Questions about Vintage Capacitors???

Hi Folks, I have an add on the Net looking for Old Broken down stereos,Amps,Recievers,Speakers ect and I have been given a whole Butload full of Old equipment which I have been disassembleing looking for Parts I can use in my DIY projects.....

While doing this I have found Many Capacitors that i have never seen before....Especially these ones that are a Small Glass tube with some shiney material inside it...I suspect that they might be Mylar or some sort of metal Film Caps...I tested them with my Capacitance meter and they test exactly there rateing....

so my question about these Caps is "Can I reuse them "?? Is there a Time limit on these Types of Caps, meaning do they ever get old?? and when a cap gets old what happens to it"s capicitance??

There were also many Large electrlytics (Large metal Cans) and when I tested them with my Capacitance meter most tested about 25% higher than there rated Value...So are Old electro caps supposed to increase in capacitance as they age or are they supposed to loose there capacitance with age??? Could I still use the electro Caps that are at or above there rated Values?? or will they quickly die out ??

I also got some other caps that i have never seen before....They look simular in shape to an orange drop cap accept that they are an off white color and they have different colored stripes going across them...
What types of Caps could they be, and would they still be reuseable???

The unit I got these Caps from was an Old early 70"s Turntable ,reciever , Amp unit that had a Bunch of Tip41/42 Chips in it and it has a Lot of Point to point wireing in it and a Nice sized Transformer in it and it was Made in Canada....

I also got a set of Nice looking 70"s-80"s JBL speakers but the Woofers were removed but it still had 2 working smaller speakers in it and the crossovers...Would these be worth anything if I tried to sell them??


Sorry if my questions seem dumb but i have only ever used new components so I don"t have much knowlege of vintage parts....

Thanx a Lot Guys....

Cheers

[quote author="Minion"]While doing this I have found Many Capacitors that i have never seen before....Especially these ones that are a Small Glass tube with some shiney material inside it...I suspect that they might be Mylar or some sort of metal Film Caps...I tested them with my Capacitance meter and they test exactly there rateing....

so my question about these Caps is "Can I reuse them "?? Is there a Time limit on these Types of Caps, meaning do they ever get old?? and when a cap gets old what happens to it"s capicitance??[/quote]

These are probably some sort of film capacitor, either mylar or polystyrene, but they might be ceramic. In either case, you should be able to use these pretty near forever.

There were also many Large electrlytics (Large metal Cans) and when I tested them with my Capacitance meter most tested about 25% higher than there rated Value...So are Old electro caps supposed to increase in capacitance as they age or are they supposed to loose there capacitance with age??? Could I still use the electro Caps that are at or above there rated Values?? or will they quickly die out ??

Click to expand...

Old electrolytics tend to dry out and develop leakage or high equivalent series resistance (ESR). I wouldn't use those in a project.

I also got some other caps that i have never seen before....They look simular in shape to an orange drop cap accept that they are an off white color and they have different colored stripes going across them...
What types of Caps could they be, and would they still be reuseable???

Click to expand...

Almost certainly mylar; the stripes use the same color code as resistors. They should be reuseable.

I also got a set of Nice looking 70"s-80"s JBL speakers but the Woofers were removed but it still had 2 working smaller speakers in it and the crossovers...Would these be worth anything if I tried to sell them??

Click to expand...

Probably not unless the cabinets are exceptionally high quality. You might get a few bucks for the drivers, though, from people who already own the speakers but have blown out their mids and tweeters.

Peace,
Paul

Be careful with all that rubbish. It is filled with PCB's (the bad chemical kind) and all sorts of chemicals that were cool in the day. Wash your hands well before eating or smoking.
Stay away from selenium rectifiers. Selenium is number 1 on the poisoned components list. They look like wafers bolted together:


This is a lot of Telefunken/ Neuman stuff:


I would NOT suggest canned or compressed air for cleaning the chassis. Be careful and you can DIY for decades to come.
Mike

[quote author="Minion"]Especially these ones that are a Small Glass tube with some shiney material inside it...I suspect that they might be Mylar or some sort of metal Film Caps...[/quote]
A picture would be nice! This sounds like either some paper/oil caps I have seen (or paper/PCB!) or polystyrene/styroflex caps.

If they are oil/pcb caps check the leakage before using them - and don't get the contents on your skin. If they are polystyrene they should last forever, and they are not dangerous at all...

But take a photo of the ones you can't identify, and post it here.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen