Where Can You Find Rare Electronic Parts?

Famos Amos asks: "I recently blew a fuse on an old Phase Linear 400 stereo amplifier, and have since been on a journey around NY state and the web looking for an AGX-style fuse (8amps, 125v or 250v, 1"X1/4" cylinder style). I've been turned away by stereo repair specialty stores, online electronics warehouses, and Radioshack among others. I was wondering if anyone in the Slashdot community knew where I could obtain such an unusual item?" If you know of a store or website that sells AGX-style fuses or other hard-to-obtain or surplus electronic parts, list them here!

Almost what you need..

[bsr]

7 amp 125V AGX fuses: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp ?xi=xi&ItemId=1611664725 [grainger.com]

Is Google really -that- hard to use?

[adolf]

According to this document [sacramento...ronics.com], AGX-type fuses are direcctly interchangable with 8AG-type fuses.

8A, 250V 8AG fuses made by Littelfuse, Inc. may be found here [digikey.com]. $0.274 ea, minimum quantity of 5. 2,655 in stock.

NEXT!

Re:Unavailabe?

[nocomment]

I'm not sure if this is a joke. Was it maybe the amp that cause the fire to begin with? :-)

Re:Unavailabe?

[voot]

pfft, did your house burn down because of that :-P

Fuses

[XO]

A fuse is a fuse, is a fuse. Since you're talking about an amplifier, that probably means you want a slow blow fuse.

8 amp 250v 1.25" by .25" glass fuse [radioshack.com]

Right size, it'll fit, it'll work.

Re:Fuses

[n3hat]

No, you don't want a slow-blow fuse -- they're meant to protect motors and other high-inrush-current loads, when driven by wires and switches that can withstand momentary overloads. To protect the output transistor of your amplifier you want a fast-acting fuse.

8AG and AGX fuses are 1/4 inch diameter and 1 inch long; 3AG and AGC fuses are 1/4 inch diameter and 1-1/4 inch long. There are other physical sizes including 2AG and 5x20mm. All come in slow-blow, normal-blow, and fast-acting. So you need the correct physical size to fit the holder as well as the correct electrical rating to fit the application.

Check Bussmann and Littelfuse for tech data.
Check Digi-Key, Allied, Newark, any other electronic distributor for price and availability. But watch for minimum order value rules. Radio Shack claims that if they don't have it, they can order it -- I've never tried.

Re:Fuses

[n3hat]

Depends on whether the fuse in question is in the mains input to the power supply or in the speaker output lead.

If it's intended to protect an output device against a shorted speaker lead, you *do not* want a slow-blow fuse. Fuses, and your time to replace them, are a lot less expensive than output transistors and the shop labor to replace them.

In any event, the fuse should be replaced with one of the same size and rating as is marked on the equipment. The designer will (or should) have considered the inrush current in the specification of the fuse.

fix the amp first...

[Bazman]

You don't want to keep blowing new fuses, so make sure you fix whatever was causing it to blow in the first place! It might be harder to find a replacement for the broken component (if that's what it was) than the fuse...

Rare Electronics

[N3MCB]

While this specific questions seems to have been answered by Digikey in the more general case I would suggest keeping an eye out for Hamfests. Many amateur radio clubs sponsor these events and there should be one near you at some time in the year. Most are good places to stock up on misc electronics.

Just last week here in Melbourne FL we had one. Some of the goodies I saw were a 1949 RCA TV set and a Motorola repeater with a 1958 in service date on it (both items working). There were tubes galore, antennas, coax, radios, etc.

Re:Rare Electronics

[agentk]

I agree, electronics flea markets are great fun and if you can't find your part you can probably find someone else who can.

Re:Rare Electronics

[Spamlent Green]

FYI, I submitted a story about Flea Markets & Swapfests a while back. All sorts of hamfests, surplus centers and the like were submitted:

Computer/Tech Flea Markets? [slashdot.org]

A few places...

[mjpaci]

Try:
Antique Elcetronics Supply: http://www.tubesandmore.com/

Triode Electronics: http://store.yahoo.com/triodeel/index.html

Or

Angela Instruments: http://www.angela.com/

Not suprised about Radio Shack

[MrResistor]

I've recieved blank stares from Radio Shack managers when I've asked them about such simple things as vacuum tubes. The Shack is pretty much useless when you need actual information.

However, here are some places I would try:

Grainger(sp?), which was already mentioned in another post, seems to carry a lot of wierd stuff you can't find anywhere else.

McMaster-Carr might be another place to look, for the same reasons as Grainger, and their online catalog is the best I've ever used.

USENET, aka Google Groups. I'm sure there are a few groups dedicated to old amps, and I wouldn't be at all suprised if there were one dedicated to exactly the one you have.

Search for equivalent parts. What things are called changes sometimes. There are various reasons why, but it's fairly common in electronics. You can buy gigantic books that deal only with what parts are equivalent to what based on manufacturer part numbers and such. Given that, you AGX style fuse could easily still be manufactured under a different name. Someone mentioned 8AG, and I wouldn't be at all suprised if there were at least 2 more.

Finally, you could modify the amp, or make an adapter for it, that would accept a fuse type that is easier to find. This is actually what I would probably do (make an adapter, I mean, it's always a shame when people start hacking up old gear). This is not an uncommon thing to do, for instance Groove Tubes sells (or did 10 years ago, anyway) solid state replacements for rectifier tubes since they have become extremely difficult to find (and they're part of the power supply, so it doesn't effect the sound). You may be able to find such a thing for your situation.

Re:Not suprised about Radio Shack

[perfessor multigeek]

What happened? They cut their salaries *way* down, the pool of available techies disappeared as the PC support/customization industry expanded beyond Silicon Valley and we all got better jobs, and the number of customers who cared about and understood things like impedence and rise times dropped waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. For crying out loud! These days people think that making something with LEGO Mindstorms constitutes building it from "scratch".

In MY day, mumble, grumble. . . ten miles of snow, every day! uphill! BOTH WAYS! . . . wound our own transformer coils with our TEETH . . . cast our own ferrite cores out of melted down cobbler's nails. . . bitch, moan, complain

Re:This is it?

[wnl]

I would be ROFL if it weren't so sadly true.
Maybe we should start a "secret" internet for
people like us who know it all ;-) Btw, do
you know how I can find some of that porn on
the internet that everybody talks about?
(NO! Do not put me on any damn mailing lists
you idiots, I was still kidding.)

Creative solutions

[Rick the Red]

You have to think back to the '70s, when that amp was made (they have fuses for a reason -- we didn't call 'em "Flame Linear" for nothing!). Electronics makers used the fuses commonly available at the time, which were AUTOMOTIVE fuses. Sure, most cars made since the early 1980s don't use those cylinder fuses anymore, but there's a lot more old cars on the road than old amps in people's living rooms, so for a fuse like that I'd try an auto parts store first.

And if you can't find a fuse, can I have the amp? :-)

The MIT Flea!

[FrankieBoy]

Since you're in the NY area you might want to check out the MIT Swapfest, it's about 3.5 hours from NY in Cambridge, MA. There is usally a good selection of junk, er...rare items from the computer and ham radio arena. Info is here [mit.edu]

Im afraid that you need to fly to Tokyo......

[jcrb]

A short train ride to Akihabara [interq.or.jp] (Electric town) is your only hope... they have everything you need right here under the train tracks [interq.or.jp]

Newark

[pbrammer]

Newark Electronics sells them...

Here's your fuse [newark.com]

Phil

Where Can You Find Rare Electronic Parts?

[commonchaos]

Come over to my house!

Re:Newark!

[Jonny 290]

Bah!

Just run some AWG 32 between the terminals! ;)

AWG 16 make for a good ~30A fuse.