Cleaning vinyl
 

Any good (preferably affordable) products for this, or any good home methods of doing this effectively?

The Nitty Gritty is the way to go. Not super-cheap, but you only have to buy it once. And it is way cheaper than a VPI cleaning machine.

http://www.nittygrittyinc.com/

You can also put "LAST" solution in there. That stuff is getting expensive, but I think it really does do what it says it does.

http://www.lastfactory.com/record_care.html

(Otherwise, a good vinyl cleaning brush and a little distilled water will do the trick nicely as long as the LP isn't super-caked and excessively filthy)

GRUV GLIDE...

http://www.gruvglide.com/HOME.html

& Carbon Fiber Cleaning Brush...

http://www.needledoctor.com/Carbon-Fiber-Brush-LKG-101;jsessionid=0a010c441f43e765da35d27d4259b8909b7 710cd3c00.e3eTa3aSaxmTe34Pa38Ta38Pb350?sc=2&catego ry=1177

That's my cleaning process.

the dudes i know who have VPIs use isoprpyl or distilled water depending how dirty it is

Don't use isopropyl. It has impurities. I use a solution of denatured alcohol and distilled water, about half and half. I keep this in an old D4 Discwasher bottle. I use eyeglass-cleaning cloths (available from good optitiricanists) to wipe this on the record.

I have a far more complicated method for cleaning really dirty records but it's too much detail to go into here. PM me if you're interested.

what risk do the impurities pose to the record?

The point of cleaning is to get rid of impurities from the record's surface. You don't want to add any. Why clean with something that isn't clean, basically?

that's true,but i've never noticed any noise on records after they're cleaned with isopropyl, so i don't really care if something is there that i can't hear

i'm admittedly not too picky about it though, audiophiles hate me

That's fine if you don't care about the long-term care of your records, if all you're concerned about is how they sound right now. If it doesn't bother you that you may be leaving residue that could build up every time you clean your records and that may lead to deterioration of how your records sound years from now, do what you want.

Audiophiles would have me hung if only they could see my rekkids.

I doubt that. They might think you're a bloody idiot, but by and large people who take good care of their records are a peaceful lot.

most used records you buy have been shittily stored for decades and still sound fine, i've gotten records from jamaica that literally have bird shit dried into the grooves and they sound fine after 10 seconds of VPI time.

Great. I'm still not going to purposely gunk up my vinyl with isopropyl.

Besides, I thought I was addressing the question of a homemade method, not the merits of VPI.

Well, they may shed a few tears if they see how I have them shelved and stacked...

I don't want to know.

but you mentioned long term care, and what i mean with the VPI comments is that it isn't serious long term damage if it can be reversed almost-instantly