John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

I've heard online that I stand an excellent chance of killing myself if I try a cap kit, but then elsewhere people make them sound like they are easy as can be.  How hard are they to do, really?  I'm not an electrician or anything, but I have successfully installed my own light fixtures in my condo, so there's that.

Just learn how to solder. Find a scrap circuit board, desolder the parts and solder them back in for training. The dangers of working on a CRT is the high voltage inside the tube, which needs to be discharged. There are plenty of Youtube videos (including John´s) covering how to solder and discharging CRTs.

Why don´t you check out Mr. Rampage´s post here:

http://www.johnsarcade.com/forum/index.php?topic=432.0 (http://www.johnsarcade.com/forum/index.php?topic=432.0)

I did my first cap kit about a month ago on my DK jr. Monitor, it was a sanyo ez20, I have to tell you it was easier then I figured, also it's fun to do a cap kit! Give it a try you will see

Thanks for the info.  I have home improvement projects to work on at the moment so this isn't a pressing issue, but I'll be sure to consult this info when the time comes.

its very easy to do, just time consuming. John has a few videos doing cap kits and I will be putting together a video somewhat soon as well

I've done a few now, not too difficult, but you have to feel comfortable with soldering, get a decent soldering iron (some of the soldering points are close together, dont want to bridge them).  Need a solder sucker, flux, etc.

I think one of John's recent videos has him doing a full cap kit.

Make sure you figure out a method/process when swapping out caps, I'm very paranoid about accidentaly putting in a cap backwards (some of the pcb labels are wrong), so when I pull a cap, I visually check to see which side is negative/positive, I then use a permanent marker to mark the cap that I'm putting in, then after I solder it in, I use a multi-meter to run a continuity check between the new solder point and another point along the same trace to make sure it is ok.  I may be a bit more paranoid/methodical, but dont want to have to troubleshoot when all caps have been replaced and when working with a monitor that uses high voltage.

Sometimes you get a chassis that has caps that are hard to reach (ie. behind shielding, etc), sometimes they are a challenge to replace.

Get a good iron, the one John has is great. That's what I bought. Automatic temp controlled Welled

I recommend buying a Hakko 888D ($90) over any of the wellers.
If you want top of the line a METCAL PS-900 ($250) is the way to go.

Hakko 888D can confirm is the best thing ever!

I am an autobody tech and plumber and guitar tech by trade.
I know my way around a sottering  (lol) iron and some guitars use mods and caps.
But its not that hard to figure.

I went out, bought a new solder iron, solder sucker, flux and SOTTER (lol)

I recapped an EZ20 in under two hours first shot thing worked like brand new again.
Its not as hard as everybody makes it out to be. The ability to recap a monitor does not make you an arcade genius .

Practice on a junk chassis first to get the hang of reflowing and using the solder sucker.
Take your time , you might mess up and put a cap in backwards if you don't.
Find a cap map before you even start.