Flatten Your Warped Records
We use the precision-made ORB Japanese flattening devices; specifially designed for dewarping records.
Operating under the same principle as the old 'two panes of glass in the sun' routine, the DISC FLATTENER evenly heats the platter for two hours and then allows it to cool for another two hours. All the while an even pressure is supplied by the weighted canopy of the device. This ensures an even and constant temperature with no risk of further damage to your beloved vinyl.
Cost = $10 / Disc
Duration = 4 hours.
Our brand new DF-01iA+ ORB Disc Flattener can properly flatten 7”, 10” and 180g records. It also has inserts to take care of records without a groove guard: the raised lip at the rim of the record.
WE CANNOT UNMELT VINYL
Warped records
A warped record remains circular and is either a dish-shape or has a twist through the whole surface; as in the the whole record has flexed slightly. In this case the record is still circular so when we flatten it, it remains circular.
It is topographically intact, the vinyl molecules have not moved in relation to themselves internally and the surface has not degraded so the grooves are still grooves with audio waveforms etched into them. A warp is usually symmetrical.
One good way to tell is the reflectivity of the record. A pristine record will reflect light radially (think spokes on a wheel). A warp will ‘bend’ the spoke, whereas a melt will distort it. Basically, the surface melted vinyl changes texture and so reflects light differently - very often, but not always.
Melted records
When a section of the record is melted, your record is no longer a circle because the vinyl has actually flowed, so when we flatten it, that section - grooves included - spreads or bulges out. This distorts the grooves and more often than not, kicks the needle out of the groove.
Melts affect play. You can usually hear a melt. A melt usually has different sheen and will make the needle wobble. Hold your vinyl up to a light and move the reflections around. If you can see weird ripples, or paterns across the vinyl, this is a sign than your vinyl has melted. At this point your grooves resemble the trenches of the western front during the last stages of WW1, and sound similar. Much like the League of Nations, there is no hope for them.
Can we flatten your vinyl?
It is often easy to to tell the difference between a warp and a melt, but sometimes it isn’t. We do our best to determine before-hand if it is worth trying and will inform you if we think it's not worth it, but you do embark upon this procedure at your own risk and expense.
In lots of cases we can flaten a melted record, but they will still be melted and the melt will still affect playback.
Not even all warped vinyl can be flattened
Not even all warped vinyl can be flattened. For a number of reasons some vinyl, even if not melted, cannot be flattened. This is usually for two reasons.
1) The material the record is pressed onto not being ‘virgin vinyl’, but rather containing impurities that change the temperature at which the vinyl warps and flattens. For this reason a lot of coloured vinyl and picture discs are harder to flatten, but out newer machine has different temperature setting si this has become much les of an issue.
2) Edge warps — are actually edge melts — the look like a little lip at part of the edge of your record and more often than not, they don’t flatten. Sometime they do, and this is probably the trickiest issue for us to determine before hand.
Basically, it not always possible to tell before-hand if a record will be fixed, but our success rate is about 90% :)
Sadly, this means that a small percentage of the time, you will need to be prepared for the worst: that your vinyl will not flatten.