cd/transport lens cleaner

I use this: http://www.allsop.com/cleaning-/laser-lens-cleaner

Humidity builds up, and one needs isopropyl alcohol to clean the lens - use a cotton swab and be gentle. The Allsop isn't effective (I have that too)

Alcohol is what I have used. It does leave a residue so follow up with a dry swab after the wet one.

Correct. Same as you would with the CD itself

ack said:

Humidity builds up, and one needs isopropyl alcohol to clean the lens - use a cotton swab and be gentle. The Allsop isn't effective (I have that too)

Click to expand...

Considering the price of the laser mechanism of my cd player - Philips LF12Pro - I also use only pure 98% isopropyl alcohol. If its good for quality microscopes, it should be OK for the cd transport laser lens. Quoted from a microscope cleaning site:

Isopropyl alcohol is one of the best solvents but it must be at least 90%+ pure (do not use rubbing alcohol, 30% water).

Yeah, but that's for extreme cases...like smokers in the house.

For a quickie, a bottle of compressed air with few jets, and that Allsop disc is ok.
Lol, it's not effective! Sure it is.
______

* I was looking for a video with laser lens cleaning, using a Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol. They're all blurred and not great.
Then I stumbled into this:


The three small screws; I still have to play with them in trying to fix my Panasonic DMP-BD55 BR player...it won't read Blu-ray discs.
...And using no oscilloscope because I don't have one.

By the way, it wasn't necessary to close the other thread. :b ...But that's ok because there are zillion more things to talk about in our music hobby.
And I played some Prince CDs today. Wow, unbelievable the revolutionary music I was listening back then! It's all good, these were the times, a period in my life, and there's nothing wrong with that. Bob Dylan and Neil Young and the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison have been making music for ages and still do. Their musical evolution and experiments we followed and still follow them today...after five decades plus!

Looking @ them two videos above, I kind of feel much more secured with a good solid turntable to spin vinyl.
Look @ those flimsy laser disc players, it truly looks like mickey mouse from the outer space. Look @ all the little plastic parts; it does not inspire confidence. /// The laser disc assembly and transport I'm talking about.

I cleaned many laser lens with a Q-tip and 99% isopropyl alcohol...that's very easy...and it helps bad trackers.
But I never adjusted those three little screws, so some of my players they don't play no more.
And CD transports parts they can break, like the disc clamp, or the springs, or they need lubrification (grease) on the moving rails.

I fixed tape decks, turntables, and I had better luck fixing those than digital components.
That has been my experience sinne very young...starting with transistor AM radios.
VCR machines are a little harder to fix; sometimes best to get a new transport mechanism. But they're gone now, like AM transistor radios.

Yep, this hobby is fun, but not so much for people who have all their music stored in their hard drives. When that PC goes so is all the music without another PC.

Regarding those CD lens cleaners with small little soft brushes; they are a quick helper if it's mainly to dislodge a piece of dust, fiber out of your lens.
Blowing air would do too. But if you smoke cigars your lens will get brownish and better remove the top cover and remove that brown tar/fog/cloud glued to your laser lens. You'll see that brownish residue on your Q-tip after cleaning it. That is the worst case scenario from a dirty lens, and requires alcohol.

But just for normal dust, a tiny piece (minuscule) of dust particle, air fiber that fell on your lens, you can use the fast forward button to make a CD spin faster and often it'll get rid of dust particles. ...Fast forward when in pause mode, then fast rewind. Or a blow air atop the lens when the disc tray is open with a small plastic tube extension attached to your air compressed can.
You can even blow inside with your mouth next to the disc tray opening; a good strong human air blow from your lungs.

• My own prediction: If that thread wouldn't have been closed, I bet that it would have eventually reached 500 and even 1,000 pages. :b
We're a funny bunch; we go deep into our audio subjects...and I like that.

ack said:

Humidity builds up, and one needs isopropyl alcohol to clean the lens - use a cotton swab and be gentle. The Allsop isn't effective (I have that too)

Click to expand...

Respectfully disagree. The Allsop works quite well and does the job for cheap.

Regarding efficacy, it does depend on how "dirty" the laser lens is.

Won't remove a stuck piece of animal hair.

Sure is; the Allsop lens cleaner disc (with 8 small soft brushes - some have 16) does the trick for normal dust particles...play it for twenty seconds...just follow the simple narrative on the disc...it's a lady's voice. :b

I have couple dozen laser players (CD, SACD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray) and I have been using that Allsop disc for more than 15 years. ...Lol, very true and it's only ten bucks on sale. Check Amazon ? http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-56500-CD-Laser-Lens-Cleaner/dp/B00000J1QK

Be aware that certain optical pick-ups are made of highly polished glass or plastics. If plastic, I would be VERY wary using any type of alcohol. IIRC, Sony issued a technical bulletin advising against using alcohol.

I prefer to use a gentle, very slightly damped (distilled water) q-tip; this method works just fine and is totally safe, plus consider cleaning and re-lube the rails on which the lens assembly rides.

You have ? any link(s)?

I don't have links but TBone's caution is a very good one and one I should have remembered. Oppo had me use alcohol when I last cleaned a lens so I had that in mind. Different plastics are used, and some of the softer ones can even be scratched by a Q-tip. A friend of mine grabbed a bottle of cleaner from the lab; turned out it was acetone, and basically destroyed the lens. Ouch.

I did some research about laser lens composition and coating, and what is normally recommended and used and that has no problem.
Isoproyl 99% alcohol with a Q-tip and delicately applied. There are zillions of youtube videos.

The key word: delicate. Only one drop @ the tip of a Q-tip, then use two fingers to extract the surplus, as to have it very lightly moist and not yet.
Then clean the lens gently for only few seconds, depending if the lens has brown residues on it from smoking in the house, the Q-tip will show it; don't put too much pressure.
Then use the other end of the Q-tip to dry any moisture on the lens, gently again and for only few seconds.
Then put back the top cover of your CD transport, and the top cover of your CD player.
C'est tout; total operation ... roughly 10-20 minutes...depending on how quick you are unscrewing few screws.

And I did search quite extensively too, in search of TBone's advice.
I could have posted precise info on what laser lens are made of, but it wasn't necessary, because the top of the lens is what matters; it's like a little delicate convex window.
And that little window has to be clean...from dust, from smoke, from condensation, from snow.
...Just like the stylus of a cartridge (I clean mine with isopropyl alcohol too, making my own solution, with distilled water).

* That's why I asked Anthony if he had any links. Then I was in search mode...for an hour.
The majority of all the links, videos, forum discussions (@ 95% @ least), were recommending what we have already said.

And we all know that isopropyl alcohol (99%) if applied hard, will melt plastic surfaces. I used it in the past to erase writings from my CDs, but I was careful to not erase the top CD surface with it too...lol.

Delicate