[Hallicrafters] Electrolyte Formulas

[Peter May]

Please note these are very old, not tested personally by me and designed for
"wet type" electrolytics.

Electrolytic Condenser Electrolyte

Formula No.1
U.S Patent 1,999,408
Potassium or Ammonia Tartrate     1 oz
Gum Arabic                       24 oz
Glycerin c.p                    104 oz

Formula No. 2
U.S Patent 2,028,775
Agar-agar                         1 oz
Potato Starch                     7 oz
Ammonium Borate                  56 oz
Glycerin                         36 oz

Formula No. 3
U.S Patent 2,036,669
Diemethylamine Borate            80 g
Ethylene Glycol                   1 L

Formula No. 4
British Patent 448,830
Sorbitol                         50 g
Boric Acid                      100 g
Ammonia (d. 0.88)               20 cc
Heat until boiling point reaches 115 degrees C

Formula No. 5
British Patent 449,947
Ethylene Glycol                  90 - 10 oz
Ammonium Citrate                 10 - 90 oz
Heat together to 120 degrees C

Source - Formulas for Profit, The World Publishing Company
Cleveland and New York. Copyright 1939 by Chemical Publishing Co Inc

If you have any success with these, could you please let me know.

Regards
Peter


----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Barnes-Roberts WA6DZS" <wa6dzs at charter.net>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>; "Donna Barnes-Roberts"
<donna at barnesroberts.com>; <mars at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters]V18#22; Electrolytic Fireworks


> hallicrafters-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
>
> > Re: Re: [Hallicrafters] Recapping Hallicrafters
> > From:
> > peter_may at optusnet.com.au
> > Date:
> > Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:04:56 +1000
> > To:
> > k0ewu at juno.com
> >
> > To:
> > k0ewu at juno.com
> > CC:
> > radiocompass at yahoo.com, cnicolsen at msn.com, Hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
> >
> >
> > I once had an electrolyte formula for refilling wet type electrolytics.
> > If anyone is interested, I'll look it up.
> > I also struck the occassional 8 ufd perculating electro. The Ducon brand
Australian ones sometimes had a little rubber valve in the lid.
> >
> > Regards
> > Peter
> >=========================
> >
> >>k0ewu at juno.com wrote:
> >>
> >
> > Harken ye back to the day of wet electrolytics, a tall round can,
> > aluminum, the neg.
> > side. The positive was an electrode in a bath of electrolyte, a water
> > solution.
> >
> > I was working in a gamble store repairing radios after school-- high
> > school,
> > The farmer that brought it in said it souded like his coffee pot.
> > Shure did, I turned it on and it played for a bit, started to gurgle and
> > then
> >   pow!!  the lid of the can blew a hole in the top of the cabinet like a
> > 12 gauge shell would, about 2 in diameter.  from that day forth i have
> > always replaced a wet cap with a more modern one.           Before
> > applying power.
> >
> > jack
> >
> >
> > 1
> > On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:18:52 -0700 (PDT) Mike Everette
> > <radiocompass at yahoo.com> writes:
> >
> >>
> >>--- "Clayton L. Nicolsen" <cnicolsen at msn.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>"One mistake some make is replacing electrolytic
> >>>caps with one of a higher
> >>>voltage, this will accelerate the aging of the cap.
> >>>
> >>
> >>REST ASSURED!  THIS IS PURE BOVINE
> >>BYPRODUCTS!!!!!!!!!!!
> >>
> >>Sounds like something dreamed up by some propellerhead
> >>whizbang, raised on a diet of germanium and silicon
> >>(especially when made into computers)....
> >>
> >>There is NO danger of jeopardizing a cap by using it
> >>at less than rated working voltage.
> >>
> >>On the other hand, if one subjects some capacitors,
> >>especially electrolytics, to ABOVE rated voltage, the
> >>effect can and often does resemble Mount St. Helens.
> >>I once saw a can-type filter cap in a tube-type mobile
> >>radio explode, and throw its guts 10 feet straight up
> >>to stick on the ceiling of the shop (it was in an old
> >>garage service bay).  It was LOUD, too.
> >>
> >>And that is the absolute truth.
> >>
> >>73
> >>
> >>Mike
> >>WA4DLF
> >>
>
> '----O'=o='O----'
>
> Pass that formula on, if it comes to hand, Peter!  Most electrolytics
> come with some kind of a pressure relief port, though it may not be
> obvious at first.
>
> I have an electrolytic story; it was at N0EFC at MAG-12, on the beach at
> Chu Lai RVN, in 1970, running phone patches into N0JPJ at Hughes
> Fullerton CA, just outside the ham bands on MARS frequencies.
>
> I was in the middle of a string of calls, and the T/R relay inside the
> Collins 32S-3 gets dirty and needs a strip of teletype tape pulled
> between the contacts to clean it (that was our fix; the slight oil in
> the tape, and the yellow paper roughness, helped remove oxidation
> without being too hard on contacts.)  Rather than open the hot HV/RF
> final cage and fiddle with it, while callers are waiting and the band
> conditions are deteriorating, I swap-in the other transmitter, sitting
> on the other (vacant) operating position.
>
> Now the S-line transmitters have the power supply in a separate chassis,
> often inside the phone patch/SWR bridge/speaker console, and connected
> by a fat cable with an 11-pin "octal-style" socket, and a plug on the
> transmitter to match.  This one had happened sometime previously to have
> had its indexing lug, the whole center post, broken off, so in a hurry,
> I plugged the thing in, plugged in the various RCA phono plugs (yes,
> including 100W RF-out to the linear!) and flipped the switch to warm up,
> so I could get back to servicing customers.
>
> Naturally, Murphy had a hand ready to deal me.  The indexing was _only_
> one pin off, which put primary AC on the bias cap, looking for about
> -100VDC to Gnd.  After a few seconds more of cooking, it hissed, and
> then BANG! launched itself across the under-chassis, leaving white crud
> and khaki confetti in its wake, letting out _all_ the magic smoke.
> Fortunately, it didn't take out anything else in its trip, and much
> later in the day, after some research, cleanup and replacing the cap,
> the (astonishingly well-designed) rig was back in business.  Don't know
> if that plug ever did get changed.  Meanwhile, to get back on the air, I
> bit the bullet and unscrewed the RF cage and cleaned my other relay -
> *Sigh*.
>
> '----O'=o='O----'
> RULES OF THUMB:
> Replace electrolytics with the same or slightly larger capacity (MF's)
> and the same or a bit higher working voltage (WV) rating; a good rule of
> thumb is 50-to-100-percent safety factor in voltage.  Much more than
> that, and the cap never completely forms properly, and never quite
> reaches its rated capacitance.  If you have to do that, err on the side
> of a bit larger capacitance (that will still fit physically in the space.)
>
> Do make sure of polarity; +/- swapped is another good way to watch your
> gear smoke!  Have fun, keep it safe!
>
> 73, Phil WA6DZS at ARRL dot net
> A Task without a Due-Date is a Fantasy!
> '----O'=o='O----'
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