Eico 950 capacitance resistor comparator bridge finished.

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jakewells

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Just finished restoring this nice piece of vintage test equipment replaced the eye tube along with all the capacitors and a few resistors that where out of tolerance.
It should provide me with many years of service now. Sure is nice to have a tester that will load test electrolytic and film capacitors up to 500 volts to check for leakage.
here is some photos.
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My channel and electronically restored silvertone tube radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqmmsLBdXG8&t=71s
 
The 950 is a good unit and I used one for years until I found a Sprague TO6 to replace it. I've had good luck with Eico equipment over the years though the build quality varies from excellent to poor depending on who put the kit together. Fortunately most of their stuff is easily repaired as it was meant to be built by novices.
 
Nice. I've yet to get into that level of debug. One of these days...
 
Cool. I recall magic eye tube on an old reel to reel my neighbor owned; His father was a Raytheon Missile engineer in the early sixties. He had models of the Hawk and the Sparrow I enjoyed seeing.

Have you tested low voltage non-polarized electrolytics from old loudspeakers?

And, if so, how old were they and what % were they out of tolerance?

Also, do you exercise them to reform the dielectric before testing?

I am curious as I repair old electronics and loudspeakers and I don't think I've needed to replace any caps yet other than vacuum tube amp 300V power supply caps. But, I haven't dug into any speakers older than say early 70's vintage. Like a KLH Model 6 beauty.

I see guys on the web recapping speaker crossovers and i'm thinking its for no reason other than its become a "fad".
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thanks for sharing - Ken
 
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Reforming electrolytics is a waste of time sure they might work for a while but they may soon fail i just replace them and age has little to do it with i only change electrolytic capacitors with a high esr value. for crossover caps i use mylar film capacitors in there place because they will usually outlast non polarized electrolytics.
 
I too restored my EICO 950b. I didn't have to replace the eye tube; probably didn't have a lot of hours on it.

I too don't bother with reforming electrolytics. They are so cheap to replace nowadays.
 
Originally Posted by jakewells
Reforming electrolytics is a waste of time sure they might work for a while but they may soon fail i just replace them and age has little to do it with i only change electrolytic capacitors with a high esr value. for crossover caps i use mylar film capacitors in there place because they will usually outlast non polarized electrolytics.


You can't just replace bumble bees, they are highly sought after in tube guitar amps. (might be some NOS Sprague Bumble Bees out there?)

So you might as well test them and move on!

and those eye tubes scared me as a child!
 
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Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
Originally Posted by jakewells
Reforming electrolytics is a waste of time sure they might work for a while but they may soon fail i just replace them and age has little to do it with i only change electrolytic capacitors with a high esr value. for crossover caps i use mylar film capacitors in there place because they will usually outlast non polarized electrolytics.


You can't just replace bumble bees, they are highly sought after in tube guitar amps. (might be some NOS Sprague Bumble Bees out there?)

So you might as well test them and move on!

and those eye tubes scared me as a child!

I don't bother checking those i replace them anyways they are known to leak and explode they are called bumble bombs for a reason. I could care less if they are sought after i want my equipment right not half assed and i don't work on guitar amps.
 
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