I have been looking to sort of "build up" a collection of electrolytics for recapping stuff like my old Sony 8-301 set.

It seems sort of hard to find all the caps in one or two places like Radio Shack, Willy's Electronics, etc.

Is there any place where someone sells like a "grab bag" of caps I can get....and then sort out into one of those big tall workbench bins with all the little drawers?

I did find on ebay a BUNCH of big collections of electrolytics for like 40~50 bucks. They seem EXACTLY like what I want....but most of them seem to come from Hong Kong or other parts of China. Obviously I'd still end up at Mouser or something for some of the bigger caps....but has anyone ever gotten these "chinese collections" of electrolytics? They seem to have ALOT of different values in the collections that cover most of the pedestrian values in these transistorized sets.

I had read the thread where Phil had to "improvise" a couple caps to reach a value his Sony 8-301 was happy with for his horizontal. I still have a 301 that actually runs "okay" if it sits for like ten minutes. I want to start going through each of it's three modules and recapping them....but don't want to have to track down buying EACH cap one by one. Like his, the "big" caps in the power supply appear to be spot on as far as voltages. I've noticed only one VERY light hum bar, and it seems to go away when there is a decent signal (so NOT likely a power supply issue). I still have no O-scope....and anyway, can't see really how you would scope anything on this chassis unless it was from the edge connectors underneath.

I did manage to find the SAMS for this set (cheap if you just wanna download the PDF), and have marked about THIRTY or so caps that are spread out between the three modules. I figured I'm just gonna recap each module one at a time in it's entirety rather than trying to also locate an ESR meter just yet. If I can get THIS set nice and happy, I'll THEN likely jump in and find a nice ESR meter and maybe find a scope. I wonder if they make a decent scope I can use on the laptop, like a USB thing? THAT would be REALLY handy!

Try Just radios. they have prepackaged sets of ....everything.

Cool site that "Just Radios".....but these electrolytics I'm looking for are much more pedestrian than the kits on there. I gotta find just a BUNCH of axial and can style 16v~50v caps of some pretty common values.

Will probly end up with maybe a couple of the different "assortments" I see on ebay for just the pedestrian stuff, and then trust the bigger more exotic values to either this Just Radios....or Mouser. I used to get alot of stuff from DigiKey, but they seem to be more geared to ordering things like a CASE of lead acid batteries and the like. Not very friendly to a regular Joe wanting one or two caps.

I don't really wanna play around at "liquidator" or "surplus" places (a few here in San Diego), for fear of just ending up with old tired caps "liberated" from other old equipement. I even DID see that Radio Shack still does sell some VERY small little "grab bags" of just some little electrolytics in their little drawers....but looks like they are just like a dozen SMALL caps in a little packet. Can't hurt to grab a few of those when I go there for other little things. I guess what I really need to get first is a good size organizer with like 50 drawers and to dust off my little label printer.

It's OK to put away quantities of mylar caps, but I wouldn't want to store more electrolytics than I could use in a year or so. 'Lytics need to be fresh! They do have electrolyte inside and can dry out. They are a lot better now than they used to be, and maybe the year limit is a little extreme, but that's just caution.

In my experience some of the electrolytic capacitors in R/S grab bags test mediocre to outright bad.....I would not use them in any project (tube or SS) that I really cared about.

Agreed. I picked up a couple of these little grab bags just for fun, and even though I couldn't really test any of 'em....I noticed they were also a "grab bag" of brands. A couple even had a Samsung logo on them. I stuck the whole little collection of all the mixed up caps in a single small drawer for "last choice" along with those I have "pulled" from things I've parted out. MOST of the projects I play with are just minor projects. I'm waiting until I've found a DECENT collection before taking on the recap of the Sony S8-301.

I enjoy (lots!)...watching the SUPER faithful restorations on this site, but the stuff I'm working on I'm happy to just have work real well. These little SS sets are just plastic, no view to whats inside, no glow, no smell (we HOPE!). With the Sony 301, I did notice you can see a FEW of the internals, but I don't appear to need to replace it's HOT or any of the things I see from outside of it. Even the one set I have "breadboarded" (on a literal breadboard)....nobody would ever notice "different" caps. The little generic chinese set is probly from the late nineties or early naughties.....and you'd be HARD pressed to know what sort of caps were even on the faceless little PC board. They aren't even the same brand caps on the SAME board, and most it's critical work is done in the big IC in the middle of the thing. The caps on these are REALLY pedestrian.

I would go to Mouser or DigiKey first if I needed to find any "real" caps.....or had to replace the big silver cans underneath the Sony (those are PSU....and the PSU is not at ALL acting out)

Maybe try electronicsgoldmine.com. Sometimes you can find assortments of caps there, along with many, many other items of all kinds. Good Luck! :thmbsp: