DVD Repair Machine/Kit - Fix Scratches, Polish DVDs/CDs - 30 Sheets

Just resurfaced 12 horribly mangled and unplayable CDs using the Simotech machine. The outcome was outstanding - all 12 CDs are playable and sound great! BUT... it took 8 hours and it was a little tricky; here is what I learned about resurfacing heavily damaged CDs.1) Spacers: More than optional, these spacers are essential for generating the proper pressure to cut the required amount of plastic off the old CD surface. Starting with the yellow pads and red cream, add one clear spacer, give it 3-4 spins. If you still see deep scratches, add a green spacer, give it 3-4 more spins, etc. Keep increasing the spacer thickness and spinning until you get the desired polish. If you are doing multiple CDs (I did a batch of 12), do all the CDs with each spacer thickness. For the worst CDs (like mine), you will end up using all 4 spacers. That's OK, just leave all the spacers in as you work your way through the creams (red, yellow, and white).With badly scratched CDs and using multiple spacers to generate the needed cutting pressure, you will have to avoid two problems. First, the motor will stall if you hit the start button with the lid shut. You will have to start the motor with the lid open, then click the lid shut once the motor spins up. Second, if you leave the lid shut between spins, the pressure will bond the grit to the CD surface leaving a dot pattern on the CD where the pads stopped. This not only can ruin the finish, it carries coarse grit to the next polishing stage and can prevent you from getting a good polish. To prevent this, count the number of seconds for each spin (about 12), and open the lid the last second before the disk stops spinning. You definitely need to let the machine cool down for at least 20 seconds between spins, or the machine will overheat and shut off. Its also better for the CD.2) Pad changing: For really bad CDs, you will need to remove a lot of plastic, and this clogs the pads. I had to change the yellow pads every four CDs on the first pass. Once I got past the red cream, the pads lasted for all 12 CDs. ALWAYS CHANGE THE PADS WHEN YOU CHANGE CREAMS.3) Cleaning: The polishing creams have a waxy base to lubricate the disc during polishing. I filled a spray bottle with half-diluted vegetable cleaning spray which leaves zero residue (available at supermarkets or Whole Foods). Worked great! Lay out a roll of paper towels to put your CDs on while you are cleaning them. This will blot off the water between polishing steps.4) Sanding Blocks: WARNING - DO NOT USE THE RED OR BLACK SANDING BLOCKS. I tried to use these on deep scratches, and instead of a bunch of deep scratches, I ended up with the entire CD full of deep scratches! I found that it is much better to leave a few of the deepest scratches than be anal and try to remove every last scratch. Even the deep scratches will be lightened substantially with the normal polishing process, and will not affect the ability to read the disk. If you use the sanding block, you will not be able to polish out the resulting scratches (I tried 20 spins and could not get the sanding block scratches out!)5) Cream: Dont use as much cream as they tell you to. Put a tiny dab on each pad each time you change the CD. Even a 1 mm length squeezed from the tube is too much. Just squeeze a tiny bit out of the tube and touch the pad, leaving a little dab. A little goes a long way!6) Instructions: The instructions that come with the unit are pretty good. However, read and print out the best of these reviews, which I found to offer interesting and helpful tips!

*** Update: I still love the product, the lid pins break after a few months, however. I can buy replacement parts from the vendor, but I just use gentle hand pressure to hold the lid at the right spot and don't worry about it. It doesn't take so long that this is a real issue. It does work on many deeply-gouged discs, but not all. Those deeply-gouged discs usually require special attention with the small, manual, red-colored sander, a lot of patience, water, and scratch paste.***I was skeptical... how can this product be so pricey (relative to other products) and yet have 18 out of 18 5-star ratings? I had to try it. I've had a chance to try it on some lightly and some moderately scratched discs, and every one of them looks like NEW! This is an AMAZING product. The 2nd disc I tried was a moderately scratched disc, and I was upset when it ended up with a discolored "ring" in the middle of the disc... but it played OK... so I didn't worry about it too much. After doing a couple more discs, I realized that you REALLY have to pay close attention to the directions. USE the spray water bottle. Reapply the buffing and polishing fluid. Get distilled water for the water bottle (or soft water in a pinch) and keep the disc moist during scratch-filling sessions. I'm going to try it on some of my friend's uber-scratched kids games (he has 5 boys, from 2 years to 15... and they have truly GOUGED some of their games -- so I'm going to put the machine to the ultimate test. I'll update this after... but honestly, this product works fantastically on discs that are marginal... they look (and play) like NEW! Oh, and that ring in the middle of the 2nd disc I did? I went back to the beginning on it, this time making sure to use the water liberally... and lightly buffed it a couple of times and polished it 3-4 times... and then it too looked like new. So for those couple of guys who said it made some discs worse? They probably didn't read the directions closely enough. One way you can tell you need more water is when it doesn't want to easily start up when you close the lid.Oh yeah, one more thought -- if the disc is real dirty or might have grit on it, CLEAN it or rinse it off under running water to get the grit off before you start working on it.