To: "Military Surplus Mail List"
Cc:
Sent: Friday December 1 2023 1:55:35PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Oil filled capacitors and PCBs in our equipment

Manufacturing economics being what it is, one would expect capacitor makers used the cheapest oil available that met the electrical requirements - so, probably mineral oil almost always, unless very high voltages or flameproof requirements existed.

There is a simple test to identify PCB vs mineral oil, used once (maybe still) in the electrical power industry. Mineral oils are lighter than PCBs & will rise to the top of water but PCBs will sink. So if you can get a drop or two of the suspect oil, you can test.

As for disposal, is it any better in the long run to send to a landfill a sealed but leaking (or eventually leaking) capacitor body or some paper towels or rags with the same quantity of oil? Our hobby's output of PCB trash is almost microscopic. If we're really, really, really environmentally concerned (as we use our lead filled solder) perhaps there's a method to chemically destroy PCB?? It wouldn't have to be "economical" since we're not concerned with neutralizing industrial quantities.

Wayne

WB4OGM

On 01/12/2023 17:05, Reuben Popp wrote:
> My apologies to everyone for spamming the list so much lately. I'm
> trying to do my research before asking the list, but sometimes my
> google-fu isn't exactly fruitful.
>
> Anyway... Oil filled caps in our gear. Was it standard to denote
> whether they contained PCBs in them, or is it a safe assumption that
> ANY oil filled cap with a manufacture date before 1980 is suspect? As
> most of those are likely out of spec and leaky, is there ANY way to
> open the cap, dispose of the contents at an EPA approved site and then
> restuff the shell with new components? Or is my only recourse to
> decouple the old cap from the circuit and then place newer ones under
> the chassis (or try to hide them, etc). If my only option is the
> latter, once decoupled from the circuit, what's the likelihood that it
> will actually start leaking (as in, the oil). One would think that
> would be fairly miniscule, but what with some of these going on 80+
> years old, it's a crap shoot at this point, no?
>
> Thanks again
> Reuben
>
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