On Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:12:49 -0600, Don Foreman wrote:
A few on this forum have said that they've liked reading my occasional
scribbles. This is for y'all old metalworking buds; enjoy!
---
The lazy, careless paper carrier "delivered" my paper near but not on my
front stoop again this morning. It was in a plastic bag, but it was
raining and the bag wasn't completely closed so a corner of the paper
got wet. Guess what carrier ain't gettin' any Xmas tip from me?
OK, thought I, I'll dry it out in the microwave. I've done that with
wet paperback books before. They're not pretty when done because the
pages get wrinkly and swell and the steam doesn't do the spine binding
adhesive any good, but it does dry the pages so they're readable.
Microwaves heat water, but not paper. It can't get hotter than the
boiling point of water, and when the water is boiled off then no further
heating occurs. That's what's supposed to happen and what has always
worked in the past.
I started it going, then repaired to the bathroom with a book -- not my
newspaper because my newspaper was in the microwave getting dried out so
I could read it later. Not my first choice, but I can adapt.
While sitting on the throne reading my book, by and by I heard a
"whump". Whump? Uh oh. I live alone so I notice whumps. I
wondered if there was a problem in the kitchen. I scurried to the
kitchen as quickly as I could without leaving a trail down the hall,
jammies at half mast. Woulda made a hell of a video.
I found the door of the microwave had opened, possibly due to the
bonfire within. The interior of the microwave was filled with orange
flame. The best eagle scout in the State couldn't have gotten a wet
newspaper burning like that.
"Oh, golly", I thought; "I need to do something about this."
I have ABC nitrogen-charged dry powder fire extinguishers handy, but
they make a hell of a mess. I was standing right by the kitchen sink,
and there was a glass on the counter. I filled the glass half full of
water, used that to fill my mouth and both cheeks. Face cheeks, that
is. Then I went to the nearby microwave and blew while slapping both
cheeks, producing a wet spray like the wettest sneeze you can imagine.
The flames were instantly snuffed. One more dose of that and the
ashes weren't even smoking or smoldering, that fire was OUT. I removed
the glass rotating carousel plate from the oven with a hot pad,
deposited the wet black mess in the sink and sprayed it with the sink
sprayer just to be double-sure.
Catastrophe averted! Next urgent task was to open doors and windows
and set up some fans to clear the rather acrid, choking, eye-stinging
smoke. The smoke alarms didn't "get it" until I had things well under
control but they sure made a racket after that for a little while. I'd
say good thing it was unseasonably warm today, but then I wouldn't have
had a wet paper if it was cold enough to snow rather than rain. After
ventilating for awhile I went thru the house with Atmosclear and some
other odor-eating aerosol. They helped, but it still smells a little
like a summer campground in my house. Perhaps I should cook some
bacon, or garlic, or both.
I bought that microwave in 1998 so it didn't owe me anything though it
was still working just fine. I tried it to see if it would still work.
It didn't. No matter, it was damaged far beyond cleanup.
So what happened? My friend Vicki says that someone told her today
that newspaper is now made from recycled paper that has metal in it.
That could explain it, I guess.
I went to Wally's and got a new monkeywave today, very similar to the
late and lamented that is now bagged and tagged to be recycled -- and
(METAL CONTENT) I now have an MOT (microwave oven transformer) under my
workbench that may become a spot welder or who knows whut?
Meanwhile, I'm playing with the notion of making a very simple induction
heater for annealing the necks of rifle brass. I don't have to make
sense, I'm RETIRED!
If you just close the microwave door, you deny the fire oxygen and it dies
out pretty quickly.
(As I know, from experience and instruction from my then 12 year old
niece, during an incident involving a microwave and a bag of pop corn.
She still dredges up the "Uncle Tim then opened the microwave and started
the fire back up" story -- but hey, I was curious to see what would
happen).
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com