Gotta warp, these members can help. [Vinyl Flat]

I was re-reading some of this thread and felt that I should mention this...

It seems that Vinyl Flat has now gone away from the High - Med - Low settings of the groovy pouch.

It now just has an On/Off switch...which the site doesn't mention, as I thought buying a new bag would let me finally try out a bag with temp settings. I'll get my meat thermometer in there sometime to see what temp this gets to.

20210206_055620.jpg
 
LeeVing said:
I was re-reading some of this thread and felt that I should mention this...

It seems that Vinyl Flat has now gone away from the High - Med - Low settings of the groovy pouch.

It now just has an On/Off switch...which the site doesn't mention, as I thought buying a new bag would let me finally try out a bag with temp settings. I'll get my meat thermometer in there sometime to see what temp this gets to.

View attachment 87042
Click to expand...
Interesting, though I'll have to say I've always had mine set to MED and adjust my times. Very curious to see where that temp ends up on your new one.
 
LeeVing said:
I was re-reading some of this thread and felt that I should mention this...

It seems that Vinyl Flat has now gone away from the High - Med - Low settings of the groovy pouch.

It now just has an On/Off switch...which the site doesn't mention, as I thought buying a new bag would let me finally try out a bag with temp settings. I'll get my meat thermometer in there sometime to see what temp this gets to.

View attachment 87042
Click to expand...
iirc the reason the older units even had temperature adjustment is because they were repurposed heating elements from an electric blanket or some such.

This only concerns me if these units are still as inconsistent, unit-to-unit, as the old ones. If they’ve gotten them all calibrated to a fixed temperature, just having one button is fine.
 
kvetcha said:
iirc the reason the older units even had temperature adjustment is because they were repurposed heating elements from an electric blanket or some such.

This only concerns me if these units are still as inconsistent, unit-to-unit, as the old ones. If they’ve gotten them all calibrated to a fixed temperature, just having one button is fine.
Click to expand...

This is my 3rd pouch...and none of them had the temp setting.

The first was for the smaller VF (bought in 2012) - the 2nd was for the slightly larger one for edge warps (the new lager style wouldn't fit in the old bag) - then this fold-over one is my 3rd.
 
AnthonyI said:
Interesting, though I'll have to say I've always had mine set to MED and adjust my times. Very curious to see where that temp ends up on your new one.
Click to expand...

Next time I'm in the kitchen I'll try to remember to grab it. I did notice the bag was having a hard time keeping up the temp when I had a window open fairly close. Cold fresh air help keep the basement from getting funky...but the bag wasn't getting warm enough.
 
LeeVing said:
This is my 3rd pouch...and none of them had the temp setting.

The first was for the smaller VF (bought in 2012) - the 2nd was for the slightly larger one for edge warps (the new lager style wouldn't fit in the old bag) - then this fold-over one is my 3rd.
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Huh. Mine has velcro on two sides.

You could email and see if the element type has changed in the recent revision?
 
kvetcha said:
Huh. Mine has velcro on two sides.

You could email and see if the element type has changed in the recent revision?
Click to expand...

My first 2 had Velcro on one side - they were like a pouch...like what a pizza delivery person keeps pizza warm in.

This new one has velcro on 3 sides and opens up, kinda like a pizza box.

Man...I'm hungry for Pizza
 
The first 2 I had were barrel plugs to a power brick so turning it on and off was just unplugging the barrel connector.

It was nice to see this has no power brick.

20210206_085137.jpg
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
So the size of the flat has changed and now the pouch?? Ugh.
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The size of the VF and bag changed around 2015 - at least that's when I bought my 2nd one (I sold my first VF and pouch through the Hoffman forums). This was when the VF got bigger to better fix edge warps. The bag got bigger as the new bigger VF wouldn't fit in the old pouch.

The bag seems to change constantly - and between 2015 and now there's a few versions.
 
Hey all, it's been almost 2 years since this post went up and it's been awesome to see the generosity on both ends of the process as well as being able to make a bad record much better for someone.

The original post has been updated based on some feedback received over time from both parties, it's evolved, people have learned more and we also want to set realistic expectations for all parties involved.

So please take a moment to give it a read.

Adding a shout out to the "flatteners" so they can make sure I didn't miss anything :)
@kvetcha @LeeVing @Mather @imajindat @RonDMC @Ginormousthumbs
If anyone wants to be removed from the list please let me know.
 
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I got the Staple Singers Stax Collection box from one of my local shops a couple of weeks ago, I opened it up today and the first record out of the box looks like this:



A couple of the other records look just fine, a couple of others have minor warps on them and them the last couple look like this.

Is this fixable at all?
 
Wicked Dreamer said:
I got the Staple Singers Stax Collection box from one of my local shops a couple of weeks ago, I opened it up today and the first record out of the box looks like this:



A couple of the other records look just fine, a couple of others have minor warps on them and them the last couple look like this.

Is this fixable at all?
Click to expand...

Yep, it can be done. Hit up whoever's most convenient for you or I'll be more than happy to help ;)
 
Okay Vinyl Flat experts, after receiving & being bothered enough with enough warped records, I finally took the plunge on a Vinyl Flat with the pouch.

First record I tried is disc 2 of this Little Brother album that had an edge warp that was even worse that it looks in the video. It couldn't play through the warp and would skip, making the first track on each side unplayable. I have a DJ table/setup that's been pretty robust at tracking & playing through skips & warps, so this warp was particularly troublesome.



I followed the instructions for the Vinyl Warp and started at an hour in the pouch & then let it cool for another hour or so. Took out the record and it seemed to very slightly flatten the warp (not much though, just enough to notice). Instructions said that once you notice a change, to increase the time by 5 minutes only. I decided to live on the edge and went to 1 hour & 15 minutes. Result is the video below.



As you can see, there's still a bit of a bump, but it actually plays through now. There is a little noise/distortion on a few rotations where the skips used to be, but it was unplayable before so I'm more than okay with this. My question is can I get even better results without damaging the record if I go to 1 hour & 30 minutes? Honestly, if this is how the record was originally, I probably wouldn't bother trying to flatten it, but I'm trying to learn the limits & capabilities of the Vinyl Flat, so what has people's experience been?
 
debar22 said:
Okay Vinyl Flat experts, after receiving & being bothered enough with enough warped records, I finally took the plunge on a Vinyl Flat with the pouch.

First record I tried is disc 2 of this Little Brother album that had an edge warp that was even worse that it looks in the video. It couldn't play through the warp and would skip, making the first track on each side unplayable. I have a DJ table/setup that's been pretty robust at tracking & playing through skips & warps, so this warp was particularly troublesome.



I followed the instructions for the Vinyl Warp and started at an hour in the pouch & then let it cool for another hour or so. Took out the record and it seemed to very slightly flatten the warp (not much though, just enough to notice). Instructions said that once you notice a change, to increase the time by 5 minutes only. I decided to live on the edge and went to 1 hour & 15 minutes. Result is the video below.



As you can see, there's still a bit of a bump, but it actually plays through now. There is a little noise/distortion on a few rotations where the skips used to be, but it was unplayable before so I'm more than okay with this. My question is can I get even better results without damaging the record if I go to 1 hour & 30 minutes? Honestly, if this is how the record was originally, I probably wouldn't bother trying to flatten it, but I'm trying to learn the limits & capabilities of the Vinyl Flat, so what has people's experience been?
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Here's my advice.
  • Pre-heat the pouch - Turn the pouch on with the plates inside for about 45 minutes
    • If you just toss them in cold and start your time at that point you're not actually giving the vinyl the heat time you think.
  • Start at an 1 hour and 15 minutes
    • I've yet to come across any album that has a problem starting here, with multiple waves, in my experience, the more times you go back the more "damage" you can do to the sound quality. This can also be corrected by the pre-heat stage.
  • Let it cool until the plates are room temperature to the touch.
    • Very imprtant! Vinyl will go back to it's prior state quicker while warm, if you leave it in the plates and pouch until the plates are room temperature to the touch you'll avoid any shifting back to any part of the warp.
 
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