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Originally Posted by gmku
I've actually used that with some success. It takes heavy glass, though, and hot sun. I actually unwarped a couple of 180 gram records after two hours in the sun under a heavy glass top to a table (more than an inch thick). Without the weight, nothing will happen. It doesn't always work, and it depends a lot on the severity of the warp and how it happened. Plus sometimes unwarping it creates distortion problems, because now the grooves have been reshaped and may not conform to the way they were meant to be cut.
If it's a slight warp and still playable--doesn't skip--leave it alone, I say. All records, believe it or not, have some warp. I don't have one, but I think a record clamp is a good idea for this reason. They're pricey, at least 50 bucks, but probably a good investment.
I've also found that some slightly warped records unwarp as they sit on the shelf over the years.
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That's pretty ingenius using a heavy glass tabletop and the heat of the sun. I'd recommend trying that on a flat surface if one has a very heavy glass and the patience to wait for a hot day.
In the end though, I don't believe that warped records aren't easy to ever fix into being really all that playable and clamps wear down the lifespan of a turntable, but if you absolutely must give it a shot, here's my shot based on pure conjecture:
Get two pieces of plexiglass or glass with some kind of thickness, like at least quarter inch each, and big enough to cover the record completely. You might have to go to a Lowe's or something to get the glass pieces cut. Put the record in a sleeve you don't care about anymore and insert it between them. Place in the oven on a center or above center rack at the lowest setting and leave the oven door open (since most ovens are difficult to gauge the proper running temperature, and I don't know how low your oven can go). After allowing the oven to warm up for a few minutes with the door closed, open the door and leave it in there for fifteen minutes or so with a brick or two on top. Remove it and place on a genuinely flat surface. If you have one, test the surface with a leveller beforehand. After weighing this down with something very heavy with a flat bottom and waiting a couple of hours, take a look. If the record is still warped then repeat the process. Perhaps experiment with covering the top glass with ice after it's all moved from the oven to shorten the waiting time on cooling. Keep repeating until you have a relatively flat record. One can always up the oven temperature to speed this flattening process along, but bear in mind that one won't be able to undo any fuck-ups if things get too hot. I don't know, maybe you can try to do it without the sleeve. If the thing gets too hot then the vinyl is obviously going to melt into the sleeve. With thick records, I would think that there's no way using the sleeve would be a good idea. The trick of course is to get the vinyl hot enough to be pliable without actually causing any surface melting of the record.