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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 30th Jun 2022, 11:49 am   #1
mickm3for
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Default Oil in bumblebee caps?

Hi looking for the type of oil in bumblebee caps (its leaking out ) and is it a health hazard. looking on google an add for 2x 0,022uf at the cost of £56.00, more snake oil i think Mick
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 11:59 am   #2
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Default Re: oil in bumblebee caps

Hi Mick , when I recapped my Hallicrafters SX-42 I must have removed 40 bumblebee caps and never noticed any oil in them but most were cracked .
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 12:28 pm   #3
mickm3for
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Default Re: oil in bumblebee caps

Hi this is in Halicrafters sx96 the caps are well off value and are oily on the outside Mick
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 12:49 pm   #4
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Default Re: oil in bumblebee caps

Hi Mick They may be oil impregnated not oil filled I do recall some being sticky when I recapped my Hammarlund SP-600 it's possible that they were completely dried out. I wish I would of kept the old ones and sold them to the squad who can hear things that we can't.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 1:01 pm   #5
The Philpott
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Default Re: oil in bumblebee caps

-In the absence of definitive info regarding the oil, i suppose we treat it as hazardous by ingestion, absorption or inhalation- by default. (Not that you're going to inhale it unless it were really hot)
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 1:28 pm   #6
Uncle Bulgaria
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

I wonder if it's full of PCB? As they're encapsulated, I can't see a way of either getting the matching oil, or refilling and sealing successfully, which would also have no guarantee of returning them to their correct values. I'd whip them out and use some of those yellow polypropylene ones. It sounds as though they're well past their use-by date.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 1:45 pm   #7
mickm3for
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

Hi yes doing that now, why is it no matter how many caps you have you can never find the one value you need ? Mick
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 11:21 pm   #8
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

I would treat it like it is hazardous. I do, and it is from the PCB time period.
There are a lot of the "Bumblebee" caps in the U.S.
Philco products are notorious for this.
Almost all the "Bumblebee" caps I see here are either leaking or split. I treat them all the same way- into the bag for hazardous materials and turn them in to my local Hazo House for safe disposal.

That being said, I just saw an ad for a company making replacements for them, with the same markings, for a mere $28.00 USD EACH!
If you must have that exact type of oil impregnated cap, that is the only choice I have found.

Personally, I have made molds of the different sizes, and use a 2 part plastic to encapsulate a new cap into. Then I use a fine brush and enamel paint (Model or nail enamel) to make the color code lines on the reproduction cap.

Unless you are totally set on exact looking caps for a "perfect" restoration, just use standard Mylar or poly caps. I have never had a problem using them in the hundreds of radios and Tv sets I have repaired or restored.
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Old 2nd Jul 2022, 10:23 pm   #9
dtvmcdonald
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankB View Post
Unless you are totally set on exact looking caps for a "perfect" restoration, just use standard Mylar or poly caps. I have never had a problem using them in the hundreds of radios and TV sets I have repaired or restored.
Really? I had a nightmare with my Hallicrafters SX-25!

It would not align so that the frequency dial markings agreed with reality, and the oscillator almost did not work on the 15 meter ham band.

This was traced in large part to the stray inductance of the replacement
modern film bypass caps in the whole RF section being wrong! I kid you
not!

This was eventually fixed, painfully! I found the original caps in my discards bag. They were a bit leaky but not bad in cap value.

I measured the lead diameter: it was larger, thus, lower inductance.
I tried soldering another wire, about the old lead size, in parallel with
the lead of the new cap soldering close to the body.

This, in conjunction with being sure the lead dress matched the photos of "before" pretty
much fixed the problems.

P.S.: I've opened up old bumblebees, at least the US ones. I sniffed. I'm a chemist
and knows what PCBs smell like (I did lots of experiments with them, carefully, but
still one got whiffs.) The bumblebees did not have PCBs.

What DOES have PCBs, in the US, are the mil-grade caps trademarked
"Vitamin Q". This was verified by IR spectroscopy. Whether they do have a higher Q,
I have no idea.

Last edited by dtvmcdonald; 2nd Jul 2022 at 10:31 pm.
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Old 4th Jul 2022, 8:56 am   #10
FrankB
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

Interesting. I would like to ask, what quality were the replacements you used to have problems with them?

Most of the time I use Sprague DPMS series for any possibly critical circuits.

I really distrust the C*****e made ones, having had nightmares with their counterfeit 'lytics and semis.
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Old 4th Jul 2022, 1:22 pm   #11
The Philpott
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Default Re: Oil in bumblebee caps?

While doing Post No.5, what was on my mind was the cost of sample testing by post (at least in the UK.) I wouldn't go so far as to call it profiteering, i think it could just be the case that the Govt. doesn't subsidise these facilities. (Why would they want to open the floodgates..) The net result is that the cost for a test massively outweighs the cost for replacing components with new to be 'on the safe side'. Even if you test a single component- did they change the formula shortly before or after this one was made...?

I suppose it's both a good and a bad thing to know what PCB's smell like!

Dave
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