Removing glued on capacitors from circuit board?

[wizard333]

That didn't help. Even with no solder left, Rivera epoxies the GD things to the board. Stupid.

[Chuck H]

That didn't help. Even with no solder left, Rivera epoxies the GD things to the board. Stupid.

Epoxy!?! Day-yam!

In that case the only thing I can think of would be to slice around them, traces and all, rip them out and then try to repair the traces. What the hell else could you do?

[TimmyP1955]

Are we talking axial lead caps? Just slice the plastic sleeve of the cap and pull the aluminum case out of it. If we are talking radial leads, whether this will work depends on how much goo is under as opposed to just around.

[Usable Thought]

U$50000 Dumble, including "Tasty Countertop Formica Boards"[tm]

That piece of brown tongue-and-groove on the left, under the blue goop, looks like the laminate flooring they sell up here, a.k.a. "click-board." I have a few bits of it in my scrap pile from when they redid our upstairs - hard, flat, uniform. I look at it & wonder, prototyping?? A little too heavy, plus a weird vibe to it.

[Tom Phillips]

That piece of brown tongue-and-groove on the left, under the blue goop, looks like the laminate flooring they sell up here...

It is two pieces of Formica. A plain piece under the piece with the eyelets.

[wizard333]

In that case the only thing I can think of would be to slice around them, traces and all, rip them out and then try to repair the traces. What the hell else could you do?

Basically what I did, but you can cut the entire top part off, you still have the base epoxied to the board with no way to get at the epoxy.

Dumbest effing way to build an amp ever. The radial leads were thick as a nail, there was NO GOD DAMNED WAY they were coming off the board even without epoxy except by nuclear war, so epoxying them to the board was just Rivera's way of not thinking down the road to when one blows up and needs replacement. Pretty obvious whoever did that has never had to actually service an amp.

[J M Fahey]

Funny: if a radial, the bottom is an 80-90% cap diameter rubber disk (nothing *really* sticks to rubber) or worst case, it's covered by a paper thin sheet of plastic which is not glued to the rubber below but just crimped around or even less, just held by the sleeve heat shrink.

And around that rubber disk you have the aluminum cap lip, bent in, and also covered in heat shrink sleeve, which again is not glued to the bare aluminum can.

My point is that even if epoxy was used between cap and board, you can still pull the cap away once soldered.

Worst case you will still pull the naked can, while leaving its "underwear" behind.

Ugly looking but exposed, since the can is out of the way.

Epoxy can be pulled out by heating it with a heat gun, there is a certain temperature where it becomes brittle and can be crumbled away with the tip of a metallic blade, think a table or pocket knife, not an X-Acto blade which is too sharp (may damage a track below) and short (hot air will melt the handle).

In a nutshell: it can reasonably be done.

FWIW I glue everything down, including pot and fuse holder body and threads, large caps, all nuts, wire assembies, connectors, **even the transformers** ... but use a weak adhesive: almost everywhere thickened (I just leave the new can open a few days) nitro or acrylic car paint transparent base , the equivalent of old Duco or Dope which is all but unobtainable, and a thick squirt of neoprene contact cement between transformers and amp chassis.

Saved my bacon MANY times, specially no "elephant in the bazaar" effect caused by a power transformer hanging from its leads, working as a wrecking ball (literally) inside the amp.

Big electrolytics with sheared legs are unheard of in my amps or repairs, dried up contact cement (a thick bead around) is more rigid than silicone, less so than hot glue or epoxy, a happy middle ground where it keeps stuff in its place but also provides *some* cushion effect and is impactv resistant.

I have repaired many amps where the nice thick hot glue ring around a cap was not holding it, was generally loose from the board.

Yes, I know, that speaks of bad vibration or some hard knock.

Oh well.

EDIT: now let's end the idle "Tech" chatter and get into to *serious* matters: there *is* such a thing as a GOOP place, and a goop.com site:
Goop | A weekly lifestyle publication, curated by Gwyneth Paltrow, offering exclusive collaborations, recipes, travel notes, and more.

Lots of cool info for us modern girls, and excellent opportunities too, such as:

Shop By: Exclusive to goop Clothing Accessories Home Beauty

New in Goop
Shop

Jac Onesie <--- notice the clumsy intention of associating this cheesy product, probably made in Bangla Desh by barefoot workers for $5 (total cost) , to iconic Jackie Onassis
Curriculum Vitae
$245


and similar stuff.

Just haven't found the gold pin NOS tubes area yet, but will keep searching.

[DrGonz78]

The radial leads were thick as a nail, there was NO GOD DAMNED WAY they were coming off the board even without epoxy except by nuclear war, so epoxying them to the board was just Rivera's way of not thinking down the road to when one blows up and needs replacement.

Replacing a PT on a Rivera Chubster I kept eyeing the way the filter caps were glued down to the PCB board. One of my thoughts while repairing the amp was that I hoped to not have to replace any of the mains caps!!

[Ascott]

Replacing a PT on a Rivera Chubster I kept eyeing the way the filter caps were glued down to the PCB board. One of my thoughts while repairing the amp was that I hoped to not have to replace any of the mains caps!!

I am recapping my old Rivera Jake studio...filter caps...biggest pita that black epoxy , thought I was going to break the board...just put a heat gun on loose enough to pry them out (after desolder of course). l

Now how to scrape that black crap off the board without wrecking it....should have lived with the noise floor and 20 year old caps....uuugh.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I am recapping my old Rivera Jake studio...filter caps...biggest pita that black epoxy , thought I was going to break the board.

Not so sure that's epoxy. Rivera's black goop reminds me of 3M weatherstrip glue, just as much of a PIA to remove. Following Rivera's lead I tried 3M glue for a while but no more, it's too aggressive for me. Might call Rivera & ask if they have a suggestion?

[rjb]

Rivera's black goop reminds me of 3M weatherstrip glue, just as much of a PIA to remove.

Have you tried Dr. Bonner's?
I've heard it works on everything.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Have you tried Dr. Bonner's?
I've heard it works on everything.

By golly you're right! It's in the fine print, right here>>>

Must be the hemp oil that does the trick. Will keep the amp smelling minty fresh inside & out besides.