Almost hit the Motherload

[gearhead]

I went to an Estate sale a few weeks back and am finally beginning to winnow my way through the booty.

The owner (actually still alive, but moving into managed care) is an electronics geek going way back; he's 88. Unfortunately, I got there on the second day and all the really cool stuff was gone (tubes, sockets, you name it.). The business running the sale said his workroom was so stuffed to begin with, only one person at a time could fit. By the time I got there, it was up to about 5.

Did end up snagging a shoe box and a half of used and new USA-made toggles and mini-toggles, as well as a parts cabinet half filled with capacitors. All for $14.

What I can't figure out is the voltage rating for most of the Caps. Some are marked, but a bunch only have value and % tolerance.

Is there some online info that you know of? Or is there a rule of thumb on size vs value vs voltage?

There are some big picofarad-rated components. Unfortunately, most of the .1's to .01s that are marked are only 50-100V.

Would pics help?

[Structo]

What type of caps are the ones you don't know the voltage of?

Ceramic?

Film?

Who ever got there before you got the good stuff.

There has to be thousands of old guys like that who pack ratted stuff away for years.
A lot of the tubes used in TV sets probably won't be of any use in a guitar amp but a nice box full of Alan Bradley's would be nice as well as all things tube related.

My cousin lucked into meeting an old man in Portland.
The guy has a garage that is stacked with stuff.
I guess it is getting picked over now but a few years back my cousin said he found a large carton of new RCA blackplates 6L6GC's.
He asked the guy how much he wanted for them and he said, oh I don't know, how about $10........ he gave him a $20 so he could come back later on. There were a dozen of them.
This was a few years ago so the guy is probably gone, but it makes you think about the treasures out there, just waiting.

[gearhead]

What type of caps are the ones you don't know the voltage of?

Ceramic?

Film?

Who ever got there before you got the good stuff.

All types. Luckily, he was a labeling fiend. About 25 2"x2"x6" drawers running from 1000uF down to 10pf. Ceramcs are the least likely to be voltage rated, but there are film, mica, polyester, and other types I've never seen before. A whole drawer of 100+ new .047uf 50V of a type I can't tell; almost like polyester.

On the later, yeah, I was heartbroken. Kept describing component types and tubes and they said, oh yeah, there were boxes and boxes of that stuff.

[M Fowler]

My son called and said his boss asked if I wanted his tube collection and of course I said just me them all, so we'll see what I get.

Last Hammond organ scored 24 tubes all useable for guitar amps.

[Bill Moore]

A lot of folks around here used to own testers, and extra tubes, just to keep the TV going.
Back in the spring, I was tuning up a customers '68 ford pu,(he bought it new), and got to talking about my Twin project. He told me his son was an engineer somewhere in california, and was going to build something with tubes to show his coworkers that they really work! He had sent him his tester, and 1 box of tubes. I told him I would like some , and gave him a list. He brought me all the preamp tubes I needed, and I forced $50 on him,(that's way too much!). Most were RCA, a couple Sylvania, and the RCA boxes had 9-60 on the end flap.

[M Fowler]

Good deal there.

I am also waiting on another local DIY amp builder and retired electronics med tech to inventory his stuff and call me back for a quote. He used wind his own PT's too.

Mark