Safe Microwave Disassembly

Tutorial on how to safely disassemble a microwave to scavenge all the interesting parts (MOT, HV Cap, etc.). What you need to pay attention to in order to avoid injury.
Music by www.LukHash.com
Video License: CC BY-SA 3.0

[@thatonescrambler]

How I disassembled these as an adolescent is beyond my adult comprehension I'm grateful to be alive 😂

[@johnsomerset1510]

Good video, very clear and useful info. It reminds me of the time I used to dismantle tv, fridges, hair dryers, toasters, radios, car engines and water pumps etc. It was useful to see how things worked and the parts were useful afterwards, but then 'simple' people would ask me why I'm collecting 'rubbish'!!!! They clearly had no vision or foresight, as I learned a lot then went to uni and am now an engineering designer and MD of two engineering companies! Anyway, keep up the inspiring video work

[@DangernoodleDave]

John Somerset yoooo you should give me an internship

[@anthonykuzevski986]

Everyone knows that they came here to take apart a microwave for the transformer

[@electronicfun9296]

and magnets

[@RAMSHACKLE28]

thanks, now I get to not poison myself, bonus!

[@NattMixon]

You should have removed your watch and wedding band when working around a capacitor, or inside of any electrical equipment for that matter.

[@jdavis6646]

Is it unplugged?

[@Ernest-From-England]

@@jdavis6646 capacitors can still hold voltage regardless of whether the machine is plugged in or not

[@ianmorgan889]

Thanks for the tip about the Capacitor-I am just about to disassemble a microwave and now know how to neutralise the danger- I can be a bit Gung Ho and sometimes it bites me on the arse!

[@jimbo390]

Germans and science go together so well...

[@methcat6992]

German science is the best in the world!

[@johndoe271828]

Correct. Most of the microwave caps however have so-called "bleeder" resistors internally (this one also did): They're designed to slowly discharge the cap when it's disconnected. Typical bleeder value is 10 MOhm. With a cap value of 1uF and an assumed initial charge of 2kV, this means that after 30 secs there's about 100 Volts left and after 50 secs it's down to 14V. Therefore no cap. Bleeders aren't a guarantee, though, so better be safe than sorry (it can hurt quite a bit).

[@TubeNotMe]

I would have shorted that cap before taking the fan out or anything like that, just to be sure. Just use a metal tool with an insulated handle to connect the leads. I appreciate the speeding through the boring parts like removing screws.

[@johndoe271828]

I see where you're coming from, and agree. Beryllium oxide is a pretty hard material and if you dismantle the magnetron carefully, you'll definitely be fine. That said, however, in the video I really wanted to stress that you have to know what you're doing -- and if you don't, you should better leave it alone.

[@whatskrakin37]

I don’t need any parts from this and I’m only a kid who likes to take apart things like this and I took it apart a little and I touched the capacitor without any knowledge on this😱😱😱. Well then I thought that this may have some dangerous things so I watched this video and I don’t know what to do now

[@peterbour3112]

If I get stumped on taking a microwave apart, I will come back to this video.

[@DrachonaTheWolf]

I feel like such an idiot. I disassembled a microwave for parts and didn't discharge the capacitor.

[@TubeNotMe]

A LUCKY idiot. ;)

[@DangernoodleDave]

You got verrrry lucky

[@squidwardtentacles244]

well there goes your entire storage of luck for the rest of your life

[@DrachonaTheWolf]

@@TubeNotMe Well, I did it right after this.

[@DrachonaTheWolf]

@@DangernoodleDave I later discharged it. I'm usually better when it comes to safety, especially with electricity.

[@tvbox6955]

*** Count how many times you say ahhh and umm. ***

[@johndoe271828]

Haha thank you very much. When you finally are dominating the world, keep me in mind -- just think of all the SCIENCE that waits to be done ;-)

[@johndoe271828]

Hmm, probably not without reasonable effort. The filament is inside the resonance chamber, which will usually be welded shut. So you'd have to cut that open first. Why are you particularly interested in the filament, if I may ask?

[@thunderb0ltplays]

I wonder how many people died watching this or prevented death by seeing this

[@scotthoward4836]

What year did microwaves start marking copper coated ali wires in the large transformer?

[@jeffbentley8029]

Ah ahm ah

[@elijahemmanuelines7750]

Make Jacob's Ladder using Microwave Transformer

[@solhaher9114]

Thank youu my SIM card had fallen inside l didn’t know what to do

[@smorrow]

Motor? Always assumed there was a clock spring.

[@btno222]

Can microwaves travel within a infared light spectrum as ways of to control and centrslize the waves into a beam?

[@bradfordgordon6552]

The guy was touching the non-insulated alligator clips, while trying not to get electrocuted.

[@johndoe271828]

Yeah because quite in contrast to you, I know what floating potential is. Nice try though :-D

[@Chloregy]

John regardless of whether you know something or not some kid could be watching this and gets fried because of your very poor safeguards… no reason to be a smartass

[@boshaznip]

Uhhh, ummm Cool vid though, thanks!

[@Torontogal777]

Help! The door of my microwave suddenly will not open. I put in a cup of tea to heat it, and now the door won't open. When I push the door opener button, it seems to press down much further than before. How do I get at the door to release it, remove the cup of tea, and begin fixing the faulty door latch? (Panasonic Inverter, model NN-T695)

[@SuperCorndog12]

Now the biohazard disposal will get a new microwave and yes i know about the capacitor.

[@trackmyactivity]

Great explanations, especially appreciated the description on how to use the salvaged parts. Thanks

[@xploit6589]

So I am honestly scared of the capacitor , right now especially one so strong lol , i see the magnetron as profit , The transformer is in working condition. Everything works except for the start button lol anyways I think I’m just gonna throw all those good parts out as they are of no use to me as of now and the risk seems a bit high for my liking.. The fan however.. What would I use to power it? It’s 17W 120V

[@johncrow5552]

I want to turn an old microwave into a turn table. If I disconnect the magnerton and the fan, will that work? (worried about the capacitor. Should I leave that connected?)

[@dang48]

You're better off removing the capacitor. It's not only safer but it will give you more internal room to work with when you do your conversion. Hope it turned out very well.

[@johncrow5552]

@@dang48 I found a microwave where the motor voltage was the same as power voltage so all I used was the motor/glass turntable and a switch.

[@dang48]

@@johncrow5552 Cool! That definitely is a big help.

[@علیاکبرزارعی-ز4ض]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@peterbour3112]

Can you take the filament out of the magnetron?

[@SuperCorndog12]

I took one apart and i immediately stopped when i saw the radiation warning. I got pretty scared and now I'm looking up microwave radiation. I got the copper though :D.

[@836dmar]

In addition radiation is dangerous based on cumulative exposure. I can’t understand the alarmist attitude about the pink berillium or asbestos either. Yes, know the danger, but if I walk by and breath asbestos one time I’m not likely to immediately double over with lung cancer. It’s a correlative risk but is not an positive causation of illness.

[@johnbatchler8551]

Thanks great video. Anyone who took electronics knows u have to always discharge a capitor

[@williamtate6268]

John Batchler Anyone who took English knows how to spell capacitor.

[@selamuabebe5561]

Amusing

[@johndoe271828]

Kein Problem: Beim Zerlegen des Magnetrons muss man ein bischen vorsichtig sein. Manchmal sind dort Keramikisolatoren verbaut, die pinkfarben sind. Die bestehen aus Berylliumoxid, das sehr schädlich für die Lunge ist. Insbesondere der Staub ist gefährlich (ähnliche Wirkung wie Asbest). Deswegen auf KEINEN Fall zersägen oder zersplittern und am Besten das Zerlegen des Magnetrons meiden, wenn die Isolatoren aus Ber.Ox. bestehen. Und eben die Kondensatoren korrekt entladen. Viel Spaß beim Basteln!

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

Why are you talking so fast??? If you would slow down and talk slower you would probably get a lot more people subscribing to your Channel!

[@Danbui57]

You're just slow

[@mainelyelectric]

Hi I heard the the pink insulators are only dangerous if crushed and powdered!!!??? I have about five magnitrons sitting around my shop from scraping microwaves and a stack of those ring magnets that are great for picking screws up on the shop table!! please reply Thanks Ben

[@TubeNotMe]

If you slip while trying to remove the housing and crack that insulator, a small amount will be dispersed as powder and tiny particles. You don't want to get any beryllium in your lungs at all, so he's recommending that you don't take the chance. I've seen another guy take one of those apart but he also said he would not recommend other try it.

[@DangernoodleDave]

Basically. Maybe not a high chance of happening. But the result isn’t worth risking

[@hardybraun3020]

Hallo, entschudlige ich hab von elektronik noch nicht so die ahnung aber ich versuche sie mir an zu eignen. Allerdings wenn so schon keine Ahnung hat und dann noch in einer Sprache die einem nicht so liegt gibt es manchmal schon Probleme... es gibt da 2 Stellen in deinem Video an denen du vor etwas aus gesundheitlichen Gründen warnst. Könntest du mir das kurz in Deutsch erklären. Danke

[@7Gagandeep]

its very helpful

[@teutonicknight3939]

what is the filament made of?

[@johndoe271828]

Thanks -- yeah the uhhhs, tell me about it. I also find it annoying to watch to be honest. My more recent videos have a drastically reduced "uhhh ummm" count though ;-) And I tried to get rid of saying "gonna" all the time. Oh well :-)

[@77Avadon77]

That's okay I do that crap all the time.

[@johndoe271828]

"Therefore no spark" is what I meant, sorry.

[@timbilliet1050]

if i buy a non working microwave, would the transformer be broken or something else

[@DangernoodleDave]

Tim Billiet depends on the issue with the microwave. It may just be a problem with the circuitry. You should be able to find a lot of them for free tbh

[@bedadabeyene4093]

nice video

[@OthmanAlikhan]

Thanks for the video, it was very educational =)

[@johndoe271828]

I am indeed, thanks for the flattery ;-)

[@geravega77]

Make more videos please

[@peterbour3112]

Does the filament heat up?

[@nzwotb2525]

Is it safe to just cut the wires from the capacitor to the transformer

[@Saxutin]

Yes, but be careful. If you want to store cap safely, I highly recommend discharging it with resistors.

[@nzwotb2525]

Saxutin ! Ok thank you

[@Boise666]

Nice vid

[@fretzopenmic6754]

Always watch programmes like this I didn't I cracked open the tube...and the shit went up my nose...stupid I know but I wanted the magnets and shit happens,...straight away..i heated my glue gun and dripped it into the hole sealing anymore inside...this is not a scare mongery story it's the truth...I may be ok but at 64yrs old maybe not...i buried the part deep in my garden...beryllium oxide poisoning has no cure...pointless going to doctors or hospital...BE WARNED...ty

[@Saxutin]

You burried magnetron in your garden? What?

[@arthurmead5341]

lmfao

[@thegdpwhytea439]

You dead?

[@savagenomore]

ut oh...