Found Silver & Tantalum

ScrappinRed it is thanks to you! Your post and much better ability to take decent, in focused close-up pictures. I do read, reread the SMF post, as well as enjoy the very exciting, dynamic and "Edge of Seat" manufacturers data specification sheets. Thanks again for your post.

Reading some tantalum capacitors spec sheets this morning about "wet" tantalum capacitors. Seems like the case body is utilized as part of the cathode. Thus increasing the cathodes "plate" area. So using a Fluke 77 multimeter and a handful of confirmed wet tantalum capacitors I tested this out. After scratching and penetrating the protective plastic sleeve verifying indeed the case is connected to the cathode lead. I went on to test a bunch of standard aluminum electrolytic capacitors, verifying the cathode leads of these capacitors or not connected. Next up I tested some axial leaded capacitors that have the "+" markings on both the boards and the their cases. These did have the cathode leads connected to the case body? The unconfirmed axial leaded caps have no magnetic properties. The confirmed tantalum caps (all verified by mfg. data sheets & case body markings) all have magnetic properties. To add confusion there are a lot of capacitors that are not tantalum that have magnetic leads.

I'm trying to come up with more ways to quickly and positively find/confirm tantalum capacitors. My hypothesis on this so far, I got a long way to go before I become a tantalum expert. Any and all help or comments greatly appreciated and welcomed. Thanks everyone.

Can tantalum capacitors be found on low grade boards? Yes, but usually not, I have in front of me three small circuit boards that have two tantalum capacitors on them. These are from Honeywell thermostats that were made in 1991. These are the small epoxy tantalum capacitors, that come in many different colors, I call these "Gum Drops". Certainly not going to fill ones wallet quickly looking for them on low grade boards, but they do utilize them on some tan/green boards. I also have found a new color for these "gum drop" caps, black. These come from a power supply used on medical monitors, green/green boards.

Hope to post some pictures tonight.