I have taken my used 1988 AIRCO (ESAB) welder panels off before I attempt to fire it up. I find that the interface board (PCB) has a blown axial capacitor (Nichicon 470uf63v). Well I tried the PCB exchange place (ARC Products) and find they do not have this board, nor does ESAB. Okay now what do I do, I can epoxy the burnt sections of the board, replace the blown capacitor, and solder jumper wires for the severed contact strips. Has anyone done this themselves? If so what should I be careful with? What would have caused the capacitor to blow? Is there something else that I should be checking (ie. capacitor controls ???). Thanks for any help you can provide.

hd_74al wrote:
I have taken my used 1988 AIRCO (ESAB) welder panels off before I
attempt to fire it up. I find that the interface board (PCB) has a
blown axial capacitor (Nichicon 470uf63v). Well I tried the PCB
exchange place (ARC Products) and find they do not have this board, nor
does ESAB. Okay now what do I do, I can epoxy the burnt sections of the
board, replace the blown capacitor, and solder jumper wires for the
severed contact strips. Has anyone done this themselves? If so what
should I be careful with? What would have caused the capacitor to blow?
Is there something else that I should be checking (ie. capacitor
controls ???). Thanks for any help you can provide.


If this was a Tantalum capacitor used for power supply bypassing,
they do this when fired up after a long period of disuse. The US
military finally had to require fuses be built into all tantalum
caps to prevent this kind of damage. They fail to a near short,
and burn.

Get an Aluminum electrolytic, they usually fail in a much more
graceful manner, and usually don't give such problems after
a few years of idleness.

Jon