Old Vinyl Record Revival

I have a pretty sizable stack of old vinyl records that I picked up throughout college at rummage sales and from my parents.  The majority of them are still in great condition but a handful of them are super scratched, warped, or both. Some of them have a lot of sentimental value and I'm not willing to dump them off at our local Salvation Army so the only other option I have is to keep them in a box in the attic to collect dust or revive them in some sort of crafty way and bring them back to life.

A few glass bowls with a couple of records made an awesome serving platter at my retro 50's themed bridal shower:

(I had fancy-pants cupcakes made for my shower but for this picture all I could find around the house were banana nut muffins)

One added tip, make sure your food cools before you try putting them on the wax if you want to spare your records any more warping!

I also discovered that if you put a record in the oven at 200° for 10 minutes you can pretty much bend it into whatever shape you choose. Molding the vinyl over a glass or metal bowl you can shape it into an awesome dish to keep your spare change, serve fruit, or whatever else. We use ours as a popcorn bowl on movie night.

This last craft, record bookends, is a bit more tricky. After you boil a pot of water, pour it into a plugged up sink and quickly dip the edge of your record in while bending it into the shape you want. 

The most difficult part is to transfer it as quickly as possible onto a hard surface to flatten the bottom. The vinyl hardens extremely quickly and you have to have something heavy enough to press the waves in the  record down. I used a box with rocks in it, but a heavy book or something like that would work. 

After you dry it off, it works great! I used double Pink Floyd "The Wall" LP's just so they were matching at both ends, but mixing and matching always works just as well!

I think it's time to search the garage and see what else I can dig up to revive. If anyone else has great ideas for old vinyl, please post it in the comments and let me know!

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