68kMLA Classic Interface

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Re-capping vintage main boards with radials

Posted by: uniserver on 2013-09-09 01:43:42 Ya i know this makes some of you cringe. I personally don't really have an opinion any more. As long as it works when i'm done, and the customer is happy, that is all I really care about. Anyways, this customer gave me a stack of boards to do, he wanted all radials. He feels radials are going to last longer, and are more robust then SMT electrolytics. So I have a couple styles i'm using to make sure and lay them flat on the PCB... I, like most people hate christmas trees, and pad rippage. 1. Nip and lay - (if you have enough space) 2. Trim and bend over - (if you have space issues) 3. Diagonal Cut - (if you have to approach the pads at an angle) Just a few tid bits i'd like to share, might be helpful if you find your self with a bag o radials and feel like doing a re-cap. I personally prefer to stick with SMT OEM Lytics, I just just like the stock look my self. They are much quicker for me to install, then an all radial thing like this.

Posted by: Unknown_K on 2013-09-09 21:03:36 I used some radials on a few IBM PS/2 floppy drives and they look ok and work great (odd ratings that I could not find cheap SMT's for). Never used anything but SMT for my Macs.

Posted by: Ike on 2013-11-14 00:03:44 I've used nothing but radials on my macs. The SMD components look better and may last longer, but the radials are easier to replace when they crap out. Plus I can find then much easier locally. And I like myself to believe that when one of the radial caps leak, it wont damage the board as much because they are floating... I like the 'Trim and bend over' approach Uniserver, didn't think of that myself.

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