Turns out I wired the 2 220uF/350V screen caps in parallel instead of series. They each took the entire 550V for about 20 minutes before the first one blew. I through out the other.
I'm only posting this as a warning, be careful in these amps. If I'd been looking closer I might have some serious burns now.
BTW- Thanks for posting! That was a good reminder!
Also, the same applies for power tools! You just can't be too careful, Mr. Burt will attest to that!
FWIW - I hired a guy to finish my drywall / trim in my office and (he does this for a living) was using my Saw to cut some trim. Well he readed across to grab a piece of wood and the blade stopped on his bone! I had to take him to the emergency room.
Last edited by keithrick on Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
A few months ago a friend was using a hole saw on the drill press when he realized, too late, he'd forgotten to clamp the piece down. 2 surgeries and 3 broken bones in his left hand. The same day I was drilling out a chassis without my safety glasses. That won't happen again.
Silly me, when this cap blew my safety glasses were hanging right next to me on the hook.
This remindes me that I have replaced a PT in a Superreverb and this thing puts out 510V to the plates of the 6L6...better check my screens cap voltage rating.....
Yikes! Glad you're safe. Another thing to watch out for with radial PS caps is voltage at the top of the cap. Often there is a metal cap on top of the capacitor that is in the circuit. I did not know this and once touched two caps at once with my left hand. YEOW! 250 volts DC through my fingers.
When on the subject of exploding capacitors, I would like to ask the question to which nobody replied in the discussion about D'Lite amp, and that is, what is the maximal voltage capacity of two first caps in power supply of that amp, really. They use 2x 100uF at 350V each, which means that they ask for 700V total (for a 50uF capacity total), and I am wandering if I could use single 50uF 630V capacity polyprop cap instead of that serial arrangement of 2x350V caps? Meaning, would 50uF 630V cap suffice?
Glad your OK. 
Did you get that nasty smoke cloud and stinky oil all over the place? 
