[ARC5] Restuffing electrolytic caps - it won't work??

[Michael]

From: hwhall at compuserve.com [mailto:hwhall at compuserve.com] 
>> making mica caps isn't all that difficult

> I'd rather imagine opening Micamold caps and rerolling the paper insulated
contents. :-)

If I remember right, which we all know doesn’t happen all that often, the
oblong ones were paper and the square ones were mica or silver mica.  I
think there was also a difference in color and/or one of the dots identified
which was which.  If bringing either type back to life doesn’t work then
it’s no big trick to hollow out the unseen side of a cap and replace the
innards with a mica or silver mica.  Rivet counting purists will scream but
that’s their kuleana.  

 

The way my mentors taught me to make mica caps involved stacking mica pieces
of appropriate size alternated with copper foil or brass shim stock for the
plates.  The plates extended past the stack alternating between one and the
other side and each side was soldered together after the whole mess was
stacked.  There was an arch over the top of the stack and a screw that
pressed down on the top (I used a crystal contact plate as a pressure plate
for this.) to hold the stack together and to adjust the capacitance somewhat
after it was finished.  

 

Paper caps can be made the same way or rolled as is more commonly done using
Kraft paper as the insulator.  Sometimes I soaked the paper in mineral oil
for the paper part of the rolled ones after which they got dunked in melted
paraffin to keep them sealed up nice and tight 
 or that was the theory
anyway.  Onion paper worked pretty well too as did most anything else I
could get.  The better ones used copper foil or brass shim stock like the
mica caps with the leads soldered directly to the plates.  The more common
ones used aluminum foil and prayers to St. Vidicon that the leads made
reasonable contact.

 

Ah, the fun old days 
 

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael, K3MXO, CBLA #6, BL01hx15np24 ... or there abouts  

By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let a task completely
overwhelm me.

 
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Hiki Nô!