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[benn600]

I often have to make trips to my local used CD stores to have them "buff" out my CDs.  This usually works unless there are label side scratches which literally destroy the contained data.  I am interested in learning about any home remedies people know about.

1. I always clean my discs with a cloth and about 50% rubbing alcohol & water even though everywhere I read not to use alcohol.  The CD store even uses alcohol (without water!).  I have a spray bottle that came with a cleaning kit that I just refill.
2. Petroleum jelly (vaseline) seems to help a little bit.  I learned about this only a few days ago and it actually fixed one disc out of 2 I tried it on.  The problem is that it seems like you have to get the jelly in the cracks and then remove all of it except what's in the cracks.  If it is covered in vaseline, it will not be readable.  I spread it on, over the entire disc and wait about a minute.  Then, I take about 10 tissues and try to get it off, sometimes using alochol to help get it off so I can even read it at all.  This sometimes works.
3. I've seen disc repair kits that claim to repair 30-50 discs.  They seem to say that they buff it but I don't think so because I've read they use a thick solution to fill in cracks.  Do these work well?  They cost around $23 for the one I saw.
4. Are plain buffers available?  It seems like you could use a sander as long as you used ultimately fine sand paper.  You almost wouldn't want sand paper--just a tough surface (and smooth) to smooth out the clear layer.

They usually fix the discs for free but it's a lot of hassle because they usually only do 1 or 2 for free at a time and at these gas prices!

Not saying I'm going to spend $300 on a real buffer like the store has, but can anyone provide information on such an item?  I'd like to learn more about them.  Other remedies would be great too!

One final note: the store said that people use polish remover and such but these items eat away at the CD.  I wouldn't think that would be bad as long as they do it in a uniform fashion and kind of remote the scratch!

[hit_ny]

Some more to add to the list

Using Pledge

Rain-X (for car windshields). The silicon water-repellant in Rain-X does the same job as the wax in Pledge.

Chapstick

Nose grease (!)
Rub your finger along the side of the bridge of your nose (i.e. wipe your finger down the OUTSIDE of your nose!) and then rub the scratch on the disk. Turns out the refractive index of nose grease is approximately the same as celluloid.

Hence wiping it on scratches on negatives makes them disappear. Also kind of works on CDs - same refractive index means less refraction from the scratch...

Buffer Wheel

[zirum]

Another addition:
http://www.supermediastore.com/cd-repair-pro.html

The biggest audio magazine in norway actually gave this device 10 of 10. And they are usally objective, so it should be good. I haven't tried it myself though...