Is this a record?!

[Elitist]

A friend brought round a 300W "Deer" PSU last week - more of a pig, perhaps. It had eleven bulging caps from Jee, Rulycon and Chung Fu. Never encountered bulges in the big 200V reservoir types till now - this could've been really dangerous for the unititiated!
[Incidentally, this isn't my first offering and I'm not a newcomer, nor a neophyte in this game - seem to have been deleted somewhere along the line].

[willawake]

Re: Is this a record?!

thanks for joining us.

it would be great to see a pic of that mess

[Per Hansson]

Re: Is this a record?!

Hmm, that is interesting, 200v bulk caps can literally explode, I and a friend (10 years ago) where having some fun with burning up some crapcaps we had found, one 200v cap literally exploded and hit me in the shoulder, it was not very hard but I was standing about 10 meters away from the fire!

And it had a "tail" behind it with the paper that holds the electrolyte, that sure was an interesting experience ;-)

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

Make that rejoin, Will, and thanks. I removed the big guys already for safety, so a photo wouldn't show much now.
I the 60's, when much cap development was underway, there were many spectacular failures. The 'forming' rooms in manufacture had steel cages around the 'soaking' facility. [forming = oxide film formation, soaking = electrolytic fil building]. Ceilings were invariably studded with cap cans fired at a velocity of a shot gun. There were occasional 'accidents' and casualties.
PS. read Jung Fu - my Chinese isn't too good these days!

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

OK, if you won't allow me to correct my typos, here is a duplicate with amendments:

"Make that rejoin, Will, and thanks. I removed the big guys already for safety, so a photo wouldn't show much now.
In the 60's, when much cap development was underway, there were many spectacular failures. The 'forming' rooms in manufacture had steel cages around the 'soaking' facility. [forming = oxide film formation, soaking = electrolytic film growth]. Ceilings were invariably studded with cap cans fired at a velocity of a shot gun. There were occasional 'accidents' and casualties.
PS. read Jung Fu - my Chinese isn't too good these days!"

Anyone encounter the rogue cap company with the (deliberate?) spelling mistake:
S.H.I. ?
Oh, yes - I have one of their bulging beauties here.

[tiresias]

Re: Is this a record?!

"Make that rejoin, Will, and thanks. I removed the big guys already for safety, so a photo wouldn't show much now.

As in, they're so bad that they will continue "blowing their tops" even when the PSU is powered down?

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

Well, yes! Apart from the risk of someone else switching on again, the residual excess hydrogen cannot be relied upon to diffuse through the rubber gasket in the base before an explosive failure occurs. The bigger they are, the quicker they should be dispatched.
AND.... no-one should ever look at these disasters-waiting-to-happen without wearing spectacles or a face mask of some sort.

[arneson]

Re: Is this a record?!

The big tantalums can really blow chunks at you.
It's like ceramic schrapnel.

[Rainbow]

Re: Is this a record?!

To "deactivate" bad PSUs I keep for components only, I just cut the wires from the AC socket.

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

Sounds good - ones arriving on my doorstep tend to get more brutal stripping action within a day or so.

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

And now for some good news. All eleven caps replaced. PSU running again, but it's still a cr*p clone!

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Is this a record?!

The ceiling tiles over Boschert's (a P/S company in the 70s and 80s, now part of Artesyn) manufacturing test area had a lot of little circular holes from all the wrong-voltage and reverse-polarity caps that launched.

[kc8adu]

Re: Is this a record?!

The ceiling tiles over Boschert's (a P/S company in the 70s and 80s, now part of Artesyn) manufacturing test area had a lot of little circular holes from all the wrong-voltage and reverse-polarity caps that launched.

a fellow antique computer collector found an imsai 8080 at a yardsale after seeing mine here.
didnt wait for me to bring the variac so those big beercan caps could be reformed properly.
he turned it on and got distracted.BOOM!can of one of the caps was embedded in the ceiling!better than your face i said.

[Elitist]

Re: Is this a record?!

I keep an old PC=1 (original speed criterion, eg Norton Utils) in the loft for reference. It doesn't get switched on more than once a year , if that.........