[Electronic M]

I had a Zenith 5r086 or some such where the chassis shelf unscrewed easily, but the bolts which held the chassis to the shelf were recessed and nothing I had then could remove them. The cardboard lytic was mounted above chassis and I was able to replace it without removing the chassis, but the replacement exploded! Well I replaced it with the same voltage as the original, and figured the original must have been under rated and installed one rated for twice the voltage and it too exploded. Well later on I was able to get to the underneath of the chassis and found that a rubber connecting wire with disintegrated insulation was shorting AC line voltage to the filters! I corrected that, replaced the lytic again and all was well.

I once rebuilt a cap backwards in my color Admiral. It COOKED a HUGE power resistor, but all I had to do to fix the problem was reform the cap on my Heathkit C-3 reconnect the cap the right way(easy to do as it was the only cap in the rebuilt can), and replace the power resistor.

Me and my friends used to blow up old lytics from parted out stereo equipment all the time. Twice or more the rated voltage of AC on a lytic makes for some great fireworks! I'd set them off by the garage pointed at the street and the metal cans would often launch well across the street on the bigger lytics.

About a month back I over heard a classmate in one of my EE classes discuss how one of his friends "would put reverse voltage on large capacitors and measure it's effect on steel doors".

PS: I have been F^CKED up more than twice by errors in Sam's folders for more than one set. They are a great resource, but they are NOWHERE near infallible.