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Old 6th Feb 2018, 5:59 pm   #1
Stylo N M
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Default Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Hi
I've oftern woundered how people keep components like capacitors for such great lengths of time, and somehow seem to beable to store them in a way, that they don't even seem to have suffered any sort of temperature change?

When i've bought those C280 type capacitors in the past, the one's we have come to know as tropical fish type, due to there verious coloured bands and markings, they always seem to take on an oily apearence within a week or two after i've purchased them. Even when i've taken great care to seal them up, to keep the dust off them and keep them clean, i can't understand what i'm doing wrong and how others seem to keep them, and other items imaculate, what's the secret

Paul
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 6:13 pm   #2
Al (astral highway)
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Default Re: Component storage what am i doing wrong?

Hey Paul,

It's really easy to store capacitors without any special measures being taken. I keep disc ceramic, polyester and polypropelene and silver mica types in small plastic bags. I have also in the past had a decent stock of the tropical fish type and they don't need special conditions.

So, unless you're keeping them in the engine of your car, or you have some kind of solvent vapour at a very high concentration where you're keeping them, this is a complete mystery. Could you provide a photo to show the storage conditions?

Also, why do you need to buy them repetitively, if you're only going to store them? You are of course entitled to do whatever you like, but this is just out of friendly curiosity. It doesn't really matter if a capacitor is 'immaculate' on the outside, so long as its capacitance is within tolerance - they're not known as object of great intrinsic beauty!
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 6:48 pm   #3
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

This reminds me of my recent storage anomaly: Bright green PVC fuel hose from Oregon (traditionally used on chainsaws) packed in a polythene bag, in a cardboard box. In a fairly short period of time an oily, sticky coating presented itself, then re-presented itself when wiped off with petrol. It seemed as though plasticiser was leaching out of the PVC, but i wasn't aware that there was such an interaction between PVC and LDPE.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 6:59 pm   #4
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

I store most of my small-parts in the little transparent pull-out drawers or flip-top trays you can buy pretty much everywhere [I get mine from the hobbies/crafts aisles at 'The Range'] and have never experienced the issue you describe - *except* for when storing certain rubbery components - like the little grey rubber feet intended for the corners of cabinets, the seals used for mobile-radio antenna-bases and the sleeves used for cable strain-relief in classic Bulgin line-sockets.

These seem to have a desire to meld with the plastic of the pull-out drawers over time; I've got several drawers whose bottoms are irreversibly marked and ridged by whatever leaches out of the plastic.

Solution: put a piece of kitchen-towel in the bottom of the drawer before adding the components.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 7:15 pm   #5
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Small paper envelopes?
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 7:27 pm   #6
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

I suspect the drawers might be Polystyrene, and the plastic items, PVC. Chlorine compounds emanating from PVC can dissolve Polystyrene. We were warned of this danger at Plessey,which is why hermetically sealed avionics equipment had to use PTFE wire. We were given an example of a case where a piece of PVC wire had been used in error in a repair, and the polystyrene capacitors had dissolved. You can get similar effects with the PVC cables of stuff packed in boxes using expanded polystyrene where the original polythene sleeve that cables are normally protected with at the factory, has not been used when equipment has been re-packed, as I discovered when digging out an old ZX81 after a decade or so in the loft.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 8:33 pm   #7
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Yes, an internecine process where both the plastics involved get seriously damaged. Everyone's familiar with expanded polystyrene but unexpanded it can sneak under the radar quite easily.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 8:56 pm   #8
Stylo N M
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Hi Al, yes i bought some 0.022nF C280 capacitors some time ago, i had to buy about ten all as a job lot but that was ok, beacuse at the time i was constructing multiple circuit boards.
I was very happy with them but when i looked at them about two weeks later, after putting them in a plastic bank bag, the wax coating seemed to have turned a nicotine colour but nobody smokes.

Graham, yes you've got a point there, a brown envolope or brown paper bag does seem to be a bit better, you mensioning that has joged my memory,
thanks everyone for the replies so far, all interesting stuff.

Paul.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 9:02 pm   #9
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

It does sound like an interaction between different plastics. I've never had similar problems despite being very careless about storage, but maybe I've just been lucky. I store things in a mixture of biscuit tins, 1L ice cream containers, takeaway containers and ziplock bags. The 175g Ardennes/Brussels paté containers sold by the supermarkets are useful for small quantities of stuff if you don't like ziplocks and don't need a lot of strength.
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Old 6th Feb 2018, 9:07 pm   #10
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

The PVC vs Styrene problem has been featured in another thread not too long ago...somewhere on here!!

I have bags of brand new tropical fish caps with the old RS logo on the bags. I haven't noticed anything untoward about them. (Mullard/Philips?).

I keep most of my unsorted capacitors in lin-bin style containers which I'm guessing are made from polyethylene
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Old 7th Feb 2018, 5:51 am   #11
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Use "Food Grade" plastic storage bins. Old ice cream containers. Yoghurt containers etc etc. I know of the problem, but have always conned D.O.L. to save the above mentioned food containers.

I don't know how many other places have temperatures for most of the year above 30C. but most plastic "storage" bins are made from recycled plastic which has added breakdown with UV ( Ultra Violet) light. That is the biggest problem with my storage!! It all goes brittle in less than 12 months, and falls to bits. Food Grade doesn't do that.

Best wishes with your storage.

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Old 7th Feb 2018, 11:38 am   #12
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

I have not had any problems with component storage except for some corrosion with the metal on some ceramic coil formers, although have had the usual reactions with wires on equipment. On reading the initial post I immediately thought of my stock of C280 capacitors, bought, probably 40 years ago from Birketts, and still 'as they were' in the original cardboard box I initially put them in. I am steadily using them and have found no issues so far. I use a variation of storage, but generally all new parts are in their supplied packaging in ipad boxes which I salvaged from work, as they were being thrown out (we processed hundreds of them so I have lots in use as they stack easily).
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Old 7th Feb 2018, 4:37 pm   #13
Stylo N M
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

Thanks Joe, thank you ionburn, I shall try the food storage containers Joe and the cardboard box method as well and the brown envolope idea.

It must be some sort of interaction with the plastic bags by the sound of it.

Paul.
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Old 7th Feb 2018, 11:00 pm   #14
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

By and large I've had no trouble with component storage either. Most of my Capacitors, including quite a few Mullard 'tropical fish' ones bought from henry's Radio many years ago) resistors, and semiconductors are in some grey plastic storage bins, which themselves must be nudging 40 years old by now. Some components are in reclosable plastic bags and labelled, others, particularly Electrolytic Caps. are loose in one of the storage bins. All are in my workshop, which is in an about 250 year old cellar in a building made out of Cotswold stone. Damp can be a problem there, but despite that, AFAIK, I've had no component failures despite many having stored there for a number of years. BTW that's more than I can say for my Italian made AM/FM signal generator, which has failed twice in the16 years my workshop has been in the cellar. The SG had never given me or it's two previous owners any trouble before!
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Old 26th Feb 2018, 5:16 pm   #15
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Default Re: Component storage what am I doing wrong?

I keep all my resistors and a fair few other smaller components such as caps and woodruff keys in flip top cigarette boxes - the sort that hold 20 ciggies. Unfortunately as I gave up the habit 25+ years ago now, the boxes are getting fewer as they wear out. But they stacked nicely, you could often label the ends easily and they were simply convenient - could pull one out of a stack and put it back easily.
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