Topic: CD cleaning

[stresssolutions]

Ok so you guys are pretty smart, someone knows the answer.

I had a cd in my shirt pocket, I bent over and it fell out into a pan of used oil.  I took it out and laid it onto an old newspaper. 

Is cleaning this thing viable?  Will it work again, and if so, how do I clean it?  I was thinking of laying it on clean newspaper and using alcohol to clean it, hopefully the alcohol would dissolve the oil without any mechanical action on my part.  Brake cleaner would blast the oil off, but would it dissolve the cd?

opinions, thoughts welcome, thanks

[sparty]

Just fill up your sink with warm/hot water, add Dawn dish detergent or similar (must cut grease) and wash the CD with a soft cotton wash cloth while under the soapy water.  Don't rub the CD too hard and you should be okay.  Just rinse with cool water and pat dry.  I have cleaned many CDs like this when my car was rear-ended and a case of oil that I had in the trunk exploded all over the place.

Sparty

[Really?]

Yup, I do that when the Blockbuster DVD's look like they have chicken grease finger prints on them.

[Steve F]

I've been told that the correct way to wipe clean a CD is to wipe from the center hole outward to the outer edge, and not in a circular motion around the center hole.  Something about putting scratches in the surface that could disrupt the laser's tracking.

[heffay]

I told you. 

awesome!   

I've been told that the correct way to wipe clean a CD is to wipe from the center hole outward to the outer edge, and not in a circular motion around the center hole.  Something about putting scratches in the surface that could disrupt the laser's tracking.

YUP

[fuzzybutt]

a used cd/record store here uses pledge to clean cd's. works good too.

[Really?]

surprisingly, Pledge is used to clean dead bugs off of bikes and makes them easier to remove when wiped down with it prior to a ride.

[mark]

...... scratches in the surface that could disrupt the laser's tracking.

Novus2 and some elbow grease will remove those and make it play like new. works on dvd's too.

[dummkauf]

The thing about CD's and DVD's are that they are just plastic discs with the really sensitive stuff encased in the plastic.  So as long as you are usinig a cleaner that won't eat plastic you will be fine, personally I usually use Windex to clean my discs(A tip I got from a local video store) and some type of soft cotten(usually an old tee-shirt) to dry/clean them and have never had a problem.

Another handy tip for buffing out small scratches that affect your disc's playability is to use toothpaste....yes, you read that correctly.  Just put a few dabs of toothpaste on the disc and rub it around with your fingers for a few minutes, wash the disc off with water, and dry with a soft cloth that won't scratch it.  Since toothpaste is basically just a very fine, flavored, abrasive it will buff out small scratches.  I have used this technique to fix completely unplayable discs.  Note that if you have huge gouges in the plastic you are pretty much screwed no matter what, but for everything else the toothpaste trick usually does the trick.  Just make sure you let the disc dry completely before trying to play it 

Another thing to keep in mind with your discs that most people don't realize is that the top of the disc(the side with the label) is actually the most sensitive to scratches.  The plastic covering the aluminum like metal(can't remember what it's actually made out of) sheet inside the disc is the thickest on the playing side, and is actually much thinner on the top of the disc.  So a scratch on the top of the disc is more likely to actually hit that thin layer of metal in the middle than if you scrach the bottom of the disc, and if the scratch hits the metal sheet, there is no repairing it unless you want to dish out several thousands of dollars for professional data recovery services.

[ryder60]

Pledge works well on your visor.  Just turn your head to the side and the water shoots right off.