TU56/TC11 restoration - Power supply question

[der Mouse]

> Thanks for the vivid visual images!

> I'd be interested in hearing any horror stories relating to exploding
> capacitors and more info on the proper caution that needs to be
> exercised when messing with old power supplies.

Well, I've never had a cap in a power supply go bang.  But I did once
put together a circuit and carelessly use a cap rated for about half
the expected voltage - I was checking only the capacitance, my bad.

It was working fine, only I started hearing this funny hissing noise.
Just as I was deciding I should find out what was hissing, it blew.

It was a small cap - somewhere in the 200µF/6V range - and didn't
damage anything else, though it did spread a film of something
unpleasantly oily over everything within a foot or so.  There was also
a rather impressive cloud of what looked like grey smoke but which I
suspect was actually the oily substance.

Based on what happened to that tiny one, I definitely would not want to
be around one of the big ones going bang.  That cap had only a couple
of millicoulombs in it, and it still made an impressive enough bang
that I was glad I was multiple feet away; one holding more like a
coulomb or two I would much rather be in the other room for.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "cap pistol". :)

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B