Home Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

Experiments with badly scratched CDs

I confess I've been using the public library's unplayable, horribly scratched CD's and DVDs to experiment with hand-polishing. They couldn't get worse so its done no harm... and I think I've found the right stuff!

I polish vigorously in a circular motion around the disc with Meguiar's "Scratch X 2.0" automobile clearcoat polishing compound. It has an extremely fine grit (maybe around 5000?) which is highly fugitive --it disappears after a couple strokes. I spread a dab about the size of a pencil-eraser and rub hard with a microfiber cloth until it almost dries. Buff that out and then wipe with a clean microfiber cloth and WD-40. Yup-- plain old WD-40. Rub off the excess but it seems a very light residue of WD-40 actually improves playback.

Wham-o-Zam-o! I have had 100% success rate thus far with discs that started off looking like they'd been used for air-hockey.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Analog Engineering Associates  


Topic - Experiments with badly scratched CDs - mr.bear 12:04:01 07/02/12 (12)

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.