This is going to be painful

I have been looking at the caps in my Eico 320 signal generator. I know I need to recap it, but the thought of removing all these old paper/wax caps that say "Made in the USA" and tossing them in the trash is going to be very painful. Especially when I know all the new ones will be made in China, coated with some lifeless plastic, totally lacking any charm.

And they are all brand name Aerovox, except one called Tiger, (Those are rare). And the electrolytic is a Cornell Dubilier. Great American names from the good old days, and I hate tossing history in the trash.... (not to mention that the wax ones are clean and still look brand new).

But I know that once I put the case back on the chassis, I wont see the ugly words "made in China" on them.....

Ah Hell, I'll replace them, but I know they wont go in the trash. Maybe there is some form of art that can be made from them....

Reply to
oldschool
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What hard core old radio restorers do is remove the guts of old caps, insert a new one, then melt beeswax on the ends to seal them in. They then look like originals...

Of course it would be a REAL good idea to put a sticker inside the device saying what was done in case someone runs into it in twenty years and figures the thing was never recapped and rips out all the carefully restored caps...

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

Spoilsport!

Mike.

Reply to
MJC

That sounds like a lot of work, and I doubt I will do it. However, how would someone remove the guts from an old cap like that? The only thing I can think of would be to use a drill press, (at a very low speed). But maybe there is a better way.

Yea, that is probably a good idea....

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Reply to
oldschool

Hot air gun. Heat it up until the wax runs, hold the tube and pull the guts out by the lead.

Scribe a line on the back side. Use Testor's black model paint. wipe up excess.

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Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Foxs Mercantile

snip

You can also use a toaster oven at the lowest setting that will melt the wax or use a heat lamp. I have used both methods successfully.

BTW Aerovox and Cornell Dubilier are both still in business:

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Other old time names that are still with us include: Illinois Capacitor

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Vishay
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They have also acquired a number of other old brands. Bourns
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who also acquired old brands. Carling
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E-T-A
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Eaton
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Littelfuse
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Amphenol
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Brim http//brimelectronics.com/ Keystone
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Molex
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Pomona
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Switchcraft
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3M
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Vector
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Mueller
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Grayhill
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Bliley
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CTS
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International Crystal
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Jan Crystals
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Bud
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Davies Molding
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Premier Metal Product
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Ohmite
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Triad
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Stancor
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Hoyt
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Simpson
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Triplett
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Dialight
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Amperite
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Coto Technology
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Guardian
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EBY
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Daburn
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Pico Electronics
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Staco
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Alpha Wire
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Belden
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I excluded companies whose names are still around but have obviously been acquired by another company. It's possible that some of the ones I listed have been merged but it isn't obvious from their web site. I'm sure that there are more old timers than these but I only did a quick search.

Another old time company, this time Japanese, but still around: Calrad

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Reply to
Jim Mueller

Amphenol sold off their older connectors to WPI, who was later bought by 'The Cooper Group'.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Don't they make soldering guns? I seem to recall a Cooper Group bought Weller at some point.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Weller, Xcelite, Crescent Tools and many other companies.

It looks like Cooper has been bought by Apoex Tools:

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

There's a *VERY* faint possibility you could spiral the foil out from the middle. Done carefully enough, you might avoid wrinkling the outer cardboard sleeve.

If most of the wax/paper caps look reasonably clean; I'd consider checking them with an earth leakage tester such as a Megger, but you have to watch voltage ratings.

Disguising new caps with old cases is hard work, so any old ones you can save..............

Reply to
Benderthe.evilrobot

A company I worked for bought out a competitor and stacked all the stuff they didn't want on a loading bay with a sign; "help yourself" - I won a big box of Weller irons that had been taken to bits.

That kept me going a couple of decades and I had a few surplus to sell - by the time I had to start buying new spares, Cooper Tools had taken over. It seems the bean counters had decided that quality and reliability were an unnecessary extravagance. The first thing I noticed was shoddy plating on the tip where its inside the element tube, the plating peels so copper oxide forms - it compacts so you can't remove the faulty tip without wrecking the element.

In the end, I bought a brand new Weller TCP-1 - the stat didn't even last a whole week. They sent a replacement no questions asked, which lasted nearly a month - the iron was unattended when it failed and the element burned out.

The Antex XS-25 was chosen as a temporary to tide me over because it was cheap enough to regard as a consumable - I've been using their products ever since.

Reply to
Benderthe.evilrobot

YOU WANT TO KNOW PAINFUL? PAINFUL IS WHEN SITRE MAGANA COULDN'T GET WHAT HE WANTED TO HE WENT HOME AND CUT HIS PET HAMSTER TO PIECES WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS.

Reply to
Steve & Lynn

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