Styrene

[Mick Reed]

Hi just a quick ask would anybody except a record described as M- in this condition it plays fine but please see photos both sides of record.Thanks.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Mick Reed

[Mal C]

well its Ex+ isn't it Mick... nice condition but not m-

 

mal

[Mick Reed]

Not sure Mal they look like cracks 2 me with them being in same place on both sides.Mick

[Cck]

some styrene discs i've examined have what I can only describe as an "injection seam" where the injection process finishes.  these visual hairlines are not cracks but are probably more prone to cracking at the "seam"

 

i think the photos above are cracks though

[Pete S]

some styrene discs i've examined have what I can only describe as an "injection seam" where the injection process finishes.  these visual hairlines are not cracks but are probably more prone to cracking at the "seam"

 

i think the photos above are cracks though

 

I was going to say the same thing, loads of styrene records look like they have a crack in them but it's a kind of seam or crease, most notorious is the MVP's.

[Chris L]

Try and renegotiate the price, treat it with the love and care you give your partner, styrene is mans worst enemy, good luck.

[Mick Reed]

Thanks for the replies lads its been returned.Mick.

[Guest]

I think these hard to see hairline fractures in styrene are caused when the record was first kept in a paper sleeve, in a wooden box.

If you watch people who are not collectors looking through, they drop each record down into the box!

Edited March 27, 2015 by Guest

[stokesoulboy]

I was going to say the same thing, loads of styrene records look like they have a crack in them but it's a kind of seam or crease, most notorious is the MVP's.

[stokesoulboy]

It's the master plates on Mvps , looks like a hairline crack , but in fact it's the plates at fault , this was on the first stamper for the demo, there is a slightly later one that doesn't have the spider web flaw

[Guest]

I was going to say the same thing, loads of styrene records look like they have a crack in them but it's a kind of seam or crease, most notorious is the MVP's.

This maybe true for some, but a lot of styrene's really do have stress cracks in them!

I have identical copies of records, one stress cracked and the other one perfect!

If it was a pressing fault, surely both would be affected?

They are so brittle, it's a great wonder to me that any have survived through the rough handling they must had!

Edited March 29, 2015 by Guest

[Jnixon]

This maybe true for some, but a lot of styrene's really do have stress cracks in them!

I have identical copies of records, one stress cracked and the other one perfect!

I am going to try dropping some styrene records on edge, onto a wooden record box surface and see if they stress crack! Now where's that red styrene Kool Kat copy of Joe Matthews!!

 

its a more brittle material for sure but today's hairline is definitely tomorrow's major problem.

 

i had a dealer send me 12 very tightly packed styene tunes once, no bubble wrap or card not even the old favourite a few plastic shopping bags. unsurprisingly the outside few arrived with major issues and some of the inside copies lesser but pi==ed fingers could turn major.

 

he told me they were pressing flaws (not mentioned in his previous chat before I paid) so back went the lot and a nice payday. 

 

anyone know if there was any upping of the quality of this material as the years went on? ive had some later 70s styrene tunes that have looked awful and play very very well considering.

[Cover-up]

some styrene discs i've examined have what I can only describe as an "injection seam" where the injection process finishes.  these visual hairlines are not cracks but are probably more prone to cracking at the "seam"

 

i think the photos above are cracks though

 

Sorry, I don't buy the "injection seam" theory - when the record is manufactured, it's two metal plates which join together and when they separate, the disc is left manufactured. The two moulds would come off vertically - not slide off horizontally, leaving a line across half the disc. If it did leave a line running across the disc, it would leave a perfectly straight line across the entire record, from rim to rim, right through the exact centre spot.

 

If you look REALLY closely at the smooth flat edged rim of a styrene disc, you can see a very thin line running right around the whole edge - THAT's the line where the two halves of the mould separate. I'm afraid, if it looks like a stress fracture on the disc, that's what it is - a hairline crack. One drop, one clumsy mailman, record box packed too tightly - all can cause hairline cracks. And I daresay, some records DID come off the press with hairline cracks manufactured as the styrene material cooled down too fast or there were problems with the press...

[Dazdakin]

Your wrong mate, I'm a toolmaker (injection mould) by trade and they are moulded so the split line is on the diameter of the disc split 50/50, one side of disc is in one half of tool and the other half of disc in other half.

With the plastic being fed via pin gates either on the outer edge or inner edge of center hole. Always surprised me that more discs don't have run lines on them, having said that I think if you removed the labels you would see plenty of them.

Dazz

[Robbk]

its a more brittle material for sure but today's hairline is definitely tomorrow's major problem.

 

i had a dealer send me 12 very tightly packed styene tunes once, no bubble wrap or card not even the old favourite a few plastic shopping bags. unsurprisingly the outside few arrived with major issues and some of the inside copies lesser but pi==ed fingers could turn major.

 

he told me they were pressing flaws (not mentioned in his previous chat before I paid) so back went the lot and a nice payday. 

 

anyone know if there was any upping of the quality of this material as the years went on? ive had some later 70s styrene tunes that have looked awful and play very very well considering.

I think the quality of the styrene if different plants varied.  I had my worst wear on the records from L.A.'s Monarch, which was somewhat less durable than the grooves in the styrene from that plant in New York (Shelley?), and DEFINITELY worse than the Styrene used at Columbia Terre Haute.

 

I don't know if styrene was better in the '70s.  I only have a couple score records from the '70s, and most of them are vinyl.  The few '70s styrenes I have are 1970-72 Motown(&Sub.) labels' issues.  And those from Monarch are exactly the same quality as Monarch was pressing in the mid '60s.  I also doubt that they upped their styrene quality after 1972.

Edited March 29, 2015 by RobbK

[Cover-up]

Your wrong mate, I'm a toolmaker (injection mould) by trade and they are moulded so the split line is on the diameter of the disc split 50/50, one side of disc is in one half of tool and the other half of disc in other half.

 

Who me?! Is that not exactly what I said - that the split line runs right round the diameter? And not as a radius?

 

Not exactly on topic, but here's an interesting wee clip of vinyl getting pressed at Archer in Detroit... I presume when making a styrene disc, the mould is in two halves (A-side and B-side) and separates similarly?

 

Edited March 30, 2015 by cover-up