Don Klipstein wrote:
In , Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Charlie Darwin" wrote:

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
...
"Charlie Darwin" wrote in message
Parts guy was stumped by the intact filament/no continuity too (see Van's
post). But I decided to try a new bulb (for $11.24.

What is so special about the bulb that they can get that price? You can
probably find it cheaper on the internet but then the S&H would be $10.
Bulb is 25 watt, tubular, about 2 inches tall, integral plastic base with
two blades protruding beneath that slide into female connector.

The filament is circular going around the circumference of the glass and is
supported by 5-6 separate wire posts -- each topped with a loop to
support/lock the filament wire.

The parts people only had a 20 watt, about 1 1/2 inches tall. That's the one
I bought and put into the microwave.

No reason a 79 cent standard appliance bulb couldn't have been designed into
it originally-- but then again, these are the same guys that forced me to
take the entire sheet metal cover off. Good thing I had the right bit to
remove the 6 locking torx screws they used to fasten the case.


It's really ridiculous they way so many products are designed by graduate
engineers using custom/proprietary parts and sub assemblies when standard
parts would do just as well. Adds cost, complexity, assembly errors--- and
no real benefit to the end user.
We sold the old Brown and Sharpe screw machines a few years back, but
made quite a bit of money with them over the years, making (among other
things) custom screws. Nine million stock screws at the hardware store,
and engineers still insist on designing things that need a custom screw.

I have some difficulty accepting that most engineers would do that on
their own. I suspect pressure from others as follows:

A) From MBA and/or MBA-wannabe types looking for revenue stream from
proprietary replacement parts

B) From legal departments pushing on pressure to impair user repairs in
order to reduce lawsuits from repairs that achieved getting the product
to work again but that were insufficient in maintaining/restoring
safety that the product orginally had

Distant third place, very distant third place I would suspect being some
engineer more likely of age young enough to be disqualified from being
President of USA by being too young, specifying proprietary screws to make
a widget slightly smaller and/or lighter in weight than otherwise
possible.
And such engineer does not get a job at NASA or a NASA contractor
despite NASA paying bigtime for small mass reduction because screws and
other specific compinents in NASA's rockets and spaceships have severe
requirement of passing test of time. Heck - see if you can get at Best
Buy or Micro Center a computer for less than $2,000 and more advanced than
any on the most recent Spece Shuttle flight!

- Don Klipstein )
Hi,
Since you know so much. let us all see your credentials please?