Flattening warped lp's with Seal dry mount press


I've been meaning for some time to try a test flattening warped lp's with my Seal dry mount press. A recent purchase of two warped White Stripes lp's & the recent tread that Albert Porter & others have had about the topic prompted me to start an experiment. For the first test, I placed a warped 70's Columbia pressing in the press between a 1/2" tempered glass plate and a 1/4" thick acrylic plastic plate, setting the thermostat at 165F. I did not pull the press handle to clamp, I just let the weight of the heating platten do the work as things softened. After an hour, the vinyl was quite flat and I let it cool down for the afternoon. While it looked excellent at first glance, there are problems. There is radial runout now, about 1/8" or so. Even worse, there are small hills and valleys in the vinyl surface that set my Grado Sonata wiggling and shaking. Evidently, the heating, pressing, and cooling process is creating stresses that leave things less than perfectly circular and flat. Next, I'll experiment with less heat and longer thermal heating and cooling cycles to see if stresses can be relieved to achieve better results. At this point though, I don't think I'd run out and buy a dry mount press hoping this to be an easy fix. It's going to take some experimentation to see if this will work. I'll post results as I work through the variables.
photon46
I find there is an old on eof these in the bowels of the office where I work. I will drag it out and give it a test soon and report.
From my experiments in the oven I might postulate that you may have set the heat 20 degrees to hot and the weight of the platten may have been too much as well. I have had best luck at 140 or so, and letting the weight of the glass(although I used 1/2" glass)do the gravity thing. The heating up could take several hours. I cooked a few trying to speed it up.
Photon46,

Please do keep us updated with your progress (or the lack there of).

Thanks,
Larry
.
Interesting -- I suggest you do not use the acrylic, but rather two glass pieces (and 3/8" thick should be adequate since the glass is fully supported and you are only applying the weight of the platen. Lower heat would be good too as someone else suggested.

My reason for nixing the acrylic is that it has a large coefficient of expansion, and so as it heats and exoands, it may be carrying the record with it and giving you the radial runout. Then, as it (the acrylic) cools and contracts, it's trying to "scrunch" the record up, giving you all those nasty lumps and bumps. Just a thought.