Where do you all buy CAPs?

[stromberg6]

Ditto about Just Radios. The last order was here in CT in less than a week, but even if it takes longer, I'm satisfied with the service. Nice folks to boot, IMO.
Also pick up odds and ends locally, but the prices are much higher.

[walterbeers]

One good place to order caps and lots of other older parts is surplus sales of Nebraska. www.surplussales.com

[M3-SRT8]

Funny, the last Just Radios order came in in about 4 days. No special air mail handling.

The order before, about 6 months ago, took about 3 weeks. That one had air mail specified.

It's all whether it's held up in Custom, or not.

[ctc17]

Does anyone support their local electronics store anymore? I have two within 15 minutes of me that have every cap one could want.

Or is this death to the little man, hail walmart?

Walk in with cash (remember cash? no one uses it anymore because they have convinced yall its too dangerous) and anonymously make your cap purchase.
Or do we have to do everything online so its tracked and recorded in some database somewhere.

The only exception is if you live in BFE.

But yeah, pick up the phone book (remember that dinosaur?) and support your local dealer, the 'Moyers' in your town.

[DavGoodlin]

I will also say Just Radios has almost everything we need. I also have a 1955 GE in the queue and its loaded with wax-caps.

Use Allied when you need some 1000 volt jobs, like anything off the fly like boost, etc.

They also have 47uf @450WV by Illinois Capacitor for less than a buck. I double these up when I need 100 uf. Alot less$$$

[M3-SRT8]

Originally Posted by ctc17

Does anyone support their local electronics store anymore? I have two within 15 minutes of me that have every cap one could want.

I live in Worcester, Mass. There are two locations where I can find some parts. Radio Shack, which is pretty slim pickings, and an old electronics store which has nothing but old, stale caps and a few leftover parts from eons ago.

I shop on line. It's easy, it's fast, and it's reasonable.

It would cost me more in gas to drive across town to find SOME parts in that old store than it would to order it all from Mouser, and it arrives the next day.

Times change...

[mpatoray]

CTC-17 said,

Does anyone support their local electronics store anymore? I have two within 15 minutes of me that have every cap one could want.

Or is this death to the little man, hail walmart?

Well I live in Youngstown, the ONLY "local" source for parts is Radio Shack, the last local electronics parts store "Ross Radio" closed their doors back in 2006..

So online is my only option for electronics parts, now if I wanted to restore a car that is an entirely different matter.

Matt

[n2bew]

Are you serious? a local electronics store!?
Don't I wish.
I did not think there were any left. Kind of like electronics repair shops, gone.
I am not that rural either, just outside of Albany NY
If it were not for the internet and being able to source parts from distant places I could not participate in this hobby at all.
Like most others the only option "locally" is Radioshack that only carries circuit board caps or a few electrolytics.

I buy all my caps from justradios, and in my mind that IS supporting the "little guy" It is run by a fellow restorer to serve this community.
And I am very happy they exist!

Actully I wanted to add, that not too surprizingly in this era of cheap chinese electronics and a throw away society, that I resently read either here or on the ARF that the axial caps we use to replace paper caps may be going away in the not to distant future too.
Apparently they are not used in any currently manufactured electronics and only sold for replacement parts and with the demand so low may not be made much longer. So we will need to look for alternatives. I plan on buying all I need for my current projects that are in storage and then getting an assortment to stock up for any possible future ones.

[toolguy]

Originally Posted by ctc17

Does anyone support their local electronics store anymore? I have two within 15 minutes of me that have every cap one could want.

Or is this death to the little man, hail walmart?

Walk in with cash (remember cash? no one uses it anymore because they have convinced yall its too dangerous) and anonymously make your cap purchase.
Or do we have to do everything online so its tracked and recorded in some database somewhere.

The only exception is if you live in BFE.

But yeah, pick up the phone book (remember that dinosaur?) and support your local dealer, the 'Moyers' in your town.

We just don't have any around here anymore, I wish we did. The one I knew of did not have pinball board components and then shortly after I was there, was sold to a stereo/car alarm store and is still that today.

The only one I know of now is an hour away from me and does not list on line, so I can't verify they have what I need before I were to go.

[Tom Albrecht]

I also buy the vast majority of my caps (tubular caps, electrolytics, micas, safety caps, and 6000 VDC caps for electrostatic TVs) from Just Radios. I easily drop more than $1000 per year there for caps. Delivery time has always been very good. Nice to get the 10% discount for large orders.

Another good source has been a SCARS member who sells tubular caps from Illinois Capacitor. Very good price, but only a few values available.

I tried one other place which had a lower price on tubular caps, but I found some of them had short leads, which I really didn't like.

Although the electrolytics aren't some of the best known name brands, I have had zero problems with electrolytics from Just Radios.

I have had a few failures of new mica caps from Just Radios (noisy leakage at voltage well below rating). Right now I've been starting to buy micas and polystyrene caps at Halted Specialties (local surplus electronics store here in San Jose). They have pretty good supplies of surplus U.S.-made micas. Probably 10-30 years old, but they seem to be fine. Fairly cheap too.

[toolguy]

Alright, I got just about everything sourced from Just Radios. I really dig their speadsheet!

Anyway, the caps I can't find are for my two filter caps, to restuff them. I've seen the thread by drh4683 on how to rebuild them which helps, never done this before.

I tried, just radios, allied, mouser and one other place. No one seems to have the values and voltages I need. I know I can go higher in volts and tried looking for those too.

I need these caps:

90/350v
30/350v
5/350v
100/75v
40/350v
10/25v

I'm looking at Radial, electrolytic. Is this wrong of me?

Oh and one stray .008/1000v

What am I doing wrong here?

[Tom Albrecht]

Here's what I would recommend:

90/350v - use 100 uF / 350 V or 450 V
30/350v - use 30 or 33 uF / 350 or 450 V
5/350v - use 4.7 or 5 uF / 350 or 450 V
100/75v - use 100 uF / 160 V
40/350v - use 40 uF / 350 or 450 V
10/25v - use 10 uF / 25, 35, or 50 V

I'm looking at Radial, electrolytic. Is this wrong of me?

Most people prefer axial, but you can use radial if you like. For restuffing inside old cans, radial can be best; for everything else, I prefer axial.

Oh and one stray .008/1000v - use .01 uF / 1000 V

In many cases, especially for electrolytics, you can use a somewhat larger capacitance without any concern. And you can always use a capacitor with higher voltage rating.

[toolguy]

Originally Posted by Tom Albrecht

Here's what I would recommend:

90/350v - use 100 uF / 350 V or 450 V
30/350v - use 30 or 33 uF / 350 or 450 V
5/350v - use 4.7 or 5 uF / 350 or 450 V
100/75v - use 100 uF / 160 V
40/350v - use 40 uF / 350 or 450 V
10/25v - use 10 uF / 25, 35, or 50 V

I'm looking at Radial, electrolytic. Is this wrong of me?

Most people prefer axial, but you can use radial if you like. For restuffing inside old cans, radial can be best; for everything else, I prefer axial.

Oh and one stray .008/1000v - use .01 uF / 1000 V

In many cases, especially for electrolytics, you can use a somewhat larger capacitance without any concern. And you can always use a capacitor with higher voltage rating.

OK, thanks a lot Tom!

I guess I get stuck on finding exact sizes, even though I saw told before. However, I'm not good at equalvalents and do not want to find a substitute and then blow something up from being wrong.

Thanks again.

[N2IXK]

Originally Posted by ctc17

Does anyone support their local electronics store anymore? I have two within 15 minutes of me that have every cap one could want.

(snip)

But yeah, pick up the phone book (remember that dinosaur?) and support your local dealer, the 'Moyers' in your town.

Would love to, but all the local TV parts houses have long ago gone out of business. Something to do with the death of the TV repair industry, I'm guessing...

Here in Northern NJ, we used to have Gem Electronics, Route Electronics (4 stores), Nidisco (4 stores), and Leader Electronics, all within a half-hour drive of me. Plus a couple surplus shops, and of course Radio Shack used to sell components.

Now Rat Shack is it, and they carry a handful of junky overpriced parts in a couple drawers in the corner of only a few of their remaining stores.

All that's left nowadays is the dwindling pickings at the occasional hamfest, or online ordering.