Dealing with Off Center Holes in Vinyl

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How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?

Happy listening to all,
Tom

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

t.hoehler <t.hoehler@insightbb.com> wrote:
> How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
> of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
> there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
> jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
> table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?

You could ream the center hole out a bit in the proper direction, until
it can be played centered..

--

-S.
"We started to see evidence of the professional groupie in the early 80's.
Alarmingly, these girls bore a striking resemblance to Motley Crue." --
David Lee Roth

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

t.hoehler wrote:

> How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
> of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
> there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
> jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
> table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?
>
==============================

Decades ago, before vinyl had collector's value, on some records I
enlarged the hole carefully with a file until they ran true, then made a
mark on the label, showing which side of the elongated hole was to be
pushed against the spindle. Then marked the other side in the same manner.

These days I play records with off-center holes on a turntable with
removable spindle, such as the Dual multiple-play model that I keep
around in running condition for this purpose and others (such as "Sing
Along with Mitch Miller" at Christmastime). No, it's theoretically not
as good as the primary turntable but bad decentration of records pretty
much destroys any illusion of accurate reproduction, so it sounds BETTER
on such records.

-GP

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In article <kFaMc.12351$eM2.3484@attbi_s51>,
"t.hoehler" <t.hoehler@insightbb.com> wrote:

> How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
> of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
> there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
> jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
> table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?

Nakamichi made a Dragon turntable that centered lps, although I would
assume they are rare and who know how hard to keep in running condition.

If the records in question aren't rare or valuable or otherwise
irreplaceable, you could widen the existing hole and mark pointers to
the center on the label.

Stephen

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On 7/23/04 1:06 PM, in article 0AbMc.150294$IQ4.4555@attbi_s02, "Steven
Sullivan" <ssully@panix.com> wrote:

> t.hoehler <t.hoehler@insightbb.com> wrote:
>> How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
>> of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
>> there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
>> jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
>> table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?
>
> You could ream the center hole out a bit in the proper direction, until
> it can be played centered..

I asked a friend of mine who is a vinyl head - and he informed me that
drilling the hole out is the main way he deals with a hole that is
off-center.

(He also said that when they remove the record "early" from the forming
machine - I have no idea - but he seemed rather annoyed at the off-center
problem)

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 17:06:04 GMT, Steven Sullivan <ssully@panix.com>
wrote:

>t.hoehler <t.hoehler@insightbb.com> wrote:
>> How do you deal with off centered holes in LP's? I have a large collection
>> of vinyl, and this is a very annoying problem. With 45's, (don't laugh,
>> there was some great music on those little discs with the big hole), you can
>> jockey the disc around enough to make it run true, but the center post on my
>> table won't come out in order to center an LP. Any suggestions?
>
>You could ream the center hole out a bit in the proper direction, until
>it can be played centered..

Yes, I've had to do that with a couple of treasured performances. It
really does work, especially if you put a marker on the label to
indicate where to butt the record against the spindle.

It's nice that we don't have to worry about that kind of thing
nowadays! :-)
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

Gene, There are other places that repair Naks. I don't know who they
are but hopefully someone will chime in with the information.

---MIKE---