I decided to try and make my own vacuum record cleaner after seeing a VIP machine for sale for $800 (this is in Australia and Austalian dollars) and realising that the concept is pretty simple. The basis of mine is an old turntable with the arm removed and in it's place a couple of pieces of a garden watering system attached to a plastic tube which then fits on to a wet/dry vacuum cleaner hose.
The rigid tube has a slit cut in the underside of it the width of the record and a strip of velvet along one side of the strip which actually contacts the record surface. The arm swings sideways out of the way to place the lp on the platter, then the cleaning fluid is applied and manually "scrubbed" around the surface. The arm is swung back into place, turn on the vacuum and rotate the platter by hand slowly. Presto! gunk and fluid sucked away.
I use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner but the volume of liquid is quite small and wouldn't damage a dedicated secondhand normal vacuum cleaner I shouldn't think unless you are doing heaps of lp's at once without changing the dust/gunk bag.
Total cost for materials less than $30.00. I've used this to clean $1.00 trashed discs with good results. I admit I haven't used it on my "valuable" vinyl so can't compare it with the claims of the Nitty-Gritty or VIP machines for improving NM- discs.
Hope this is of interest.
Philip
email any comments if you like. pdj@mpx.com.au