your hands free for applying and removing the cleaning formulas.

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RCM by Audiogon member Oakiris

"I had planned to buy an RCM but then decided to build my own. I thought it would be both a fun project and less expensive than buying one. After gathering ideas and inspiration from various sources, including Paul of AI, Chris of Teres Audio and the folks at DIY Audio, I built my RCM. I started with a wheeled kitchen cart made of beechwood. I purchased it as a kit from Target; it was relatively easy to assemble. After failing to find anything at the local thrift shops, I bought an old Yamaha turntable on EBay; it didn’t need to be operational. I took the turntable apart as all I was interested in was the platter and bearing assembly. I used a hole saw to make an opening in the top of the cart to mount the bearing assembly. Although a 1 HP wet vac is recommended for the RCM application, for some reason I was unable to find a unit with this low of a power rating either locally or on line, so I bought a 2 HP Shopvac from Home Depot. I was worried that it might suck the vinyl off of the records ;-) but it actually works quite well. For the actual suction wand for the record cleaning, I bought the VPI upgrade tube kit from Elusive Disc, again using a hole saw to make the right size opening in the top of the cart; the vacuum hose fits into the bottom of this quite nicely. I used a jigsaw to make a slot in the cart drawer so I could feed the vacuum hose up to the VPI tube assembly and still have use of the drawer. In the drawer I keep extra brushes, etc. The cart has two shelves, so I store my cleaning fluids and brushes on the top shelf and the wet vac sits on the bottom shelf. I used another hole saw to make an opening on the side to feed out the cord for the vacuum cleaner. I also use a foot pedal, provided by Paul Frumkin, to operate the vacuum. I had considered buying some sound proofing materials to mask the sound of the vacuum, but find that with the cabinet doors closed, there is very little noise. As my RCM is un-motorized, I use a KAB record clamp to turn the record with one hand while operating the VPI tube assembly with the other. My DIY RCM works very well indeed and, IMHO, looks very nice, too."

RCM by Audiogon member Santanaali

Right is a RCM built by Audiogon member Santanaali, based upon Paul Frumkin’s basic design ideas. Santanaali writes: “Getting back into vinyl I was intrigued about "washing" my older records. With the help of Paul Frumkin, I was able to build my own RCM. I used a cabinet from Ikea. The addition of a foot pedal to operate a 1hp Shop-Vac leaves both hands free. I have never used a VPI or Sota RCM but using Paul's solutions with the Russco RCM I have never before had such quiet records. I use a three step process: 1: the Enzymatic Formula used with bi-directional brushing; 2: The Record Cleaning Formula used with uni-directional brushing; and 3 a final rinse with the Ultra-Pure Water. Clean, clean, clean!”

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