https://www.ucccaps.com/default.aspx
A great source for big power supply caps is about to go away. August 31 is the last day to order from the United Chemi-Con factory surplus outlet, according to the website. Really sucks, as I was occasionally able to snag big $70 power supply caps for about 1/4 the normal price. Was a good source for oddball sized caps for some Sansui and Accuphase amps where other places had nothing that would fit.
The search engine is crude, and allows for zero errors when parsing. I'm nearly always looking for 2" and larger caps, so the allowable cap diameters for 2" and bigger are:
50.0mm
51.0mm
63.5mm
76.0mm
Voltages I'm usually looking for are (three digits followed by 'vdc'!):
050vdc
075vdc
080vdc
100vdc
Thus a search for a 63.5mm 75V cap would be '075vdc 63.5mm'. If you needed a 2" cap, don't forget to try both 50.0mm and 51.0mm.
Check the radio button to search for 'All Words' to limit the search to caps that fit both the diameter and voltage criteria, and below that, where it says 'By Category', select 'Large Can', which will return pretty much only screw terminal caps. Leave the 'By Family' set to 'All Families' and let the program take off. Browse through the results and find something with a capacitance and a length that will work. If it says 'In Stock', click on it to see if there's enough there to get your job done.
It's a royal PITA, but once you get used to it you can get some really good caps for cheap. Problem is, the whole thing goes away in a few days.
Grab 'em while you can.
A great source for big power supply caps is about to go away. August 31 is the last day to order from the United Chemi-Con factory surplus outlet, according to the website. Really sucks, as I was occasionally able to snag big $70 power supply caps for about 1/4 the normal price. Was a good source for oddball sized caps for some Sansui and Accuphase amps where other places had nothing that would fit.
The search engine is crude, and allows for zero errors when parsing. I'm nearly always looking for 2" and larger caps, so the allowable cap diameters for 2" and bigger are:
50.0mm
51.0mm
63.5mm
76.0mm
Voltages I'm usually looking for are (three digits followed by 'vdc'!):
050vdc
075vdc
080vdc
100vdc
Thus a search for a 63.5mm 75V cap would be '075vdc 63.5mm'. If you needed a 2" cap, don't forget to try both 50.0mm and 51.0mm.
Check the radio button to search for 'All Words' to limit the search to caps that fit both the diameter and voltage criteria, and below that, where it says 'By Category', select 'Large Can', which will return pretty much only screw terminal caps. Leave the 'By Family' set to 'All Families' and let the program take off. Browse through the results and find something with a capacitance and a length that will work. If it says 'In Stock', click on it to see if there's enough there to get your job done.
It's a royal PITA, but once you get used to it you can get some really good caps for cheap. Problem is, the whole thing goes away in a few days.
Grab 'em while you can.
Thanks for sharing! I just grabbed some screw terminal and snap-in caps for my next projects. The prices are less than half what I usually pay. Their stock, with many of caps best suited for power amps, is getting quite low. They often only had 1 left of a given part number. But if you're flexible on capacitance values and sizes there are still lots of great deals.
A tip for others, if you enter a quantity and it pops up with an "out of stock" error but the search listing shows "in stock" try quantity one, then look in the shopping cart where it displays how many they actually have left. That's a lot easier than lowering the quantity until it accepts it.
Also, they add a $5.00 handling charge and shipping for my order was around $10. But even adding $15 it's still a screaming great deal.
Also, most all of what they have left are 85C parts. The only series I found any useful values for 105C are the KMH Snap-Ins. They're great caps with high ripple ratings, low ESR, and the 105C temp means a much longer life--especially in high bias (or Class A) amps that run hot. I've used them in previous designs.
A tip for others, if you enter a quantity and it pops up with an "out of stock" error but the search listing shows "in stock" try quantity one, then look in the shopping cart where it displays how many they actually have left. That's a lot easier than lowering the quantity until it accepts it.
Also, they add a $5.00 handling charge and shipping for my order was around $10. But even adding $15 it's still a screaming great deal.
Also, most all of what they have left are 85C parts. The only series I found any useful values for 105C are the KMH Snap-Ins. They're great caps with high ripple ratings, low ESR, and the 105C temp means a much longer life--especially in high bias (or Class A) amps that run hot. I've used them in previous designs.
Brit01 said:
Generally no we don't. If it appears to be a private shipment to a private individual, in a small package, customs doesn't seem to bother with it. If it's a large package, and addressed to a business, then yes. And it has a lot to do with how the commercial invoice is filled out by the shipper. Most of the Asian suppliers are fairly good at avoiding customs hassles on small shipments.
These days, quality issues aside, it's almost the same ordering from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China vs buying from a USA source. Shipping is usually fairly cheap (unless it's something heavy) and very fast. In fact, I can get things via airmail from Asia quicker than ground shipping within the USA (between the coasts). The bigger problem, especially for things like output transistors, is you can easily end up with counterfit knock-off products instead of the real thing.
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