We use the microwave at work to destroy recordable CDs. About 5
seconds give a nice light show as the subtrate build up a charge and
starts arcing internally. It very nicely destroys the disk and
usually the layers will separate.




On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 23:26:59 -0400, Andy Cuffe
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 23:18:31 GMT, "James Sweet"

There may be some truth to this myth, but I've run microwaves without
anything in them a number of times as well as trying various metallic
objects in a discarded oven, never did have one damaged from it.


Running a microwave empty is bad for it because there's nothing to
absorb the 700 Watts of microwave power coming out of the magnetron,
so it all ends up going back into the magnetron. Eventually it will
heat up enough to either trip the thermal breaker, or destroy the
magnetron. Nothing will explode though.

The dangers of putting metal objects in the microwave is more of a
myth. It's true that certain things like crumpled foil will cause
arcing, but this isn't dangerous and shouldn't hurt the oven. Things
like metal twist ties can heat up and catch on fire. Keep in mind
that the oven walls are made of metal and metal temperature probes
have been around for years. You're generally ok with flat metal
objects, or even things like spoons and wire racks. You don't want to
use metal pots because they will shield the thing you're trying to
cook from the RF.
Andy Cuffe