Hi Frank:

The resurfacing machine we have in house and that I recommend is made by
RTI (they also make great archival-grade tape cleaning machines and
motion picture film cleaners). The RTI machines are serious professional
resurfacing machines and are built to last a lifetime. Sanding
tolerances are very tight which allows multiple resurfacing without
damaging the disks. Places like Blockbuster, Redbook, Netflix use these
machines. We did a lot of research and decided this was the best option
for us at the time.

I believe you can buy refurbished machines as well as new machines
through them. We have the manual model where you replace the sanding
disks manually at each stage (I like to inspect the disk at each stage).
They are also a little more cost effective. If you're doing a large
number at a time, and using the machine regularly, the automatic models
are better but more pricey.

I would not buy the resurfacing machine to remove large foreign objects
such as a PVC layer from the disks. It could be used to resurface a disk
that has had minor to major surface damage to the disk while removing
the PVC layer from the disk. It can remove scratches that are
surprisingly severe (unless they've gone straight through the protective
layer) without damaging the disk. I've also seen a haze built up on
disks over the years and the machine is great for general cleaning and
removing haze.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Kind Regards,

John Schroth

MTS


On 12/9/2016 12:02 PM, Frank Ferko wrote:
> Hi, John,
>
> Many thanks for this very helpful information!
>
> Our sleeves have PVC on only one side with cloth on the other side, so the side with printing is the only side that is sticking. I have not tried the hair dryer method that you suggested, but if that worked for you, then I will give it a try. Since you have had success with a resurfacing machine, could you recommend a particular brand for us to consider? I don't know if we will go that route, but it would be good to have some reliable information on hand just in case.
>
> Best regards,
> Frank
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Schroth
> Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 6:09 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Sticky CD sleeves
>
> Hi Frank:
>
> Are the sleeves PVC on both sides or a cloth type on one side and the PVC on the other (only the top of the disk faces/stuck to the PVC) like an album binder that stores multiple CD's on the same page?
>
> Have you tried a simple hair dryer to GENTLY warm the PVC. Then while keeping the sleeve warm, GENTLY peeling the PVC from the disk? If the sleeves are multi pocket, cut out each pocket from the sleeve so you can work on them individually.
>
> This has worked for me, although the sleeves were lightly stuck to the disks, more bonding time may have made this something I might not have been able to do.
>
> Hot water might be another alternative.
>
> If the PVC is stuck to the bottom data side of the disk, you might have bigger issues. Obviously damaging this side will effect playback and might require resurfacing. We have an RTI disk resurfacing machine here that does a great job. Would highly recommend them.
>
> If this does not work, my next step might be to use one disk as a test.
> Keep the PVC on the disk and trim as neatly as you can, the PVC from the outside edge of the disk as well as the inside hole of the disk. There is a chance the disk still might play so that you can pull the information off it. I have not tried this myself, just an idea. The key is to trim as carefully as you can. A disk that is off balance will not play and can damage your disk, your disk drive or both severely.
>
> This is also a great reason why not to use the paper sleeves with the thin clear plastic window on the front. I have seen a huge collection of disks stored in sleeves with the clear plastic window also stuck to the disk although I didn't have to work with that collection.
>
> Kind Regards,
>
> John Schroth
>
> MTS
>
>
> On 12/8/2016 6:26 PM, Frank Ferko wrote:
>> Greetings, ARSC folks-
>>
>> I'm wondering if anyone out there has encountered problems with CDs that have been stored in soft PVC CD sleeves, which, over time have stuck to the surface of the CD. At Stanford we recently received a donation of a large number of CDs, but the original owner put many of the CDs into PVC sleeves to save space. We are now encountering the problem of the printing on the surface of some of the CDs sticking to the plastic sleeves, so that removing the CDs from the sleeve may damage the CD by removing the lacquer and exposing the underlying aluminum. Has anyone dealt with this issue and come up with a reliable process of removing the CDs safely from the sticky PVC sleeves?
>>
>> I would appreciate any good advice that anyone has to offer.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Frank
>>
>> Frank Ferko
>> Sound Archives Librarian
>> Archive of Recorded Sound
>> Stanford University
>> Stanford, CA 94305
>>
>>
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