Lots of mics caps

[Kent King]

I am working on a very early Philharmonic (single letter prefix). There are very few tubular wax caps in it, almost all are large mica caps like these. Most of the .05 bypass caps are these mica units. Many are testing leaky, so I'm recapping as usual. These do appear to be original (no resoldering, caps located in impossible places, etc.). They are tougher to replace because they are harder to physically remove than the tubular Sprague units. 

My question: has anyone else encountered a Philly with caps like this?

Kent

[Norman S Braithwaite]

Yes, several.  Although made Micamold, they are wax paper and very unreliable at this point in time.

Norman 

[David C. Poland]

I have encountered only a couple in later 1930's Scotts. Never a chassis full of them. 

One tip off that they are not mica is they are a bit thicker than the usual mica caps, ... and that they test as bad as old wax/paper/foil tubular caps, under even moderate voltage, using my Eico 950 Cap bridge tester.

[Kent King]

I need help on this set: I need a noise limiter switch (the push-pull knob on the front). The one in this set is broken and cannot be repaired. And I do not have a spare around here!

Any help appreciated!

Kent

[Norman S Braithwaite]

Is the shaft broken where it is of reduced diameter?  If so that can be repaired by removing the reduced shaft portion, drilling both pieces of full diameter shaft, and inserting a new portion of reduced diameter brass rod using solder or epoxy.

Norman

[Kent King]

That's a great idea, but mine isn't broken there. The threaded part is broken off the top of the switch housing. I don't see any way to reattach it firmly, and I"m not sure the switch will open and close anyway.

Kent

[Scott Seickel]

Yeah, those Micamolds are paper.  Mica in those values would be very expensive and not necessary.   I saw some pics of someone who restuffed them with small surface mount capacitors.  Came out pretty nice.  

I had an F prefix set once that had those.  No longer in my possession.  I like the way they look when viewing the chassis underside.  

Kent, I have the noise switch for you.  You should have my personal email- not the one listed on this forum as I was not able to change it when I changed service providers.  Just bounce me a message as I don't check this forum every day.  

[Alex R. Whitaker]

The pointer dial Philharmonic I overhauled about 25 years ago was full of these.  I don't remember the serial number.....I swapped some stuff to Mike Clark for it.