Recapping a Macintosh Color Classic Logic Board

Old electronic devices with surface mount electrolytic capacitors are often affected by capacitor leakage.
Here is a brief tutorial describing the process of replacing old, damaged capacitors on a Macintosh Color (Colour) Classic motherboard.
I encountered some issues with the microscope image, as well as the audio throughout the video, so my apologies for the poor quality.
Capacitor replacement guide:
recapamac.com.a...
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Tools/Products used (paid links):
T15 Torx (for opening compact Macs): amzn.to/2ZJKWN3
Microscope: amzn.to/2HnSI5H
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[@vicroberts3080]

This clearly is a labor of love. Excellent work.

[@TheAMGReviewers]

defo my favourite channel featuring the soldering uncle XD. thanks for the content

[@goncalodumas]

Hi Bruce, your tutorial videos are spot on. Your site is also very interesting and I think you should refer to it more often.

[@Mastergeko4]

Very good tutorial! I’ll be buying myself a tube of flux and some more solder wick very soon!

[@Ragnar8504]

Thanks for the great tutorial! I've got quite a large collection of 68k machines (IIcx, IIci, IIsi, LC, LCII, Colour Classic etc.) and I suspect all of them need new caps - with some of them I definitely know. We're probably talking around 20 computers! I'm tempted to skip buying a hot air station in favour of a pair of hot tweezers (basically two soldering irons held together with a hinge). They're roughly the price of a pizza so not much of a loss if they aren't that great. Your video does show how much faster the hot air is, so well worth considering!

[@BranchusCreations]

I've never used hot tweezers myself, but I've often thought that they would be very good for removing these old caps.

[@bridgetowncomputerandcellp529]

Thanks for the in-depth description of the repair!

[@natedawww]

I used essentially this method the other day to repair a friend's LCIII, although I did not add new solder to the joints and I regret it because I ended up tearing off a pad. Doh! I was able to repair it and the mac seems to be working great, but that would have saved me some grief. And I should have known anyway! Oh well. Next time!

[@DTYPTM]

Console5.com has kits for the Color Classic that are very affordable. Ordered one kit and will take a look back at your video when i receive the capacitors for sure!

[@GarthBeagle]

Fantastic guide!

[@mindluge]

thanks very much for this video. i have 2 color classics and am beginning to refurbish them. i've removed the caps on one so far. i just finished washing the motherboard in my dishwasher as per what i saw on an 8-bit guy video and just rinsed the board with isopropyl alcohol and went over it with a toothbrush. i should get the tantalum cap kit in the mail next week and will update with how that goes. i also ordered the kit for my SE/30, but also have another color classic and LCIII and one early all-in-one Macintosh to do. i can't remember if it is a Plus, a 128k, or a 512k. actually i have 2 of those motherboards and one case for them as the motherboards were interchangeable between those machines, maybe a little modification was required when i did it, i don't remember. so the next video i'm going to watch is your SE/30 video. i am also working on repairing Commodore computers that were scavenged for chips and left for dead that i bought locally. then i have an Amiga, can't remember if it was a 500 or 1200. so much to do. and so many projects to potentially do. wish there was a swap meet group that i could go to. anyway, thanks again.

[@BranchusCreations]

The 128K, 512K or Plus logic board probably won't need to be recapped, as they don't have any of the surface mount electrolytics, just a few axial capacitors.

[@lukaswolf6344]

Great content!

[@appleguy1986]

I have problems with my Mac Color Classic floppy drive. The disks will not fully seat inside the drive. When I push the disk into the slot, it goes about ¾ of the way but does not drop fully into the drive. I use a paperclip to safely remove the disk after each attempt. Do you have any idea what may cause this? If I need to replace the floppy drive where might you recommend I purchase a replacement? I live in the USA, any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[@MBurrellstudios]

One other thing. Do you have another source for the solder mask. The link that you provide gives an estimated shipping time of 1 to 2 months!!

[@BranchusCreations]

I'm in Australia, so it's hard for me to know how long some suppliers will take to fulfil orders in different parts of the world. Perhaps check out eBay? Just look for "UV curable solder mask". They're all pretty much the same.

[@MBurrellstudios]

@@BranchusCreations I did do that and did find a better deal, thank you! I enjoy your videos and like to hear you speak as well as the info you provide.

[@marineoceania]

This video is amazing, thank you so much for posting it. I'm a soldering newbie, trying to do my first recap and on my practice board, I keep taking off one pad in the last step! Is my soldering iron too hot or something? Not sure what I'm doing wrong, exactly.

[@BranchusCreations]

When you say "last step" do you mean during removal, during the cleaning process, or when you're soldering on a new capacitor?

[@marineoceania]

Branchus Creations so I mean the last step of removal; basically when I’m taking a soldering iron to melt off the solder between the pad and the capacitor, I keep tearing off the pad with it. My issue may be that I didn’t use a “chisel” tip, which led me to pull it off harder than usual? I’m not entirely sure though.

[@MBurrellstudios]

Sometimes I watch these videos just to hear you say "solder."

[@retro_online6927]

Thanks alot and like always you are the best My macintosh classic was work good one day i wash the logic board in alcohol so i get a chess board so i recap and wash and in the end i put it in vigner and nothing happend it sill the chess plz help

[@jacka.4774]

thank you for this video. love all the close ups. I have a question. I heard on another feed that it is not a good idea to replace electrolytic with tantalum caps, that is because they fail different. that is electrolytic fails open and tantalum fails close which can cause damage to component. it this true?

[@BranchusCreations]

It's my understanding that both electrolytic and tantalum capacitors can fail either open or closed (short) depending on the cause of that failure. I don't believe one has a greater tendency for one type of failure over the other.

[@jacka.4774]

@@BranchusCreations wow, thanks for your quick reply. I am watching more of videos now and learning. thank you for this.

[@jacka.4774]

@@BranchusCreations no but really I got to get off youtube and get some work done. with all this good material it is hard not to watch.

[@jacka.4774]

@@BranchusCreations here is another question, if you wouldn't mind answering whenever you have time, I would appreciate it any way I can, just let me know how. it is kind of work related for me. the question is about placement of caps. but here is a bit fyi about the instrument. it is an electrosurgery unit. it is not outputting any power / not cutting. there are several pcbs stacked in there. 1 pcb is setup with about 5 or 6 big caps. it may be a power bank or whatever it is called. my question is about capacitors, thought. I took all circuit board apart and removed several big electrolytic caps, took picture before removal with the phone. Well, the phone is gone now which has its own story. but so are the pictures and how to put the caps back in. there is no + or - marking on the pcb. The only way I would think one could figure this out is by understanding the way caps were connected together. I don't have the expertise and or the confidence to be sure about my understanding of this and I was wondering if you would help. these caps were connected together with a resister in between each one. there is a resister in between 1 legs of each cap to the 1 leg of the next cap on all of them. Should I assume one cap would connect with "-" to one end of the resisted and the other cap would connect with "+" to the other end of the resister so that when unit is turned off the resisters would drain the caps? I hope what I am saying is making sense. but if it is not, I can send you pictures.