Re: gEDA-user: lost newbie

[Steve Meier <smeier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Do I dare ask that we put a cap on this conversation?

Steve M.

Gene Heskett wrote:
>On Friday 06 January 2006 23:52, Dan McMahill wrote:
>  
>>>Unforch, the one pair of jumpers I missed on the schematic had left
>>>the vibrator (remember those?) and plate transformer still wired for
>>>6 volts.  The radio worked great on 12 volts, until one of the
>>>filter cans made a dent about 1/2" deep in the plaster ceiling.  The
>>>kids, trying to get some sleep upstairs, thought I was shooting at
>>>them.
>>>
>>>Messy, took a couple of hours to clean that up.  Stinky too. 
>>>Probably had over 600 volts on 450 volt rated caps.
>>>      
>>funny.  In my case it was my parents who thought I was up to no good
>>when I made a very loud bang at 2AM back in high school days.  And
>>yes, those caps do stink.  Probably nasty stuff for human consumption
>>too.
>>    
>
>Sort of, but we know better than to ingest it while your pets think is 
>sweet and lap it up, leading to death a goodly portion of the time. The 
>stink is the combination of burnt kraft paper used to seperate the 
>foils, and the common anti-freeze ethylene glycol's burning byproducts.
>The same stuff you can smell behind an automobile with a cracked head or 
>head gasket.
>
>The 'technical grade' of ethylene glycol used in electrolytic caps is 
>many times purer than the stuff used in auto radiators though. Back in 
>the mid-70's when the petro squeeze was on the first time, antifreeze 
>that winter was up into the $13 a gallon area, and I created a 
>nationwide semi-shortage of electrolytic caps that winter by running 
>down the last barrel of the good stuff in the country (it was only 125 
>miles away, on the Mobil warehouses dock in Omaha at the time) and 
>buying it for a water cooled tv transmitter which required the pure 
>stuff else a pair of $150,000 klystrons could be trashed by the 
>internal electralisis the regular stuff would have allowed.  It was 
>that, or sign off KNXE-TV for the winter.  As it was destined for 
>another customer, I had to talk fast to get it.  As the original 
>customer probably had a fixed price contract, they probably welcomed 
>the chance to get what the traffic would bear.  ISTR the PO I cut in 
>NETV's name was for about 850-900 dollars for that 55 gallon drum.
>
>ISTR that barrel was sitting there waiting for shipping orders to 
>Sprague, who had a plant in eastern Nebraska at the time.  55 gallons 
>of it will make a heck of a lot of electrolytic caps as it only takes a 
>few drops to soak the paper sufficiently.
>
>  
>>-Dan
>>    
>
>