Jamesbrianc, here's what I'm doing or have done:
Use a microfiber cloth to carefully clean all the accessible surfaces of the tube to make sure nothing is stuck to it from packaging and handling.
Seat the tube all the way into the tower if necessary to get the beginning of the slot above the lead in grooves of a sample LP. There apparently is some variability among the VPI towers and/or deck mounting position from what I'm hearing via some email correspondence with other users. (Remember, VPI has been manufacturing their RCM for 30 years.)
For my tower, I ended up removing the locator pin (push up from the bottom through the top of the tower) in order to push the tube further into the tower. Now, when looking inside the tower from the bottom, I can see that the end of the tube is pushed all the way against the bulge of the back wall of the tower. You may need to do the same.
Use one of your thin LPs and position the locking ring on the tower so the tube can drop down to the surface of the LP. Leave the locking ring at this position. Thicker records should then be fine.
Experiment a bit with orientation of the slot over the LP to get it as directly above the LP as possible.
On non-warped records, when suction is applied, you should not see any light between the tube and the surface of the LP across most of the length of the tube when looking from the side at the level of the LP. You likely will see some gap at the very outer edge of the LP. This location is always going to be somewhat variable due to the varying outer edge profiles.
When aligned, a single rotation should remove all moisture across the grooved area of the LP. If some moisture remains at the lead in groove or in the dead wax area, I use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe those areas dry if needed.
Wipe down the wand on the slot side with another clean microfiber cloth from time to time. I'm still playing around with the need for this and currently am doing it only after finishing a cleaning session.
I hope sharing these steps that I've used may be of some help.
.
Use a microfiber cloth to carefully clean all the accessible surfaces of the tube to make sure nothing is stuck to it from packaging and handling.
Seat the tube all the way into the tower if necessary to get the beginning of the slot above the lead in grooves of a sample LP. There apparently is some variability among the VPI towers and/or deck mounting position from what I'm hearing via some email correspondence with other users. (Remember, VPI has been manufacturing their RCM for 30 years.)
For my tower, I ended up removing the locator pin (push up from the bottom through the top of the tower) in order to push the tube further into the tower. Now, when looking inside the tower from the bottom, I can see that the end of the tube is pushed all the way against the bulge of the back wall of the tower. You may need to do the same.
Use one of your thin LPs and position the locking ring on the tower so the tube can drop down to the surface of the LP. Leave the locking ring at this position. Thicker records should then be fine.
Experiment a bit with orientation of the slot over the LP to get it as directly above the LP as possible.
On non-warped records, when suction is applied, you should not see any light between the tube and the surface of the LP across most of the length of the tube when looking from the side at the level of the LP. You likely will see some gap at the very outer edge of the LP. This location is always going to be somewhat variable due to the varying outer edge profiles.
When aligned, a single rotation should remove all moisture across the grooved area of the LP. If some moisture remains at the lead in groove or in the dead wax area, I use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe those areas dry if needed.
Wipe down the wand on the slot side with another clean microfiber cloth from time to time. I'm still playing around with the need for this and currently am doing it only after finishing a cleaning session.
I hope sharing these steps that I've used may be of some help.
.