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  #91  
Old 12-19-2017, 10:20 PM
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SwizzyMan SwizzyMan is offline
Restoring an admiral c322
 
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Here is my method of restuffing the cans.
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  #92  
Old 12-19-2017, 10:21 PM
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Continued..
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  #93  
Old 12-20-2017, 12:45 PM
kvflyer kvflyer is offline
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That's about the way that I do them. I have purchased over the years a few NOS capacitors specifically for the purpose of procuring the steel mounting ring out of them. The "Twist Loc" tabs are usually not in the best of condition when you remove the old capacitor from the phenolic mounting washer.

Nice job...
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  #94  
Old 12-20-2017, 07:14 PM
Vaultovinyl Vaultovinyl is offline
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To the folks somewhere back up in the thread: What were you all saying about guitar amplifier snobs wanting the original caps in their amps? I've always thought that 'stuffing' old caps was quite a bit nutty too.

The whole thing about the caps in guitar amps primarily has to do with the tonal qualities of the amp vs. the types of caps used in its build. It's not necessarily the old caps that give it 'the sound'. It's what type of caps give it 'the sound'. It's usually a matter of PIO (paper in oil) vs. Poly/Mylar. (I call it "IT". PIO caps have "IT" while Poly/Mylar caps do not). The sound guitarists are looking for is a combination of tone coloration, breakup/distortion and compression/sag. Power filter caps do not generally affect the tone but rather the responsiveness of the amp. Old filter caps allow a lot of sag in the power supply which lends the amp to having a natural compression on it's output. Beefing up the power supply with new and/or larger capacity filters tightens up the amp and gives it's output a more aggressive attack. Replaced filter caps in the power supply are usually not viewed as a bad thing. Sag can also be adjusted with use of different rectifier tubes. Breakup/distortion is most easily achieved and controlled with preamp tube gain and speaker cone material, design and size.

The caps that matter the most in a guitar are in the tone stack/circuit. In a vintage amp the worst possible thing you can do is change these, especially if they were relatively in spec. It's generally agreed that PIO caps have a richer harmonic quality than Mylar. I know in theory it doesn't make any sense but when you hear them side by side, there is a difference. I didn't believe it either until I tried it. Aside from the amp, the PIO caps in the tone control in the guitar have an even more dramatic effect than they do in the amp. Most guitars have the tiniest most basic of Mylar caps(some even use ceramic caps) on their tone controls. When you swap those out for a PIO cap, it completely changes the harmonic richness of the guitar's output. The tone control becomes much smoother and more responsive to change. Any PIO is good for this but the general consensus is Sprague Bumblebees, Black Beauties and Vitamin Q's are the best(hence they want the "old" caps).

SO, in the future, don't go knocking somebody about wanting old caps in their guitar amps and they won't laugh at you for being anal enough to spend countless hours stuffing new caps into old caps. Because both schools of thought are a little nutty.

Last edited by Vaultovinyl; 12-20-2017 at 07:18 PM.
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  #95  
Old 12-20-2017, 08:13 PM
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Didnt really need to write a book to prove your point pal...
It is well known that more people believe "audiophiles" are nuts than people that restore vintage TVs. I would never use any black beauty caps in my tube amps that will short, explode, and kill my amp. That's just common sense, or maybe it isn't since you think it's ok? Most of the TVs I find I just toss. There are so many old b&w sets out there that when I do restore them, I use the cheapest parts available simply because I want the damn thing to work. I spend a bit extra on the hard to find sets since there are none. There are hundreds of thousands of tube amps out there that were cheaply made back in the 60s and 70s and the audiofools try to make a cheap piece of equipment better by using leaky caps and expensive parts, where is the thought process in that pursuit? My fender super twin reverb ( which is uncommon ) was restored with the cheapest caps and tubes and it sounds amazing. While you are welcome to voice your opinions about a side topic of this thread, all it is going to do is start a pointless war of words between all of us and in the end no one will win. Take your complaints and post about them in the off topic section. That's why we have it.
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  #96  
Old 12-20-2017, 10:47 PM
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Checked HOT cathode current and it settles out at around 185 to 190 ma. Seems pretty good but will still do a horizontal alignment. Going to try to throw the jug on it tomorrow and see what happens.
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  #97  
Old 02-19-2018, 06:53 PM
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Now that I finally have some time on my hands, it's time to get back to work on the Regent. I will start recapping tomorrow. As you all know, I am trying to keep everything as original looking as possible. This means restuffing all caps and finding a full set of Admiral branded tubes. However I have one major obstacle when it comes to restuffing caps, most paper caps are bumblebees and plastic case which are especially difficult to restuff. Has anyone done this before and can it be done efficiently and effectively? Only I can think of is just splitting them at the seems with a small screwdriver.
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  #98  
Old 02-19-2018, 08:19 PM
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Might be better off molding some material silicone/epoxy/clay/etc. over the new caps then paint it to look like the black beauties. Or restuff some paper shell caps of the same value and use those.
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  #99  
Old 02-21-2018, 12:18 PM
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Here is the first attempt at replicating bumblebees. This took me over an hour to do and it didn't turn out that great. Well it's better than nothing I guess. Can you guess the value?
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  #100  
Old 02-22-2018, 09:36 PM
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ohohyodafarted ohohyodafarted is offline
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Bumble Bee Re-Stuffing

Personally I would never waste my time re-stuffing any paper or bumble bee caps. As far as I am concerned, what is under the chassis nobody can see so why bother. Now if we are talking about a historically significant pre-war set, that is a different story, But as they say "to each his own"

So as I read this thread, it got me to thinking. Would it be possible to re-stuff a bakelite Bumble Bee????

The answer is a resounding YES...Provided you have the right equipment and skill set. So here is the procedure I developed this afternoon and you can do this if you have a machine lathe.

1. First step is to take you bumble bee and cut the leads off as close to the body as possible. Then using a grinder or a small belt sander grind the wire stubs till they are flush with the Bakelite as seen in photo #1

2. Now mount the capacitor in the chuck of your lathe and using a centering drill make a small starting divot in the end of the capacitor. Then swap your centering drill with a 1/16" twist drill and drill into the end of the capacitor until the bit gets into the foil bundle inside. Then repeat this on the other end of the capacitor. Photos #2 and #3

3. At this point we need to cut one end of the Bakelite body off. With the lathe running, I use a hack saw and cut through the capacitor as seen in Photo #4. The result is the 2 pieces shown in Photo #5

4. Now it is time to remove the insides from the Bakelite body. I start by drilling a 1/4" hole down the center to remove some of the foil and paper bundle. The drill should not advance to quickly. Advance and withdraw the bit over and over until you have reached the end of the foil bundle. Be careful not to drill through the end of the Bakelite. The foil and paper should come out as shavings if you are advancing at the correct speed. Drilling too fast will create heat and stress the Bakelite and risk breaking it. I broke a couple before I got the technique down correctly. Photo #6

Continued in the next post because of the 6 photo limit on VK.
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  #101  
Old 02-22-2018, 10:03 PM
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Bumble Bee Re-Stuffing cont:

5. In this step, we continue to remove the foil bundle with successively larger drill bits. Your drill bits need to be Factory Sharp. Dull drill bits will crack the fragile Bakelite. As with the 1/4" drill, advance and withdraw the bit and slowly work you way down to the opposite end, being careful not to break through the opposite end of the Bakelite body. I was able to drill as large as 29/64" which was able to accommodate a .2uf 630v yellow metalized polyester axial capacitor. All you have to do at this point is insert the new capacitor and use some 5 minute epoxy to re-attach the Bakelite end piece. Photos #7 thru #10

I would imagine your first thought is can this be done without a lathe? Perhaps on a drill press? It will never happen, take my word for it. If you try to drill the foil bundle out using a drill you are going to break the Bakelite when you start to enlarge the inside diameter to accommodate the diameter of the new cap. This is not just a mater of removing the old foil bundle, this involves machining the inside diameter of the Bakelite.

Shop time is about 20 minutes per capacitor once I developed the skill set and methodology so that the Bakelite did not break. If you were to hire a machinist to do this I would expect it would cost about $20 a pop.

These were large Bumble Bees. .2uf and .15uf 400 volt caps. I would imagine this would be possible with physically smaller Bakelite caps as well, just as long as your new cap is small enough to fit inside the old Bakelite body.
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  #102  
Old 04-11-2018, 08:58 PM
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SwizzyMan SwizzyMan is offline
Restoring an admiral c322
 
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Ready to get back on this with some newly discovered free time. There are a couple of oddball caps in the grid circuit of the CRT and I am wondering if I can use ceramics in place of the old paper caps or if I should stick to film caps. The caps in question couple the center tap of each screen control to the grids themselves. I can't help but worry that as the set warms up with ceramics, the values may drift and so will my screen levels thus affecting temperature. So bottom line, paper or ceramic?
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  #103  
Old 04-11-2018, 11:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SwizzyMan View Post
...The caps in question couple the center tap of each screen control to the grids themselves...
I don't understand what you're saying compared to the little snip of the schematic. It looks like these couple all three (of something) to a common point, not each screen control to each grid (?)

Edit: also, there should be no way that the cap's values would affect the DC screen voltage, so that should not be a concern.
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  #104  
Old 04-12-2018, 06:34 AM
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Whoops. Here's a bigger snippet of the schematic. My bad.
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  #105  
Old 04-12-2018, 12:20 PM
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OK, still looks like there's no way these could affect the screen control voltages.
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