Hey, I'm hoping one of you vinyl experts may be able to clue me in on a problem I've got. I opened a new record to find a big glob of some kind of greasy, waxy, gummy shit on the record that is presumably some cast-off from the manufacturing equipment. I tried some dish washing detergent, but that wasn't capable of getting the stuff completely out of the grooves, and I don't love the idea of dragging my needle through this crap. Having a shitty old motorcycle habit means i'm the proud owner of about every kind of degreaser and nasty-ass solvent you can legally buy, but I don't want to use anything that will soften or dissolve the vinyl. Anyone have any thoughts on what would be safe? here's a photo from after the dish soap effort:

Try your solvents on a throw-away disc, see what melts it and what don't. Go from there.

That could be glob of whatever coolant they used in their press, or it could be some glue from the paper sleeve that wasn't dry when the record got put in. I've used the 99.9% isopropyl alcohol I clean tape machine heads with to clean records. Worked well. You can get the really pure alcohol at radio shack and probably sam ash. I dunno if drugstore isopropyl would work just as well or not.

If you do try really harsh solvents on a throwaway record make sure the throwaway was a record that was pressed at about the same time, vinyl compound changes monthly these days.

At any rate, a defective record like this really isn't your problem, you can take/send the thing back and have the store/mailorder place give you a new record.

Thank you all for the suggestions. This was definitely something other than the packaging glue, as it was greasy and had a metallic component to it. It was pretty clear this was something from the manufacturing process. The closest thing I've come across to a similar substance would be like an aluminum-based anti-seize compound. I'll give alcohol a try, and if that doesn't go, I'll get more serious.

I did think of a return, but I bought it at the Wex Center store, and they're not really a record specific expert place, and it's not really their wheelhouse. And there's not another Rahsaan Roland Kirk one there I can exchange it for. Seems like besides the CDR stuff, most of their vinyl is pretty much single copies of one-off stuff, or stuff from shows they've hosted.

I would suggest one of the mechanics waterless non-abrasive hand cleaners for cutting the glob invader (Goop is my fav for cleaning nearly anything non-caustically), then follow with the mild dish soap. There may still be some residual oils, so follow that with a normal vinyl record cleaner and fluid.

Yeah, that sounds like record press coolant. There might be a fair amount of abrasive metal flakes in that depending on the plant. So, the thing might end up messed up from the insides of the grooves getting scratched no matter what you try from. Maybe not tho.

On the return subject, Matt Reber is the manager at the Wex store. He is a super nice guy and is easy to work with, plus, he is in the record specific expert realm, so if your record is ruined, I'd bet he would order you a replacement.