11 replies to this topic

[Steve Heard]

I've got hundreds of CD's and many of them have been tossed around a scratched. I will soon join the modern world and put them on an ipod. 

 

I would like to repair or resurface some. The record store will do it for $1.50 each. 

 

Have you tried any of the products, machines or services for this?

 

Dimple has a machine and charges $2.50 each, but with possibly hundreds in need of attention, I could go broke. 

[Terry]

Try cleaning with a little dab of cheap, white toothpaste and then rinse and dry.  It works pretty well for the kid crud, finger oils, and surface scratches.  Then you'll know if you need to go further with more expensive remedies.

[SacKen]

I've used this manual doohickey. It worked, but took some elbow grease to polish the disc after it goes through the machine and you have to be careful not to scratch the label side when doing so.

 

http://www.amazon.co...g_bs_14084701_1

 

There's a motorized one if you want to push a button rather than hand crank the thing (still need to polish the disc manually)

 

http://www.amazon.co...g_bs_14084701_5

 

There are automatic ones that vary from about $40 to commercial resurfacers that run in the thousands. I've seen mixed results with the cheaper ones like this, but it might work for you.

 

http://www.amazon.co...g_bs_14084701_6

 

I've never used it, but I've heard good things about this little guy if you have enough CDs to warrant the cost or plan to resell it to recover some of the cost.

 

http://www.amazon.co...g_bs_14084701_2

[AMETHYST PRODUCTIVITY]

I've found that copying them usually works. 

[MrsTuffPaws]

Back in the 90s I worked in a used music shop, and we would always recommend turtle wax to fill in scratches on CDs.  But I never needed to do it myself. The info is kinda read like an LP, so light scratches that go from the outside of the disk to the inside of the disk are easier to deal with, than scratches that are in a clump, or go left to right.

[Silverado]

If you happen to have a bench grinder, you can get a buffing wheel for it and some plastic compound at the local hardware store.  This will make short work of any scratch repair.  Its my preferred method.

[SacKen]

If you happen to have a bench grinder, you can get a buffing wheel for it and some plastic compound at the local hardware store.  This will make short work of any scratch repair.  Its my preferred method.

 

Just be careful doing this (or any manually method, for that matter). You should buff radially from the center out to the edge or you can make things worse.

 

Along those lines, CDs with radial scratches typically are not a problem. It's the concentric scratches that cause read problems. I wouldn't even mess with repairing CDs that don't actually have any playback problems or obvious concentric scratches. I've seen some pretty scuffed CDs in my time that play just fine (13 years of my own used CD business).

[Steve Heard]

 

Just be careful doing this (or any manually method, for that matter). You should buff radially from the center out to the edge or you can make things worse.

 

Along those lines, CDs with radial scratches typically are not a problem. It's the concentric scratches that cause read problems. I wouldn't even mess with repairing CDs that don't actually have any playback problems or obvious concentric scratches. I've seen some pretty scuffed CDs in my time that play just fine (13 years of my own used CD business).

What did you use to repair the ones that were bad?

 

I used to take such great care of my stuff, but over the years, raising kids, competing with them for stereo time and just getting distracted, a lot of them got stacked together on spindles or tossed in the trunk and many have playback issues. Go figure.

[SacKen]

What did you use to repair the ones that were bad?

 

I used to take such great care of my stuff, but over the years, raising kids, competing with them for stereo time and just getting distracted, a lot of them got stacked together on spindles or tossed in the trunk and many have playback issues. Go figure.

 

That little Skip Dr handheld thing I linked before. We only needed to do it a couple times. If it was a low value CD that was in bad shape, we just wouldn't accept it. There were only a few in bad shape that we wanted because we knew they had significant value even if we had to buff out the scratches (hard to find out of print stuff).

 

My new problem that I see coming soon is needing to do this for Xbox games now that my 5 year old plays. He really tries to be good with them, but they are starting to get some scratches. None to the point of not working, though. Yet.

[Darth Lefty]

I had one of the little crank thingies like SacKen linked, although couldn't tell you if it was the same one. It worked fine. I can see how it would be tedious for a lot of them.

[SacKen]

I had one of the little crank thingies like SacKen linked, although couldn't tell you if it was the same one. It worked fine. I can see how it would be tedious for a lot of them.

Definitely. It's a good 5+ minutes to get it buffed out. If you have a lot to do, I'd get one of the motorized ones. The $35 ones appear to be good enough for moderate use.

[VillageIdiot]

And it's the top of the CD that's really susceptible to damage.  Under the label is both the reflective coating and dye layer (that contains the data "pits").  Scratch the label or reflective coating and you're done.