[Milsurplus] Old carbon resistors: toss or keep ?

[Brenda Gentry]

I share your feelings about throwing usable stuff out. However, in the 
case of of carbon resistors, it is often very wise. I inherited 
thousands of 1/2 and 1 watt resistors a few years ago. They were all at 
least 50 years old. 90% of them were way over their labeled values. 
Those that were in tolerance were often noisy. It wasn't worth the work 
of sorting and testing them.

   B.Gentry, KA2IVY


On 6/19/25 4:07 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:
>
> I acquired from some estate sales last year a few hundreds of the old 
> carbon resistors. I have read that these drift quite a bit over the 
> years. Plus the % tolerance is so much poorer
>
> than the current precision. I wonder, should i just ditch all these, 
> use the newer film, close tolerance resistors ? Resistors are not a 
> high cost item, and i truthfully, rarely have use for
>
> replacements.  Should i just ditch these ? ( I am a person who hates 
> to throw out anything still useful. )
>
> -Hue Miller
>
>
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