[gprro]

Haha, ok! There might be a couple, have to look more.. I may pick up the "rest" of the collection too. Or at least more of it. There are some odd ball things mixed in too. 7 or 8 Shakespeare albums, poetry readings. Joyce reading Joyce... If the mood catches and I'm hanging w some friends late night and feel like getting weird, maybe put a couple of those on, ..

Some of these are going to be really hard to clean! I've hit this one a few times w everything I have so far.. ronsonol lighter fluid, vodka, soap and warm water. The soap and water will soften the paper enough to get it off, but the glue is like hard plastic now... won't even come off with scraping... going to find that di solv it, Walmart did not have it...

May get one of the auto lift things for the tone arm and use it for these albums...

[gprro]

[Doublej]

I am no chemist but it seems like the glue may have interacted with the vinyl to embed itself. Given all that you have tried, if rubbing the area with your finger or fingernail doesn't help you may have to resort to sanding the area with ultrafine sand paper to remove it. That will alter the surface though.

Perhaps using Fels-Naptha soap with a finger or toothbrush would work 

FYI Goo Gone may be available at your local Home Depot. It is at mine.

At this point I would give the wood glue technique a try. It might create sufficient bonding to the old glue bits so that they come off when you peel the glue.

[Photon46]

Gprro, You're right about old sticker adhesive hardening to the point it becomes nearly welded onto plastic. The wood glue technique Doublej mentions is unlikely to work and the danger is that the wood glue will meld with the already glued on adhesive/paper mix and make an even bigger mess. A safer technique, but similar trial, would be to use Elmer's water soluble gel school glue. If it doesn't work, you can wash it away and no harm is done. I think your best hope would be to cut a couple layers of paper towels into a shape that matches the adhesive you're trying to remove. Lightly soak in mineral spirits or Goo Gone and lay on top of the adhesive. Cover the mineral spirit soaked paper towel with a small piece of plastic wrap and place a light weight on it all (like a cd case) and let it sit. It may take a long time, but in my experience, there is a chance that it will soften enough to be removed. FWIW, I've never had a problem with mineral spirits damaging vinyl but it's always a good idea to test the particular brand you're contemplating using on a record you won't regret damaging. Good Luck!

[Ericus Rex]

If you have to scrape be sure to use a wood or plastic implement.  Metal is likely to mar the surface.

[gprro]

Thanks guys! Luckily, all the glue is on the dead wax, I won't mind sanding if I have to, as long as the actual run out groves aren't gummed up too. For the albums I suspect have bad runouts I'll have to use an auto lift maybe.  I want to get one of those USB microscopes to check out the groves. I'm picking up some mineral spirits, turpentine, and pure naphtha too.

I did make more headway in my experiments, but not exactly sure what worked. It was pretty late last night after I got home from being out. I had soaked it in wd40 like oil and left it before going out, wiped away when I got home, still crud there , but I could scrape off easier with a metal blade, I know I'm damaging the vinyl though. I was beating the crap out of this record as a test. It was already in bad shape though... I was eating one of those small easy peel oranges, and squished some juice out and let it sit while I played video games. Today when I got up it actually looked better, haha... I'm going to keep playing and taking some pics. I'll try to put it all in one new thread I think..

[S Clark]

Did you ever try steam?  If so, what were the results?

[gprro]

Not yet, my steam cleaner is acting up. It has a safety cap, that seems to be stuck in safety mode. Won't unscrew. Going to heat cycle it a couple times and see what happens. Tried a lighter earlier, haha. Held the same distance as to not burn my hand. Wanted to see if it would melt the glue a little. Watched the vinyl strangely warp in like 5 secs. Hit the opposite side and it's perfectly flat again not much effect on the glue... need lower heat longer.