[Nathan Slingerland]

Today I started working through restuffing the tubular paper caps. I don't always restuff caps but on a fancy set like this I like to do it if there's a reasonable percentage of original caps present.

Here's the process I use:

1. Desolder capacitor

[Image: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4856/3274...8eba_z.jpg]

I do them one at a time so as to not get confused.

2. Remove old capacitor from paper shell

I use a heat gun on the first setting to melt the wax. There's usually wax on the outside of the cap that will liquify while doing this - I wipe that away with a paper towel.
It's usually necessary to heat the entire capacitor - but focus most of your attention on the ends - in order to remove the old contents.

[Image: https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7880/4656...d95e_z.jpg]

[Image: https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7816/4662...c2cf_z.jpg]

I use an old glove to hold the capacitor while doing this - and pliers to pull on the leads.

3. Find a new capacitor

I generally restuff with 630V axial film capacitors that I get from renovatedradios.com or radiodaze.com

[Image: https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7921/4662...47f4_z.jpg]

4. Refill the ends

I use a foam block to hold the capacitor and place the shell around it.

[Image: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4824/4589...d106_z.jpg]-

I use brown colored hot glue to fill the ends. I get it off of eBay shipped directly from China (link).
This hot glue is actually made for attaching hair extensions but it looks even better on a Philco radio.
It's good for this application as it's fairly low temperature and a reasonable color.  

[Image: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4853/4662...2c33_z.jpg]

I use a cheap mini hot glue gun and fill up the end of the cap. Sometimes I use some of the old wax as filler so as to conserve hot glue.

[Image: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4877/3965...8ec9_z.jpg]

5. Ready for another 80 years!

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I try to reinstall so that the cap is in the same orientation (outer foil notation) as original and as shown on the schematic - even though it doesn't seem to matter (and no way to tell) for modern caps AFAIK.

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Here's the chassis after I finished restuffing (almost) all of the tubular paper capacitors on the main chassis.
I replaced the few non-original caps from earlier repairs with Philco spares that I had.

[Image: https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7865/3168...2ce8_z.jpg]

Tomorrow I'll restuff the bakelite blocks.

Initially I thought that I might be able to access all of the RF subchassis capacitors without removing it - but I later noticed that there is still one buried quite deep.
So I plan to take it all apart as per usual on these 1937/1938 sets. I'll tackle that tomorrow too.