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CD Repair?

post #1 of 19
2/11/10 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
Have any of you had any luck with CD repair? I'm thinking about restoring some CD's I've got, and most of the stores around here that offer such a service are outrageously expensive (around 3$ a disc). Not really worth it on stuff I buy used at that same price... so trying to find some sort of equipment that can do it for me.

So far, I have 5 discs that have cropped up as problematic. So that's about 15$, at local prices. I'm willing to pay for something in the 30 to 50 dollar range. Any ideas or thoughts, guys and gals?
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post #2 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:16am
Let me google that for you

tons of methods online. i bought one of those scratch repair things at a Sam Goody many years ago and it worked pretty well. basically a very fine grade wet sand that slowly removed layers of plastic until it was smooth again. if the foil layer of the cd is damaged, then there is no repairing it.
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post #3 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSpoon View Post
Let me google that for you

tons of methods online. i bought one of those scratch repair things at a Sam Goody many years ago and it worked pretty well. basically a very fine grade wet sand that slowly removed layers of plastic until it was smooth again. if the foil layer of the cd is damaged, then there is no repairing it.
This was pretty rude, but I suppose you're used to people who haven't googled prior. Now, here's the thing, anybody can google something, but what I asked was pretty specific. There are CD buffers, cleaners, repair systems all over the place. The ones I've tried don't work very well... short of a commercial buffing system it's hard to get realistic results.

But, here... let me QUOTE that for you:
Quote:
Originally Posted by aynjell
Have any of you had any luck with CD repair?
I was very specific on the "any of you", which should have been evident by it being the first sentence in the post. I wanted to know methods YOU have had good results with. If you can't answer that question, why reply?

To clarify, anybody can google stuff, so a community isn't even useful, but I'm asking about YOUR results, things you've found to actually work well. I am assuming you don't actually have a productive answer.
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post #4 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:25am
did you read the rest of my message? i said i used one and it worked pretty well. i didn't mean that as rude, i was just giving you some other options. you would be surprised(maybe) how often people dont do basic searches. cd repair is pretty basic. grind plastic off until the scratches are gone. then buff out the smaller ones.
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post #5 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:27am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSpoon View Post
did you read the rest of my message? i said i used one and it worked pretty well.
Yes, I read the rest of your post, but the LMGTFY was just pointless and silly. I didn't ask if it was possible, I didn't ask for you to research for me, I was asking what methods people have used and what the success rate was for repairing discs. Most shops use something that isn't meant to be a CD buffer, like rotaries, and belt sanders with really really really fine grit stuff.
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post #6 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:29am
edited my second post as you replied. wasnt trying to be rude...
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post #7 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSpoon View Post
edited my second post as you replied. wasnt trying to be rude...
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSpoon View Post
did you read the rest of my message? i said i used one and it worked pretty well. i didn't mean that as rude, i was just giving you some other options. you would be surprised(maybe) how often people dont do basic searches. cd repair is pretty basic. grind plastic off until the scratches are gone. then buff out the smaller ones.
What isn't basic is what gear actually works well. I have some pretty screwed albums.

I searched around here for the last day or two with no concrete "wow look at this totally bitchin sweet cd repair kit" threads. You'd think it'd be a pretty serious topic around here, but I guess not.
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post #8 of 19
2/11/10 at 1:37am
i think the lack of talk is mainly due to a lack of options and the huge increase in digital players. all i've really seen are the cheapy home kits like i used(worked pretty well, fixed all my cd's that had minor skipping problems) or toothpaste/rubbing compound DIY solutions. you mentioned some other device they use at the shop near you but i've never seen anything like it so i cant comment on that. obviously if you just want the music, you could download some lossless copies and burn them. but im guessing there's more to it than just the music.
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post #9 of 19
2/11/10 at 2:19am
I've used one of the skip doctors before and it worked fairly well for me, but I've never tried to repair a very bad scratch with it before.
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post #10 of 19
2/11/10 at 2:46am
Settle down, guys. Let's talk about fixing CDs.

I don't have a machine or kit, but have polished out a few by hand. Surprisingly, Brasso does a great job of removing scratches from plastic. I've gotten light scratches out just by rubbing with Brasso. It'll also take scratches out of acrylic watch crystals, remove the yellow fading from headlight lenses and much else.

If the scratches are deeper, I'll load a rubber sanding block with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Then I'll wet sand the disc. This is easy - just make sure the disc is wet while you sand it. Go easy and check your progress frequently. Once you get the big scratches out, polish the small ones out with Brasso.
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post #11 of 19
2/11/10 at 3:50am
I find the heavy duty commercial units at some rental shops (not Disc Dr. and the like, but the $1K type) do an extremely good job. There's one CD I've brought in that was brought back from the dead -- something the disc doctor couldn't have done with how scratched it was.

Given, most of my CDs (actually DVDs -- they get scratched more often for me) aren't nearly as bad. It was a test one just to see . . . and the results were jaw dropping to say the least.

Actually, found a link to the unit they used:

VMI 3500

Good stuff.
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post #12 of 19
2/13/10 at 10:20pm
For light scratches good old toothpaste works fine,as it does on watch faces and spectacles.
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post #13 of 19
2/13/10 at 11:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post
Settle down, guys. Let's talk about fixing CDs.

I don't have a machine or kit, but have polished out a few by hand. Surprisingly, Brasso does a great job of removing scratches from plastic. I've gotten light scratches out just by rubbing with Brasso. It'll also take scratches out of acrylic watch crystals, remove the yellow fading from headlight lenses and much else.

If the scratches are deeper, I'll load a rubber sanding block with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Then I'll wet sand the disc. This is easy - just make sure the disc is wet while you sand it. Go easy and check your progress frequently. Once you get the big scratches out, polish the small ones out with Brasso.
This is exactly the process I use. The only difference is that I use Plastx Polish. It takes a while if you have a stack of CDs with problems (as I have), but the work pays off. I've yet to ruin a disc, at least.
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post #14 of 19
2/14/10 at 2:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post
Settle down, guys. Let's talk about fixing CDs.

I don't have a machine or kit, but have polished out a few by hand. Surprisingly, Brasso does a great job of removing scratches from plastic. I've gotten light scratches out just by rubbing with Brasso. It'll also take scratches out of acrylic watch crystals, remove the yellow fading from headlight lenses and much else.

If the scratches are deeper, I'll load a rubber sanding block with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Then I'll wet sand the disc. This is easy - just make sure the disc is wet while you sand it. Go easy and check your progress frequently. Once you get the big scratches out, polish the small ones out with Brasso.
I will test this on some CD-r's. Here will be my test procedure:

Burn an album, and make sure it rips and verifies against accurate rip. Then scratch it up a bit... and then sand it with 600 grit (wet) and try this brasso stuff. if I can take it to hell and back, I'll be please. I'll probably be trying this sometime next weekend.

Thanks Uncle Erik!
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post #15 of 19
2/16/10 at 3:27am
I couple years ago I sent a bunch of games, dvds and cds to an outfit called azuradisc (I think) who will resurface them for $1 each if you send them in on a spool so their machine can automatically handle them. They came back in like-new condition, including some PS1 games that were really bad. I woudn't bother trying to polish them myself for $1 a disc, but I don't know if that outfit is still in business.
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