what's valuable in a microwave oven?

[Nomen Nescio]

Microwave ovens are commonly thrown out for verge pickups.
The last two in my town, I have noticed that somebody has
gone around and opened up every one of them, often with a
crowbar. So I am curious what component is worth the
effort to go scavenging thus?

 

[Jasen Betts]

Microwave ovens are commonly thrown out for verge pickups.
The last two in my town, I have noticed that somebody has
gone around and opened up every one of them, often with a
crowbar. So I am curious what component is worth the
effort to go scavenging thus?

The transformer has lots of copper. maybe worth $20 as scrap.
worth more if someone has another use for it
(eg making a Tesla coil)



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[F Murtz]

Magnets.

??? do you mean magnetrons?

 

[Ray]

??? do you mean magnetrons?

Yeah the magnets that surround the magnetron's cavity.
Very powerful.

 

[Barry]

??? do you mean magnetrons?

Microwave ovens have powerful magnets around the magnetron.

 

[F Murtz]

Microwave ovens have powerful magnets around the magnetron.

Forgot about them.

 

[Jasen Betts]

Yeah the magnets that surround the magnetron's cavity.
Very powerful.

moderately powerful. like the magnet from a large loudspeaker,
pretty wimpy when compared to the neodymium magnets found in hard drives,

Magnet technology has come a long way since AlNiCo.

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[terryc]

Microwave ovens have powerful magnets around the magnetron.

Are they better than hard disk magnets?

 

[Baron]

terryc Inscribed thus:

Are they better than hard disk magnets?

As Jason said "pretty wimpy when compared to the neodymium magnets found
in hard drives" !

 

[ian field]

terryc Inscribed thus:


As Jason said "pretty wimpy when compared to the neodymium magnets found
in hard drives" !

Handy to tie on a length of string when you drop your keys down a drain.

 

[Baron]

ian field Inscribed thus:

Handy to tie on a length of string when you drop your keys down a
drain.

They are indeed very very strong ! So much so that I belive that you
would have difficulty getting the magnet past the cast iron
grate...

 

[ian field]

ian field Inscribed thus:


They are indeed very very strong ! So much so that I belive that you
would have difficulty getting the magnet past the cast iron
grate...

Poke it through with a twig.

 

[Baron]

ian field Inscribed thus:

Poke it through with a twig.

I'll tell you what... I've half a dozen attached to the side of a steel
cabinet, if you can prize one off with your fingers, no tools allowed,
you can have them all. (*)

 

[ian field]

ian field Inscribed thus:


I'll tell you what... I've half a dozen attached to the side of a steel
cabinet, if you can prize one off with your fingers, no tools allowed,
you can have them all. (*)

I have about a dozen stuck on the steel striplight casing in the garage -
back in the days when MW ovens were worth repairing they were my "bread &
butter" work.

I did once leave one stuck to the side of the tank on my motorcycle, but it
slid off when I hit a pothole, the ceramic magnet shattered as it hit the
road and showered the side of the shiny black Merc I was overtaking at the
time.

Fortunately I knew of a blind turning with concrete bollards the bike could
get through but the car couldn't.

 

[terryc]

Handy to tie on a length of string when you drop your keys down a drain.

Don't remove them from their backing plate/frame. Mounting holes in both
ends.

 

[Baron]

ian field Inscribed thus:

I have about a dozen stuck on the steel striplight casing in the
garage - back in the days when MW ovens were worth repairing they were
my "bread & butter" work.

I did once leave one stuck to the side of the tank on my motorcycle,
but it slid off when I hit a pothole, the ceramic magnet shattered as
it hit the road and showered the side of the shiny black Merc I was
overtaking at the time.

Oooo Not good...

Fortunately I knew of a blind turning with concrete bollards the bike
could get through but the car couldn't.

Crafty sod. ;-)

 

[ian field]

ian field Inscribed thus:


Oooo Not good...

It seems to be a bit of a recurring theme.

One of my very early bikes was a step-thru moped sort of thing with 6V
flywheel generator and no regulator.

The lead acid battery gave up the ghost, so I decided to bodge it with a
stack of large DEAK cells - which didn't take kindly to the no regulator
situation!

Late for work as usual I thrashed it down the hill to the traffic
lights/crossroads at the bottom, where the lights were just turning amber
(as usual) so I left the braking to the last second and screamed it down
through the gears ready to blast away from the RH turn at the lights.

All this was too much for the stack of DEAK cells which vented their
contents all over the side of the car in the left lane.

I've even had pistons escape while going along.

 

[Jasen Betts]

The lead acid battery gave up the ghost, so I decided to bodge it with a
stack of large DEAK cells - which didn't take kindly to the no regulator
situation!

DEAK?

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[ian field]

DEAK?

A battery of big round NiCd cells like megga-giant watch batteries.

These ones were about 3 or 4" dia.

Might be a Varta trade name - I haven't heard it for quite some time, or
seen such big round NiCd cells.

 

[Baron]

ian field Inscribed thus:

It seems to be a bit of a recurring theme.

One of my very early bikes was a step-thru moped sort of thing with 6V
flywheel generator and no regulator.

The lead acid battery gave up the ghost, so I decided to bodge it with
a stack of large DEAK cells - which didn't take kindly to the no
regulator situation!

Late for work as usual I thrashed it down the hill to the traffic
lights/crossroads at the bottom, where the lights were just turning
amber (as usual) so I left the braking to the last second and screamed
it down through the gears ready to blast away from the RH turn at the
lights.

All this was too much for the stack of DEAK cells which vented their
contents all over the side of the car in the left lane.

I've even had pistons escape while going along.

ROLF !