[Milsurplus] PCB'S??

[John Hutchins]

Ross -
The rubber seals around the lugs degrades with time and does get a bit 
sticky.  I do not know what causes this, age and chemical breakdown....  
In this case I remove the old seal and create a new seal using RTV and 
sculpt as required.

I do know that the oil used in the capacitors varies; some in this group 
will have all the correct answers as to which ones have PCB's.  Since 
PCB's were used in the 40's in some capacitors; since I do not know the 
exact capacitors which were manufactured with or with out PCB's, I treat 
them all like poison.  I also wash hands after handling.  I do reuse the 
metal container replacing the guts with new ceramic or orange drop 
capacitors.  The old guts, once removed, are taken to the environmental 
waste hazards dump site. 

-Later
Hutch

bavarianradio at comcast.net wrote:
> Hello all, I'm beginning a restoration of an RBA-3 WWII receiver. It appears that ALL of the rubber grommets on the oil filled bathtub capacitors have failed. They appear red in color and are sticky and gooey.  I have been careful not to touch these (too much anyway) and I wash thouroughly after working on this radio.  The question is....  are these caps filled with PCB's?  and if so what precautions should I be taking?  On a different note, remarkably the radio was working before I took it apart. I was going to clean all the switches and pots and touch up the alignment, with recapping occurring after a performance evaluation. When I saw the condition of the seals, I thought I had better recap first.  I have a RBM-5 set here also that plays with the original caps and performs nicely! ( I don't leave the room with it on, however)  The caps in the RBM look like new compared to these.  Any thoughts?? 73's Ross
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