Capacitors!
 

Okay. This seems as good of a place as any to ask the stupid question I have to ask.

I live in South Eastern Wisconsin, so normally I just drive out to a place called Chesters Electronics in Kenosha, Wisconsin and pick up the capacitors I need there.

I've grown sick of driving there for a small bag of parts, and paying their mark up. A lot of the parts they have handed out lately are NOS caps that are 30 plus years old. I'm sick of paying their mark-up on these little parts as well.

Where are good sites online I can go to, and order capacitors en mass? I'd like to be able to buy little kits of common values in those yellow ones I see so much lately. I've seen people selling them like that, I just forget where.

I'd also like to be able to go though and just buy 5+ of other values I think I will need so I can just stock my self up on caps, so I can just sit down at the bench and go nuts.

I'm going to attend an antique radio meet this coming Sunday in Milwaukee, Supposedly there is someone there that sells capacitors and such so I plan to raid his table and walk out with a healthy start on caps.

I just need a reliable place I can order from online.

Digikey, Mouser, Newark...

Capacitorworld

For common stock values, you just can't beat www.capacitorworld.net

For any of the specialty caps or anything rated 1 kV or over, I always use www.mouser.com .

For adjustable wirewound resistors or the ASC series high voltage deflection caps for 7" electrostats, there's www.alliedelec.com

There's usually a cap vendor at the swap meet, a a good place to stock up on common values. There are also a couple of online vendors that cater to the old radio hobby. The big vendors(mouser, digikey, allied) already mentioned are good too, although i find it a pain to sort through their massive sites to find the types I'm looking for.

My favorite vendor is Bob Bieker : http://radioantiques.com/ He only shows up at the Illinois meets, but if you can't wait for the next one you can order from him online or by phone.

I like his starter kits :http://radioantiques.com/supplies.html#capkits They give enough values to replace most tubulars in radio and TV applications for a decent price.

Some of Bob's lytics are a bit on the expensive side, so I've been thinking of finding better vendors online.

I don't trust Chester's lytics much.....I have a Heathkit C3 cap tester that can check for leakage at up to 450V, and my only lytic purchase from Chester's which was full of old stock caps had quite a number of caps that tested far enough from new to make me think twice about installing them.....

Bob (Piekarz) does attend some out of state meets, but I don't think he does enough business at WARCI to make it a regular event. He has good capacitor deals at the meets and on his website, and I'm always glad to recommend him. (photo from the ARCI site: http://www.antique-radios.org )

http://www.antique-radios.org/images...024x681%29.jpg

There's just something about those yellow caps that I don't like. Not the performance, just the looks of them. To me, they just look....bleh :) . Since they're axial, I imagine they're ideal for restuffing jobs tho.

+1, I use radials, Panasonics and Nichicons - ECQ series Panasonics+Free Shipping from Digi-Key=winner....

I placed almost a 100 dollar order with Capacitor World today. I went with all the common values I could think of plus some not-so-common values as well.

Time to pick up some more of those little plastic sorting cabinets. I can finally get serious and have the parts sitting for me, on hand.

And for those of you who attend WARCI meets, I'm attending and selling for the first time tomorrow. Look for the guy in the old white 1980 Ford Courier.

My first experience with capacitor world went pretty much like yours...


:smoke: Hmm, I can get 10 each of all 30 values of 630V metal film, practically next day delivery, and I haven't yet even hit $70!


:scratch2: Ok, now let me figure out the 5 most common values from the parts lists for my pile of chosen projects. Ok, so for those 5 values I'll get an additional 25 pieces. Shopping cart says only $92.10!!!


:banana: This place rocks!


:naughty: Well, that should keep me stocked for the foreseeable future, now lets think about 'lytics... Well, if I'm stuffing cans, buying all 450V caps will inevitably end up with not being able to fit everything into the gutted can, so I'll get 5 each of the common values in 450V, and then drop down and score 3 each of the same values from the 250v section...


Shopping cart is now at $155, but its such a great value... Such a small price to pay to be secure in the knowledge that I'm very unlikely to be found wanting when it comes to recapping. :king:


:arrow: I'm just crazy enough to actually order 546 caps for an average cost of $0.28 shipped though.


:pistols: ..."And pull de effing trigger till it goes.... click." Order placed!




The next morning in a warehouse somewhere in NJ:



Yo! Frankie! We got another nutter last night. :deal: Hope you have fun picking and bagging some from every damned bin in the film area!


:dammit: Where the hell do these guys come from, and what evil deeds are they doing that they need some of everything?



Meanwhile, in central PA:



:boring: Huh. I really did order a buttload of caps last night, it wasn't a dream after all... Welp, "bought the ticket, take the ride" seems to apply. :withstpd:



Time passes, and so does a postal worker:



:bigok: Woohoo! Gimme gimme gimme!


:headscrat Damn, I hadn't considered how long it was going to take me to stash them in the parts-drawers for rapid accessibility.


:grumpy: Ahh, now I fully understand why all the ready-made capacitor assortment kits available are either really crap in overall number of different values, or cripplingly expensive compared to calculated component cost... :o




I got some very usable divided cases/cabinets after visiting Lowes, Home Depot, and Dick's Sporting Goods. If you have very few pieces of many different types, go for the type targeted at fishermen. If you have bulk quantities of many different things, go for the types aimed at contractors.

ALWAYS carefully examine and evaluate the closure/retention mechanism. If it doesn't close securely, it will play Brutus to your Caesar when you least expect it. Also pay attention to how well partitioned off the compartments are. If things can compartment hop with the lid fully closed you'll suffer much frustration and anger when you grab the wrong thing from the right location and it either explodes right away, or takes hours of troubleshooting to notice...

Parts Cabinets
 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...2/Cabinets.jpg

I get these at Home Depot. They're easy to hang on a wall, and sturdy enough.

Surprised no one mentioned Justradios.com for caps. It's worth taking a look at his assortment of capacitor and resistor kits. Only downside is that it can take a week for shipping from Canada.

Just curious, what brand are they? no mention on the website...

Mix of who knows. The filter caps are either Jiwy, Nichicon, or ChengCheng (?). Never had an issue with any of them.

I still prefer not knowing, to the look of the yellow Just Radios caps.

Thanks. His prices are better than what I'm seeing at Digikey for values above .1, so I may order a few .22 and .47s to give them a whirl. I've got about 70 or so of each left, so it'll be a while before I need any....