quick recap

Two packages arrived at my doorstep today. The first, with Digi-Key logos on the box were the electrolytic capacitors I ordered for my TCP 270 turbomolecular pump power supply.

A veritable mix of Panasonic, Vishay, and United Chemi-Con

While it's probably overkill to to have chosen 105°C parts due to the very well ventilated power supply case, the increased price over ones rated for 85°C is negligible for a one off project like this. More annoying is price and limited selection of axial caps. If I was just trying to get the job done and all I had were radials on hand, then I would have happily stuffed those in. 

Before

Who needs solder mask? That might help prevent traces from peeling off when reworking the board, and we wouldn't want that! The annular rings seemed unnecessarily small, and of course the holes were unplated. There were a few ring to lead spots I had to bridge because they got ruined during component removal.   

After

I had to avoid setting one of the larger caps that replaced an old maroon part (center right) flush with the board due to a ruined trace on the top, so that I could actually get an iron on it. Honestly, I don't know how they could have had confidence that there would have been an acceptable solder joint between the cap lead and the trace in the original assembly.  

I somewhat uprated the large cap. Originally it was 4700uF, which I would have left as-is, but it was rated -10/+50% anyway, therefore I opted for a +/-20% 6800uF because it was easier to find at a reasonable price. The original cap had 4 leads, whereas the replacement has 2. Two of the holes had adequate spacing (though slightly too small for the leads themselves), but the unpopulated relay socket seen to the right of the cap got in the way. So instead I had to choose two different holes which were spaced slightly too far apart, and the hole on the negative side wasn't actually connected to any trace. So I had to wallow out the holes a bit to get it to fit. Also, a small strip of copper tape and solder connected the negative lead to the negative trace. It was a bit of a pain in the ass to work on because there's wires soldered to the board on all sides, and the only way to increase accessibility would have been to disassemble the unit more than I wanted to.

I slapped it back together. Hopefully there are no unpleasant surprises when I finally get a chance to use it.