Homebrew PCBs

Might this be something that one would be advised to NOT dismantle, fire
up on a breadboard, and see what happens??? Like cooking oneself, or
inducing serious responses in one's implanted medical electronics (which
I fortunately do not yet have)....

Steve Bartlett

Tony Smith wrote:
...

For anyone who has never dismantled a microwave, you get a little
synchro
motor,... and that big transformer.  The magnetron has a
couple of big magnets - fun!  
...
Tony

In a message dated 4/7/2005 10:53:18 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
tower.op@... writes:

Might  this be something that one would be advised to NOT dismantle, fire
up on a  breadboard, and see what happens???


Steve:  If dismantled for parts, HOW would it be dangerous?   Loose 
components and cords that once comprised a microwave oven are NOT evil  radiators of 
deadly energy as certain evangelicals have tried to imply!  I  have a pair of 
magnet-rings from our old dead microwave on a spindle, like-poles  facing, so 
one is held "up in the air" ("levitation") on our  coffee-table.  More than ONE 
person has picked this up, fiddled with it a  bit, looked FRUSTRATEDLY 
confused and put it down, again without saying a  word.  Guess they don't want to 
expose their failure in ninth-grade general  science!
 
The transformer was BOBBIN-WOUND and the E-I core NOT soaked in Formvar, so  
customizing that big ol' transformer was straightforward!  Such a "new one"  
would have cost at least  $30!            Jan  Rowland


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 01:12:37 EDT, <JanRwl@...> wrote:

>
> Steve:  If dismantled for parts, HOW would it be dangerous?   Loose
> components and cords that once comprised a microwave oven are NOT evil   
> radiators of
> deadly energy as certain evangelicals have tried to imply!  I  have a  
> pair of
> magnet-rings from our old dead microwave on a spindle, like-poles   
> facing, so
> one is held "up in the air" ("levitation") on our  coffee-table.  More  
> than ONE
> person has picked this up, fiddled with it a  bit, looked FRUSTRATEDLY
> confused and put it down, again without saying a  word.  Guess they  
> don't want to
> expose their failure in ninth-grade general  science!
> The transformer was BOBBIN-WOUND and the E-I core NOT soaked in Formvar,  
> so
> customizing that big ol' transformer was straightforward!  Such a "new  
> one"
> would have cost at least  $30!            Jan  Rowland


I agree, it is totally harmless as long as one does discharge the HV cap  
and doesn't power on the xfmr with HV winding attached.
You can make a neat isolation transformer, and spot welding transformer,  
and cnc transformer, and....
And the magnets are neat, yes.


ST

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan"
<stefan_trethan@g...> wrote:

> I agree, it is totally harmless as long as one does discharge the HV
cap  
> and doesn't power on the xfmr with HV winding attached.
> You can make a neat isolation transformer, and spot welding
transformer,  
> and cnc transformer, and....
> And the magnets are neat, yes.

Yeah, but keep the magnets away from your comP&@^%SFDGJ:WRJ^^&#&#RTSDF

....connection lost....

> And the magnets are neat, yes.

Yeah, but keep the magnets away from your comP&@^%SFDGJ:WRJ^^&#&#RTSDF

....connection lost....


Don't hurt my feeling by laughing too loudly, but I did just that a while
back.  After playing with the magnets, I stuck them on the filing cabinet
next to my desk.

Later, I switched on my PC - "Why is my screen all wonky?  Ah crap...."

Tony


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Sat, 9 Apr 2005 02:25:19 +1000, Tony Smith <ajsmith@...>  
wrote:

>
> Don't hurt my feeling by laughing too loudly, but I did just that a while
> back.  After playing with the magnets, I stuck them on the filing cabinet
> next to my desk.
> Later, I switched on my PC - "Why is my screen all wonky?  Ah crap...."
> Tony
>


Get a tft ;-)
(i am aware that removing the magnets is the more reasonable solution  
but....)


Most times the distortions in the monitor go away after removing the  
magnets, but take care with magnet tape cards (bank cards etc.). Strong  
magnets can destroy them, weaker magnets usually don't. (See Mythbusters  
episode "electric eel myth" for reference).

ST

> On Sat, 9 Apr 2005 02:25:19 +1000, Tony Smith <ajsmith@...>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Don't hurt my feeling by laughing too loudly, but I did just
> that a while
> > back.  After playing with the magnets, I stuck them on the
> filing cabinet
> > next to my desk.
> > Later, I switched on my PC - "Why is my screen all wonky?  Ah crap...."
> > Tony
> >
>
> Get a tft ;-)
> (i am aware that removing the magnets is the more reasonable solution
> but....)
> Most times the distortions in the monitor go away after removing the
magnets,
>


Yeah, I stuck them on the other side of the cabinet.  Monitor has a good
de-gauss circuit - BOINGGGGGGGG!

Tony

I enjoyed all the responses.  My thought was that some curious tinkerer
should not take a nuker out of its cabinet, reassemble it elsewhere, and
then turn it on again....

A friend, who works in the local tel co CO tells of a coworker who, in
the days of floppies, used a magnet to secure his backup disk to the
side of a file cabinet, where he could easily find it when
needed.....and then needed it...

Steve Bartlett

I maintain several networks for pawn shops. Designed a pawn station with the monitor under a glass counter top.

Guess what gets pawned quite frequently, very large rock band speakers with huge magnets that get layed on the counter.

Was a big problem as the first shipment of monitors did not have a manuel de-gaussing button. Then we used only monitors with manual de-gauss buttons.

Just recently converted to LCDs and no more problems. Side benefit is that the customer can not now read the screen, the viewing angle lets the customer service people see the screen fine but not the customer.

Hugh

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tony Smith 
  To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 11:25 AM
  Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Dismantling a Microwave Oven WAS:CNC Router


  > And the magnets are neat, yes.

  Yeah, but keep the magnets away from your comP&@^%SFDGJ:WRJ^^&#&#RTSDF

  ....connection lost....


  Don't hurt my feeling by laughing too loudly, but I did just that a while
  back.  After playing with the magnets, I stuck them on the filing cabinet
  next to my desk.

  Later, I switched on my PC - "Why is my screen all wonky?  Ah crap...."

  Tony


  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 4/8/2005 7:33:05 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
tower.op@... writes:

A  friend, who works in the local tel co CO tells of a coworker who, in
the  days of floppies, used a magnet to secure his backup disk to the
side of a  file cabinet, where he could easily find it when
needed.....and then needed  it...



A candidate for the Darwin Award, no  doubt!!!!!!!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Bartlett <tower.op@v...>
wrote:
> Might this be something that one would be advised to NOT dismantle, fire
> up on a breadboard, and see what happens??? Like cooking oneself, or
> inducing serious responses in one's implanted medical electronics (which
> I fortunately do not yet have)....
> 
> Steve Bartlett
> 
> Tony Smith wrote:
> ...
> 
> For anyone who has never dismantled a microwave, you get a little
> synchro
> motor,... and that big transformer.  The magnetron has a
> couple of big magnets - fun!  
> ...
> Tony

One other thing to be aware of is if any of the microwave ovens
used any Beryllium Oxide thermal mountings for the magnetron.  If
so, make sure you don't machine, grind, sand, etc. such a heat sink.

Dave

In a message dated 4/10/2005 1:06:48 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
wa4qal@... writes:

One  other thing to be aware of is if any of the microwave ovens
used any  Beryllium Oxide thermal mountings for the magnetron.  If
so, make sure  you don't machine, grind, sand, etc. such a heat  sink.

Dave




From the sound of all these warnings maybe one of you can tear  one down a 
unit. Then while doing it label each part!
 
 
Ray Russell
NMRA-40609
General Contractor
Norfolk &  Western Railroad
Pocahontas Division
Circa 1958
Visit The "NEW"  Pocahontas Website at:_ Click here: N  & W Pocahontas  
Division_ (http://members.aol.com/rruss45826/public_html/index.html) 
http://members.aol.com/rruss45826/public_html/index.html

OR_ Click here:  Pocahontas Home_ 
(http://milliron.home.sprynet.com/Pocahontas/Pocahontas1.htm)  
For the old website!  
http://milliron.home.sprynet.com/Pocahontas/Pocahontas1.htm


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In article <4257211D.31C39B54@...>,
   Stephen Bartlett <tower.op@...> wrote:
> A friend, who works in the local tel co CO tells of a coworker who, in
> the days of floppies, used a magnet to secure his backup disk to the
> side of a file cabinet, where he could easily find it when
> needed.....and then needed it...

Interesting!

About three years ago many cardboard boxes full of floppy disks, there
must have been several thousand disks, arrived at the place where I work
(A stores and maintenance depot) from head office. All the contents had
been transferred to other media and they were for disposal. The trouble
was no-one quite knew what to do with them - there were obvious fears that
they might contain sensitive data. Our boss told us we could have some of
them for our department's use and we could have some ourselves as long as
we were careful what we did with them. As it turned out, as far as I could
see they were CAD files from the drawing office and, unless you had the
right program, unreadable - also rather boring I suspect.

I regularly go to a computer fair for Acorn computers (No I don't suppose
you've heard of them but don't worry about it) and there is always a
charity stall so I suggested to my boss I take some along there - but how
to clean them?

Next door to where I work is the BBC's tape services department with whom
we are on good terms. One of their functions was (it's running down now as
you might expect) to recycle used tape. Not surprisingly they have an
industrial bulk eraser - quite large - drop your tape on a conveyer belt
and a minuet or do so later it emerges the other end nicely wiped.

I took round some floppies put them through and low and behold still
perfectly readable!

At 07:26 PM 4/8/2005, Stephen Bartlett wrote:

>I enjoyed all the responses.  My thought was that some curious tinkerer
>should not take a nuker out of its cabinet, reassemble it elsewhere, and
>then turn it on again....

Somewhere around here, I have an article on converting your microwave 
oven into a video transmitter.
Takes a few tubes, output is 500-1500W  in the 2.4 GHz ham band.
Of course that much power is dangerous for all the obvious reasons, 
but answer a short multiple-choice quiz, get your ham licence, and 
you're good to go, even with large gain antennas!

Wi-Fi, Bye Bye!