[ARC5] bathtub cap restoration

[J Mcvey via ARC5]

I tried to include  a zip file of pictures but it got kicked back for being over 50K.  Anyway, here is a verbal description of the bathtub cap restoration that I tried on an "expendable" receiver. It  was very corroded and very "moded" ( more about this one later...).,  After cleaning them, the caps looked dull because all that was left of the shiny coat was a powdery white corrosion of some sort which came off easily.


By using a Rigid model 151 pipe cutter (1/4 to 1 5/8 inch) I was able to 
make a nice clean cut  approx 1/4 inch below the top crimp. having the 
cut a bit below makes it easier to run the solder gun over it when 
reattaching the top.

Drilling a 1/8 to 3/16 hole in the bottom has two benefits. First, once the tub 
is opened, it was not easy to gut as I thought it would be. Drilling the hole released the suction that held the contents and also allowed me to poke a small screwdriver in to push the old caps out. After everything is 
cleaned up , I twist the ceramic cap leads together and shove them though the 
hole, solder it closed and trim the excess leads. 

For the top connections, Be sure to put spaghetti  or shrink tubing on the 
"hot leads" of the caps to avoid shorts. I also added a small piece of 
pvc tape over the caps for safe measure.  I made the connections as 
short as possible to the top terminals by wrapping the cap leads tight to 
the insulator plate face and terminal around the old wire, and soldered.
Trim what is remaining of the original wire.


It's fortunate that the body of the tub is made of brass so it is 
surprisingly easy to solder together. To re-assemble, align the two 
pieces in a vice ( not too tight) making note of where the print side 
and terminals will be when mounted  and use a 140 watt solder gun to run along the seam with solder. The solder gets sucked in by capillary 
action, resulting in the tub not looking too bad after surgery.  ( I hope  there is a way to show the pictures).




Jim 

AC2EU at yahoo.com