The whole thing is sketchy because 1) no real human would be excited about paying over $4000 American money for a disc resurfacer. And 2) the discs in the thumbnail are obviously photoshopped, did you notice how the holes aren't in the center of the disc? Lazy Photoshop jobs piss me off. For 3000 pounds they can't even be bothered to center the hole in their fake before and after images? It's probably just a motor to spin the disc with sandpaper in the lid. Don't bother. Plus, if your discs are that scratched, disc rot will begin in those scratched areas, and resurfacing will not fix rot.
I love this machine. I got one at work for our DVD library and it works great. it has been sold in the US under the RTI and ELM brands for those looking for one in the states. Keep in mind that these auto machines are meant to be used often, and if you go a week or two between uses you will find that the polishing compound will thicken/dry out a bit in the supply tube. You should purge the tube prior to use if it has been sitting awhile. Hold both the red and "5" buttons down simultaneously to enter the maintenance mode. Press "2" to run the polish compound pump forwards and "3" to run it backwards. To purge, I usually run it forwards for 10secs or so with a paper towel under the nozzle where the compound and water come out of to catch what squirts out. I usually run it until all the thick compound has come out and no compound continues to seep out after the pump has been stopped. You may recycle any thick compound by putting it back in the compound bottle reservoir and adding a tiny bit of water and shake the bottle to rehydrate it.
Wow Mike, thank you so much for the advise. I just got one of these from a friend who closed his shop. They hadn't used it in a long time. I would not have know that if not for you. Thank you so much for the detailed instructions.
@@SwapPartLLC Also, not everyone would bother with it cause... "collectors"... but everytime you polish a thing, it will get thinner and thinner. It's like sharpening a knife; If you keep doing it over and over, the already thin surface could get so much thinner at a certain point that the blade will end up breaking. Thats why Blockbuster's and similar franchises used to trash some of their content instead of selling everything after some time back at its days.
@@budgetking2591 No, there's no law but it is nice to mention because there are only so many times you can repair a disc before you go too far. Knowing this upfront is handy for future use.
I think that for international community, where water your local swamp or dich, but say mineral water at least say, drinkable water, but as you said distilled water is going to give a more drip dry, mo buffing need finish, but I thing final hand wipe down going be needed anyway, so it's more what the cheapest, after £3000 outlay the cheaper the better I would think 🙂
I remember sending off some discs a few years back to have them resurfaced. They were mainly second hand ones I’d bought and were a bloody mess. They came back looking like new! I have no use for one these days, yet I’d still like to own one 😊
That machine was not cheap but you cannot argue with the results. Wow! I have a resurfacing machine and it does an incredible job but the ease of use of your machine is on another level. As more and more people start to realize the problems of an all digital future I believe physical copies of games and movies are going to be more sought after. I love the fact it also does Gamecube games. My machine does not and Gamecube games really hold their value so that is outstanding. Thanks for sharing and congrats!
LOL You ain't gonna stop an all digital future. All discs will eventually degrade and become unreadable. Same goes for anything Physical, consoles, strorage, etc etc. It's not "if" but "when".
Thought the disc didnt look that great then i realised my tablet screen was dirty lol results are amazing never realised these machines existed ps2 games looked great blu rays are a nightmare to clean better than the toothpaste hack back in the day good luck with the rest of your collection
As someone who has used this machine now for 5 years, you can cheat a bit when fixing a very heavily scratched bluray. Run the bluray disc on the CD setting for a 2 and then switch to the bluray pad for a 4, and you will get great results. I've even used a 3 CD setting before then bluray for a very heavy fix, and the disc played perfectly still! Hope this helps!
blu rays don't need resurfacing. you just need a good pad and buff it out. the coating on blu rays is ridiculous. i buffed all my used games with the same rag that came with the vr headset. buffed all the marks out. you can't do that with cd's.
I am not sure if you want to put bluray through these. I have worked in Czech alternative to Game (JRC) and we were told not to do blurays due to the fact that there is a hardened scratch resistant glass-like layer on top that you'll polish off and the discs than scratch even easier or become cloudy and since the data is much denser on the bluray you basically doom it. The plastic below the top layer is very thin and once you go through it you are hitting data. A scratch on bluray that makes the disc inoperable means that no matter what you do you won't be able to save it. The machine may have a special program for blurays but trust me - you do not want to polish it at all if you care about longetivity of the disc. And if you insist on doing blurays, you should clean the pads between the rounds to not have leftover compound on them. Our machine was also BD compatible but after many customers returning we stopped doing BDs. Also do not wipe the compound off, wash it off under running water with a bit of dish soap and soft clean sponge that you wash out afterwards for best results. The compound is abrasive so wiping it will create scratches.
Back in the 90s I worked for a marble and granite restoration company in The City so I'm familiar with the process of cutting/wet sanding and then re polishing surfaces which basically what this very expensive machine is doing. I just like to say that it's not that difficult to do by hand with the right chemicals and sanding pads so anybody who wants to polish up their collection and doesn't want to spend 1000s do some research on the process👍😎
These machines are amazing, I used to own the model below this one it was more work because you had to remove each pad after each cycle but still got the same results just for a slightly cheaper price 😀
Great video Toms. I haven't seen anyone do an in-depth dive into this machine like you. I just got one used not too long ago. I knew the machine was good. Again, love the way you showed everything off. Btw, great set up. Oh, I had a question. I am looking at starting a resell business also. Do you change game cases often and if you do get a case, where do you usually get them? People seem to want the OEM cases but I can only find clones.
You should only be using distilled water because spring water contains minerals that will coat the valves and tubes of the machine with residue and eventually impair it's function. Mineral water is water containing various minerals and is often sourced from springs, while distilled water is vapor-condensed water with impurities and minerals removed.
I've had my JFJ Easy pro for 3 years now & once you get the hang of it you get excellent results. Huge bonus is there are many car polishes you can use which are cheaper than expensive compounds. The trick is to make sure the disc is wet so you don't burn through it 👍😊
@@luke9511 Yes it does Blu-ray as well & even GameCube games with an adapter 👍😊 if you Google it, it explains all of it 😊 just make sure the disc is wet or it will burn it, takes some practice so use crap discs first when practicing.
@@JeffisWinning thats all i want to do, i rip all of my blu rays and i have some that will play but not rip and was wanting to run them through something like the jfj
@luke9511 It can do it, but the JFJ is tricky. You have to find the right way to do it for the discs to come out looking good. I had a JFJ and could never get the discs to come out right, so I sold it and got a machine like the one in the video.
Hi Tom - I have 3 of these and can pass on a piece of money saving advice. Get yourself a small spray bottle and a toothbrush. Before your first clean of the day, lightly spray all the pads with de-ionized water. After each disc clean cycle, lightly spray the pads again and quickly clean each one with the toothbrush. This may sound like a pain but literally takes seconds to do and will prolong the working life of the pads considerably. You are removing all the plastic and compound residue created by the friction on the discs and, as these pads are literally different grades of abrasive, the cleaner the surfaces the more effective and the longer they will last.... Try it and thank me later.!!
Great video thank you for sharing. I’d be interested in seeing a short vid on the T cut scratched case refurbishment if you had time to do one? I sell CDs some of my cases aren’t in amazing condition and new replacement ones are cheap flimsy too can’t beat a OG cd case from the 80s. Cheers Tony
I used to have a Dr. Disc or whatever it was called that cost like $100 way back in the day that used to beautifully clear up scratches on discs. Super awesome.
Mate just mentioning that off it says use specifically _Distilled Water_ then use that. Spring (or mineral) water is not pure, hence the term 'mineral'. You will get calcium buildup over time and clog up the whole system...
The data is in the metal layer, so if you can polish the plastic so the scratches don't block the laser, it should work again. Discs also have error correction and can handle some amount of scratches, but at some point it becomes too much.
If you can get the grit specifications of each pad you might want to look at alternatives, "micro mesh" make very fine abrasives in very high grits, used for polishing polycarbonate and metal :)
Really impressed, especially with the ps1 disc as they're difficult to clean. I have a cheaper machine. Does the job on xbox 360, og xbox, ps2, wii, but struggles with coloured discs like ps1. But it's good enough to get things traded to cex which is what I use it for.
What makes BD discs less prone to scratches but more difficult to restore? Obviously there's a difference in the material used. Harder plastic or plastic receives a special treatment? Some sort of "coating" on the surface?
I do some resurfacing. Every game I resurface I make sure I put that in the listing, as well, and I always test them out. Sometimes you can get a beautifully non scratched disc, but won't boot after the fact.
@@TOMS_TAT I use a mini hand held DA polisher. I'm an automotive detailer by trade with 20 years exp, so I know how to buff. I get the scratches out about 85-90%. LOL, I bought the mini hand held polisher from china for like $30. Eventually I'll get a machine to do it for me.
Can I clean my game disc with disinfecting wipes, washing it over the sink, and using a paper towel to dry it? One huge problem i'm having when drying the disc with a Paper Towel is the white stuff on the disc. I did inspect it by using a flashlight or my house lights to see. & it's not coming off. Water and Disinfecting Wipes have no issues on the disc whatsoever. But when I want to dry if off, I don't have anything else. So is it worth doing that?
That is so satisfying. Couple things I feel like mentioning is when you add the additive to the water, you should mix the bottle up after. Also you could probably make the pads last longer if your blast them out with compressed air, kind of like car detailers do. Hopefully save you some money from buying new pads
Wow, that works way better than the Skip Dr hand crank one I used many ages ago! While it did work most of the time correcting disc errors, this machine is a whole other level!
A games shop I used to work in had a manual version of one of these and likely much earlier as it was around 2012ish. The pads were foam pads you had to stick the abrasive pads on
Its been several years since I handled any optical discs. I still have a pretty large collection of DVD-Rs backing up data, but I already migrated that data to HDDs and to a cloud backup service. I would have continued to use optical discs to back up my data had the tech kept up with larger capacities.
I use to go to the local magazene shop, they also sold games, and had a resurfacing machine and resurfaced 2 of my old ps2 games and an xbox360 game for free 🙌🙌 This definitely looks much bigger than the one I used.
Doing that removes more. If you put it on a 2 and then it doesnt get all the scratches out then you have to put it in again. Putting it through a 2 twice takes off more than if you do it on a 4 once.
I used to operate a proper CD skimmer machine at a game shop quite a few years back when they first became available, not those crappy machines that just buffs CD's, & I have to agree whole heartedly, they are amazing! Chances are, whatever disc you put into to skim, they will be turned back into flawless factory condition. If I had a spare £3k, I would definitely buy one. I must of operated one of the first models because it resembled a top loading washer machine & I can still remember what it looked like all them years ago, going on for 20 years now!
Alien game can sell up to £250 depending on condition etc, the hidden Backup Game Launcher on the disc has been unveiled and has made the cost sky rocket.
I have a copy of Lost Oddysey's disc 4 that was absolutely eaten by my 360. It scratched so many circles in the disc that Saturn would be jealous. I doubt that it could be saved anymore, but it makes me curious how well the machine could handle something like this.
Do you offer a disc cleaning service ? i have some dvd,s with pictures on from holidays 15yr ago and disc is scratched with age... i have around 5-10 discs that need doing ? ebay seller does it for £2.73 inc return postage cost. per disk over 5 number.
Once i gave a scratched disc to be repaired to a shop, came back like new but guess what: Unreadable sectors from scratches was still unreadable and worst of all after some time same scratches returned without disc being used.
@@TOMS_TAT Unless their machine simply refilled the scratches and the material used evaporated somehow. Believe me the scratches were exactly the same. As for your machine i expected to see real test results like imaging process a bad disc CD or DVD before and after.
I have a concert disk from 2012. I performed on it when I was little, sadly it has some scratches which had to break the exact video Im present. I still have the dvd, of course. But I don’t know who do I go to get it cleaned or whatever. Never knew this machine existed haha. Now for the fun part, any international companies that can do this job for cheap?
This machine is awesome, I've had a playstation 1 game that was scratched it would freeze while playing, after I got the disc resurfaced I was able to finish the whole game
For the two PS2 games, it leaves a mark in the central spine. Was it removable with the cloth or not? Because some resurfacers does scratch the central part which Can be noticed by anyone who are familiar with resurfaced discs.
I tried to have a disk fixed at family video. Stupid thing ate through the plastic and into the data layer. The game it ruined was klonoa door to pantomile for ps1. Before the remakes came out it was impossible to find for under 200
Hi, was that the full price you paid you shown, as i noticed on their site the listing page doesn't show price with vat, but when you go to checkout then the vat is added, so it costs more than you think when you checkout ?
Yes, I originally went to buy it on their site, then saw the added VAT so I bought off their eBay store instead and didn't have to pay it! I saved hundreds of pounds lol 😆
As @brdnl3 suggested, it would be interesting to know how much material is removed on each pass. A £10 digital vernier caliper from Amazon would probably suffice. From what I've just read, CDs have a 1.2mm thick polycarbonate protective substrate, and the official specs require it to be no less than 1.1mm (a -0.1mm tolerance). DVDs have the data 0.6mm in from the surface. Blu-ray discs have the data later at 0.1mm from the surface, and as such have a special hardened protective outer surface. That would explain why BDs have a dedicated mode which I guess must be important to use. I'd love to see how much tolerance a CD, DVD and BD laser pickup demonstrates when a disc is progressively thinned to destruction. But at around 40p a pass, the consumable costs to perform such tests would be difficult to justify for the sake of a special interest UA-cam video.
@@darkshadowsx5949Ideally it'd be one CD, one DVD, one BluRay. It's possible each pass only removes ~0.01mm and a CD might continue working until it's 0.6mm, so it adds up quickly. Would also be worth testing each disc on different devices to see if pickup tolerances vary much. I do agree though; the material costs aren't likely to be too bad, however it would be difficult to judge if the investment in time would be worth it.
I had my ps1 discs resurfaced and came back clean as hell but would not boot at all. Tbf it had deep scratches so I imagine they polished the data bumps right off lol. This was back in 2008 though.
I only recommend doing this on games that do not work on consoles with good lasers. The CDs may look great after doing this, but they may be worse. I've tried this method a few times and ended up ruining a few games. The problem is that the distance the light of the laser has to travel inside the CD diminishes and that affects if the CD works or not.
Very interesting and a great machine that really does the job properly a lot of negative comments here the outer plastic layer on CDs is thick enough most scratches are not deep .I didn't realise those game discs were so collectable and valuable good for your business
Great machine, this should have existed 20 years ago. Nowadays I don't have a single optical media at home, I went full digital after most of my burned dvds started going bad.
Impressive, however it not doing Blu-ray well i guess makes it less useful in the future with 4K UHD and any console PS3 and above using that type of disc.
Blu ray hav a layer over the actual disc so it's easier to clean most are just surface scratches. Where as dvds don't have that layer hence why they ruin easier 👍
They are both duel layered, and i've split both DVD'S and Blu-Rays apart as an experiment, I remember the B-Rays having an extremely thin bottom Layer, but either way, you give them too much of a ding on the underside and they're EF, you, see, kaid mate. With the CD being a single disc, its weak spot is actually the top of the disc where the reflective film is, give that a good scratch and it's probably game over, the majority of dings on the underside however can usually be sorted one way or another, I resurface mine by hand with T-Cut, I've got some really deep scratches out in the past.
Compact disc based releases i would advise you to check for holes on the data layer before everything. Otherwise it just might be a colossal waste of resources every now and then.
i have been thinking of getting one for years but seemed to much hassle,so found a store and just pay when i need some doing.Have you seen the ones some you tubers in the u s use does 50 discs cost about 15k?
You should definitely mention in your listing that the disc has been refurbished.
Yes.
Yes. A resurdaced disc is NOT the same condition as one without a scratch. Please don't be the kind of scum that does this.
The whole thing is sketchy because 1) no real human would be excited about paying over $4000 American money for a disc resurfacer. And 2) the discs in the thumbnail are obviously photoshopped, did you notice how the holes aren't in the center of the disc?
Lazy Photoshop jobs piss me off.
For 3000 pounds they can't even be bothered to center the hole in their fake before and after images?
It's probably just a motor to spin the disc with sandpaper in the lid.
Don't bother.
Plus, if your discs are that scratched, disc rot will begin in those scratched areas, and resurfacing will not fix rot.
I would be happy. 🤷♂@@Boogie_the_cat
why thou
I love this machine. I got one at work for our DVD library and it works great. it has been sold in the US under the RTI and ELM brands for those looking for one in the states. Keep in mind that these auto machines are meant to be used often, and if you go a week or two between uses you will find that the polishing compound will thicken/dry out a bit in the supply tube. You should purge the tube prior to use if it has been sitting awhile. Hold both the red and "5" buttons down simultaneously to enter the maintenance mode. Press "2" to run the polish compound pump forwards and "3" to run it backwards. To purge, I usually run it forwards for 10secs or so with a paper towel under the nozzle where the compound and water come out of to catch what squirts out. I usually run it until all the thick compound has come out and no compound continues to seep out after the pump has been stopped. You may recycle any thick compound by putting it back in the compound bottle reservoir and adding a tiny bit of water and shake the bottle to rehydrate it.
thank you for your advice Mr. Gates!
Wow Mike, thank you so much for the advise. I just got one of these from a friend who closed his shop. They hadn't used it in a long time. I would not have know that if not for you. Thank you so much for the detailed instructions.
You should mention on any listing that the discs been professionally cleaned.
No he don't, there is no law that says he has too.
I would list them as refurbished. They literally are refurbished, and that means they are worth more than a scratched up game.
It is mentioned in my listings.
@@SwapPartLLC Also, not everyone would bother with it cause... "collectors"... but everytime you polish a thing, it will get thinner and thinner.
It's like sharpening a knife; If you keep doing it over and over, the already thin surface could get so much thinner at a certain point that the blade will end up breaking. Thats why Blockbuster's and similar franchises used to trash some of their content instead of selling everything after some time back at its days.
@@budgetking2591 No, there's no law but it is nice to mention because there are only so many times you can repair a disc before you go too far. Knowing this upfront is handy for future use.
Seems very strange that it wants mineral water, which is full of impurities, rather than clean distilled water.
I think that for international community, where water your local swamp or dich, but say mineral water at least say, drinkable water, but as you said distilled water is going to give a more drip dry, mo buffing need finish, but I thing final hand wipe down going be needed anyway, so it's more what the cheapest, after £3000 outlay the cheaper the better I would think 🙂
impurities = little rocks and things. helps resurfacing
Mine takes distilled water. I have no idea what the mineral water is about.
true mineral water is clean enough maybe you can get demineralized water at the pharmacy.
@@ruudw.2403 you can buy it cheap at the petrol station never mind tiny bottles from a pharmacy.
I remember sending off some discs a few years back to have them resurfaced. They were mainly second hand ones I’d bought and were a bloody mess. They came back looking like new! I have no use for one these days, yet I’d still like to own one 😊
That machine was not cheap but you cannot argue with the results. Wow! I have a resurfacing machine and it does an incredible job but the ease of use of your machine is on another level. As more and more people start to realize the problems of an all digital future I believe physical copies of games and movies are going to be more sought after. I love the fact it also does Gamecube games. My machine does not and Gamecube games really hold their value so that is outstanding. Thanks for sharing and congrats!
there is that. then there is the problem of finding any "blank dvd's" or a "dvd burner". i got a boatload of blank dvd's.
LOL You ain't gonna stop an all digital future. All discs will eventually degrade and become unreadable. Same goes for anything Physical, consoles, strorage, etc etc. It's not "if" but "when".
Thought the disc didnt look that great then i realised my tablet screen was dirty lol results are amazing never realised these machines existed ps2 games looked great blu rays are a nightmare to clean better than the toothpaste hack back in the day good luck with the rest of your collection
Same, this video got me to clean my laptop screen :P
That PS2 FIFA 08 game cleaned up amazingly well. Should be able to flip that one game and cover the cost of the resurfacing machine! :-)
Buddy of mine owns a retro game store. He has the exact same machine. I can vouch for its effectiveness.
As someone who has used this machine now for 5 years, you can cheat a bit when fixing a very heavily scratched bluray. Run the bluray disc on the CD setting for a 2 and then switch to the bluray pad for a 4, and you will get great results. I've even used a 3 CD setting before then bluray for a very heavy fix, and the disc played perfectly still!
Hope this helps!
Wow thanks for the tip!
blu rays don't need resurfacing. you just need a good pad and buff it out. the coating on blu rays is ridiculous. i buffed all my used games with the same rag that came with the vr headset. buffed all the marks out. you can't do that with cd's.
@@ChickenMcThiccken you can do that with cd's using t-cut
I tried this and the game doesn't work now lol 😆
I am not sure if you want to put bluray through these. I have worked in Czech alternative to Game (JRC) and we were told not to do blurays due to the fact that there is a hardened scratch resistant glass-like layer on top that you'll polish off and the discs than scratch even easier or become cloudy and since the data is much denser on the bluray you basically doom it. The plastic below the top layer is very thin and once you go through it you are hitting data. A scratch on bluray that makes the disc inoperable means that no matter what you do you won't be able to save it. The machine may have a special program for blurays but trust me - you do not want to polish it at all if you care about longetivity of the disc. And if you insist on doing blurays, you should clean the pads between the rounds to not have leftover compound on them. Our machine was also BD compatible but after many customers returning we stopped doing BDs.
Also do not wipe the compound off, wash it off under running water with a bit of dish soap and soft clean sponge that you wash out afterwards for best results. The compound is abrasive so wiping it will create scratches.
Would you say in the listing that the disc has been resurfaced?
Obvio que no. Cuál sería la gracia?
Yes.
Back in the 90s I worked for a marble and granite restoration company in The City so I'm familiar with the process of cutting/wet sanding and then re polishing surfaces which basically what this very expensive machine is doing. I just like to say that it's not that difficult to do by hand with the right chemicals and sanding pads so anybody who wants to polish up their collection and doesn't want to spend 1000s do some research on the process👍😎
What are the right sanding pads to use?
@@ConradAlderton Defiantly dont use 240 grit on a disc! That will destroy it!
These machines are amazing, I used to own the model below this one it was more work because you had to remove each pad after each cycle but still got the same results just for a slightly cheaper price 😀
Great video Toms. I haven't seen anyone do an in-depth dive into this machine like you. I just got one used not too long ago. I knew the machine was good. Again, love the way you showed everything off. Btw, great set up. Oh, I had a question. I am looking at starting a resell business also. Do you change game cases often and if you do get a case, where do you usually get them? People seem to want the OEM cases but I can only find clones.
I just use cases from low value sports games.
You should show you trying to load the game before/after buffing
Yes I should of done that tbh. I have fixed loads of non working discs and they would of been good to show in the video.
You should only be using distilled water because spring water contains minerals that will coat the valves and tubes of the machine with residue and eventually impair it's function.
Mineral water is water containing various minerals and is often sourced from springs, while distilled water is vapor-condensed water with impurities and minerals removed.
Yes your right. I have a water distiller now.
I want one. Just for satisfaction purposes only. I could sit there all day repairing discs.
Tom, your content and video production is some of the best on UA-cam - superb!
Wow, thanks you so much!
A OCDs dream that office.
That machine is great you can literally see the playstation logos after you cleaned them.
Great investment. 👍
Oh yes the OCD is strong in this shed.
I've had my JFJ Easy pro for 3 years now & once you get the hang of it you get excellent results. Huge bonus is there are many car polishes you can use which are cheaper than expensive compounds. The trick is to make sure the disc is wet so you don't burn through it 👍😊
does it do blu ray? i have been thinking of getting one but not sure
@@luke9511 Yes it does Blu-ray as well & even GameCube games with an adapter 👍😊 if you Google it, it explains all of it 😊 just make sure the disc is wet or it will burn it, takes some practice so use crap discs first when practicing.
@luke9511 JFJ does Blu-Ray, as does the machine in the video here. Blu-ray discs can only be polished, though.
@@JeffisWinning thats all i want to do, i rip all of my blu rays and i have some that will play but not rip and was wanting to run them through something like the jfj
@luke9511 It can do it, but the JFJ is tricky. You have to find the right way to do it for the discs to come out looking good. I had a JFJ and could never get the discs to come out right, so I sold it and got a machine like the one in the video.
"Four li'ah Wo'ah Bo'ah"
Yes, Four liter Water bottle 😆
😆
3000?? I worded in radio for 25 years. Machines like this topped out at 500 in the mid 90's. WOW!!
There were never machines of this caliber that resurfaced discs like this in the 90’s.
Machines like this didn't exist in the 90's. Not ones as good as this anyway.
Wow that thing I'd nice. Back in like 2003 I had a manual one. It worked pretty well.
I remember when a place called Hastings would use one of these, and you could get handheld ones for personal use.
Hi Tom - I have 3 of these and can pass on a piece of money saving advice. Get yourself a small spray bottle and a toothbrush. Before your first clean of the day, lightly spray all the pads with de-ionized water. After each disc clean cycle, lightly spray the pads again and quickly clean each one with the toothbrush. This may sound like a pain but literally takes seconds to do and will prolong the working life of the pads considerably. You are removing all the plastic and compound residue created by the friction on the discs and, as these pads are literally different grades of abrasive, the cleaner the surfaces the more effective and the longer they will last.... Try it and thank me later.!!
Great video thank you for sharing. I’d be interested in seeing a short vid on the T cut scratched case refurbishment if you had time to do one? I sell CDs some of my cases aren’t in amazing condition and new replacement ones are cheap flimsy too can’t beat a OG cd case from the 80s.
Cheers Tony
I used to have a Dr. Disc or whatever it was called that cost like $100 way back in the day that used to beautifully clear up scratches on discs. Super awesome.
Does a way better job than the old CD scratch removers that looked like a portable CD player, that I purchased in the 90s.
Mate just mentioning that off it says use specifically _Distilled Water_ then use that. Spring (or mineral) water is not pure, hence the term 'mineral'. You will get calcium buildup over time and clog up the whole system...
Good point I'll have to change it.
@@TOMS_TAT All good !
Was coming to the comments to say that. Used to work with these, distilled all the way
@@CaptainGarratt Where can i buy distilled water?
@@TOMS_TAT Deionised will *probably* also be ok, and you can get that from Halfords.
What a machine! Scratched discs are so frustrating. It would be interesting to see if the machine could fix a non-playing disc.
It can.
sometimes. really depends on how deep the scratch is.
The data is in the metal layer, so if you can polish the plastic so the scratches don't block the laser, it should work again. Discs also have error correction and can handle some amount of scratches, but at some point it becomes too much.
If you can get the grit specifications of each pad you might want to look at alternatives, "micro mesh" make very fine abrasives in very high grits, used for polishing polycarbonate and metal :)
Really impressed, especially with the ps1 disc as they're difficult to clean. I have a cheaper machine. Does the job on xbox 360, og xbox, ps2, wii, but struggles with coloured discs like ps1. But it's good enough to get things traded to cex which is what I use it for.
Have you seen the two handles at the package to get the machine out of the box?
no?
What makes BD discs less prone to scratches but more difficult to restore? Obviously there's a difference in the material used. Harder plastic or plastic receives a special treatment? Some sort of "coating" on the surface?
They have tougher plastic. which makes it harder to scratch. but Also harded to polish.
How about a measurement of the thickness before and after various cds, dvds and blu ray repair
I do some resurfacing. Every game I resurface I make sure I put that in the listing, as well, and I always test them out. Sometimes you can get a beautifully non scratched disc, but won't boot after the fact.
What machine do you use?
@@TOMS_TAT I use a mini hand held DA polisher. I'm an automotive detailer by trade with 20 years exp, so I know how to buff. I get the scratches out about 85-90%. LOL, I bought the mini hand held polisher from china for like $30. Eventually I'll get a machine to do it for me.
Can I clean my game disc with disinfecting wipes, washing it over the sink, and using a paper towel to dry it? One huge problem i'm having when drying the disc with a Paper Towel is the white stuff on the disc. I did inspect it by using a flashlight or my house lights to see. & it's not coming off. Water and Disinfecting Wipes have no issues on the disc whatsoever. But when I want to dry if off, I don't have anything else. So is it worth doing that?
That is so satisfying. Couple things I feel like mentioning is when you add the additive to the water, you should mix the bottle up after. Also you could probably make the pads last longer if your blast them out with compressed air, kind of like car detailers do. Hopefully save you some money from buying new pads
Wow, that works way better than the Skip Dr hand crank one I used many ages ago! While it did work most of the time correcting disc errors, this machine is a whole other level!
A games shop I used to work in had a manual version of one of these and likely much earlier as it was around 2012ish. The pads were foam pads you had to stick the abrasive pads on
Nice looking machine!. Definitely looks like it beats the SkipDr I used 25 years ago. 😅
Surely you can save so much money by finding your own plastic polishing compound?
Now, the question is how to remove scratches from the inner spindle so people don't know they've been resurfaced, hmm...
Awesome machine tom, never have to worry about buying scratched discs at carboots anymore
Indeed, but I can still try to knock the prices down if there scratched 😅
Its been several years since I handled any optical discs. I still have a pretty large collection of DVD-Rs backing up data, but I already migrated that data to HDDs and to a cloud backup service. I would have continued to use optical discs to back up my data had the tech kept up with larger capacities.
I use to go to the local magazene shop, they also sold games, and had a resurfacing machine and resurfaced 2 of my old ps2 games and an xbox360 game for free 🙌🙌 This definitely looks much bigger than the one I used.
that machine is insane. wow, im amazed this works so well.
Always start on lowest setting and go up, you don't want to be removing unnecessary layers on game discs.
Doing that removes more. If you put it on a 2 and then it doesnt get all the scratches out then you have to put it in again. Putting it through a 2 twice takes off more than if you do it on a 4 once.
Silly question, but the badly scratched disc didn't play, and did after repair correct?
Yes
@@TOMS_TAT Cool, hope it works out well for you
I used to operate a proper CD skimmer machine at a game shop quite a few years back when they first became available, not those crappy machines that just buffs CD's, & I have to agree whole heartedly, they are amazing! Chances are, whatever disc you put into to skim, they will be turned back into flawless factory condition. If I had a spare £3k, I would definitely buy one.
I must of operated one of the first models because it resembled a top loading washer machine & I can still remember what it looked like all them years ago, going on for 20 years now!
Alien game can sell up to £250 depending on condition etc, the hidden Backup Game Launcher on the disc has been unveiled and has made the cost sky rocket.
I have a copy of Lost Oddysey's disc 4 that was absolutely eaten by my 360. It scratched so many circles in the disc that Saturn would be jealous. I doubt that it could be saved anymore, but it makes me curious how well the machine could handle something like this.
This can probably fix it easily.
@@TOMS_TAT It depends how deep they are right?
@@BladeEXE67 Yes, but it can get pretty deep ones out.
The data is on the opposite side of the polishing so it shouldn't hurt to polish it more
The water additive is just a mild detergent. You want distilled water, not mineral water, mainly because it makes the detergent more effective.
Do you offer a disc cleaning service ? i have some dvd,s with pictures on from holidays 15yr ago and disc is scratched with age... i have around 5-10 discs that need doing ? ebay seller does it for £2.73 inc return postage cost. per disk over 5 number.
Yes I can do it. Send me a message on Instagram
So have you calculated how many games you need to sell to break even for the cost of the machine ?
No. But so far I have made about £300 from my disc repair service alone. It will take some time to pay off but its a good long term investmant.
Meanwhile, I got almost the same results with my Dremel, some toothpaste and a polishing wheel 😂
My friends dad had one when we owned a shop they're quite amazing machines.
Once i gave a scratched disc to be repaired to a shop, came back like new but guess what: Unreadable sectors from scratches was still unreadable and worst of all after some time same scratches returned without disc being used.
The scratches can't simply "return" unless you scratch it again lol 😆
@@TOMS_TAT Unless their machine simply refilled the scratches and the material used evaporated somehow. Believe me the scratches were exactly the same. As for your machine i expected to see real test results like imaging process a bad disc CD or DVD before and after.
@@cstubed Sounds like they had a shit machine lol. 🤣
This is £3000 for a reason. You get what you pay for.
I used to do this by hand with the finest compound for car painting and a ball of cotton.
I have a concert disk from 2012. I performed on it when I was little, sadly it has some scratches which had to break the exact video Im present. I still have the dvd, of course. But I don’t know who do I go to get it cleaned or whatever. Never knew this machine existed haha. Now for the fun part, any international companies that can do this job for cheap?
I charge £2 plus postage.
How is the data? I guess some of the data would be lost.
No
did you test the PS1 and PS2 games? I worry about whether they would work... are they more fragile?
Yes they all work. No they are not fragile.
Do you test all the disc?
Did the second run on BD do the cycle on CD? For the split second we see the display I swear it said "CD".
No
@@TOMS_TAT lol straight to the point!!! Good man.
This machine is awesome, I've had a playstation 1 game that was scratched it would freeze while playing, after I got the disc resurfaced I was able to finish the whole game
Great content mate always learning great break downs thank you
I used to work at a record/CD shop and we used a similar machine. I agree with the other commenters that online you should prolly tell them.
Yes I sell them as refurbished.
For the two PS2 games, it leaves a mark in the central spine. Was it removable with the cloth or not? Because some resurfacers does scratch the central part which Can be noticed by anyone who are familiar with resurfaced discs.
It didn't add scratches to the middle, it just doesn't sand that bit so if that's already scratched it doesn't get them out.
I tried to have a disk fixed at family video. Stupid thing ate through the plastic and into the data layer. The game it ruined was klonoa door to pantomile for ps1. Before the remakes came out it was impossible to find for under 200
I'm subscribing because u seem like a very good person
@TOMS_TAT --- Does resurfacing make them play better?
Do "refurbishing" machines exist or just resurfacing?
It can take a heavily scratched disc that skips or doesnt work, and then make it work again yes.
Hi, was that the full price you paid you shown, as i noticed on their site the listing page doesn't show price with vat, but when you go to checkout then the vat is added, so it costs more than you think when you checkout ?
Yes, I originally went to buy it on their site, then saw the added VAT so I bought off their eBay store instead and didn't have to pay it! I saved hundreds of pounds lol 😆
all disc users need 1.. they would look after them better after putting in the graft... Or maybe it'll have the opposite affect 😅👍 cool stuff.
Mate, absolutely insane. I can’t believe how immaculate they came out! New subscriber ✌🏻
Thanks for the sub!
Well done m8 Game Preservation is more important than ever
Does resurfaced mean filed flat or filed flat and a new layer of plastic?
It just polishes the scratches out.
As @brdnl3 suggested, it would be interesting to know how much material is removed on each pass. A £10 digital vernier caliper from Amazon would probably suffice.
From what I've just read, CDs have a 1.2mm thick polycarbonate protective substrate, and the official specs require it to be no less than 1.1mm (a -0.1mm tolerance).
DVDs have the data 0.6mm in from the surface.
Blu-ray discs have the data later at 0.1mm from the surface, and as such have a special hardened protective outer surface.
That would explain why BDs have a dedicated mode which I guess must be important to use.
I'd love to see how much tolerance a CD, DVD and BD laser pickup demonstrates when a disc is progressively thinned to destruction.
But at around 40p a pass, the consumable costs to perform such tests would be difficult to justify for the sake of a special interest UA-cam video.
you only have to destroy one disk to find out. people have spent more to do less.
its only 50 cents US.
@@darkshadowsx5949Ideally it'd be one CD, one DVD, one BluRay. It's possible each pass only removes ~0.01mm and a CD might continue working until it's 0.6mm, so it adds up quickly. Would also be worth testing each disc on different devices to see if pickup tolerances vary much.
I do agree though; the material costs aren't likely to be too bad, however it would be difficult to judge if the investment in time would be worth it.
I know this is a stupid question but can you put a disk in the wrong way? label facing the polishing pads?
Yes. I've done this by accident and ruined a disc.
I had my ps1 discs resurfaced and came back clean as hell but would not boot at all. Tbf it had deep scratches so I imagine they polished the data bumps right off lol. This was back in 2008 though.
I think the water additive is to prevent mineral buildup, bacteria and algies, If I was you I would use pure distilled water and avoid all additives.
Thanks for the tip. I'll get some distilled water for it.
@@TOMS_TAT Also if the distilled water stays in the machine for a long period of time without being used change it anyway, say 2 to 3 weeks.
Where did you get the white cubby from with the glass doors?
Ikea
I only recommend doing this on games that do not work on consoles with good lasers. The CDs may look great after doing this, but they may be worse. I've tried this method a few times and ended up ruining a few games. The problem is that the distance the light of the laser has to travel inside the CD diminishes and that affects if the CD works or not.
What are you yappin about man
This machine at the local Blockbuster saved me a game that my xbox 360 chewed...
Very interesting and a great machine that really does the job properly a lot of negative comments here the outer plastic layer on CDs is thick enough most scratches are not deep .I didn't realise those game discs were so collectable and valuable good for your business
What about Blu-ray discs?
What about them?
Great machine, this should have existed 20 years ago.
Nowadays I don't have a single optical media at home, I went full digital after most of my burned dvds started going bad.
Impressive, however it not doing Blu-ray well i guess makes it less useful in the future with 4K UHD and any console PS3 and above using that type of disc.
Blu ray hav a layer over the actual disc so it's easier to clean most are just surface scratches. Where as dvds don't have that layer hence why they ruin easier 👍
They are both duel layered, and i've split both DVD'S and Blu-Rays apart as an experiment, I remember the B-Rays having an extremely thin bottom Layer, but either way, you give them too much of a ding on the underside and they're EF, you, see, kaid mate. With the CD being a single disc, its weak spot is actually the top of the disc where the reflective film is, give that a good scratch and it's probably game over, the majority of dings on the underside however can usually be sorted one way or another, I resurface mine by hand with T-Cut, I've got some really deep scratches out in the past.
I've also used t-cut on discs. It can take deep scratches out but it will add lots of micro scratches.
do you no try blue-ray disc can fix that new machine disc never test. did you get record?
Huh?
Looks like in the long run it should pay for itself 👍
should be using distilled water
i think you can make those pad , looks like normal home depot or car tool stuffs.
check the manual as there is a bruray pad (purple)
I used the purple one.
Compact disc based releases i would advise you to check for holes on the data layer before everything. Otherwise it just might be a colossal waste of resources every now and then.
How much do you normally make just reselling disks
Depends on what disc it is.
@@TOMS_TAT games for example. I've seen plenty out and about cheap that could see :)
@@KeilDaBaker Again it depends on the tile of the game. Some are with 50p some are worth £50
that Can polish the center of the disc?
Unfortunately not
i have been thinking of getting one for years but seemed to much hassle,so found a store and just pay when i need some doing.Have you seen the ones some you tubers in the u s use does 50 discs cost about 15k?
Yea those are made by the same company that makes mine. They give the same finish as this but can do 50 at once which is amazing.
Thats so satisfying to see them come out so nice
Thanks for your sharing
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