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Anyone ever take the Maser out of their microwave oven?

Catwell
This may be an odd question, but have you ever took a microwave maser out and used it for anything?

A friend of mine once told me he wants to take one and attach it to the front of his car to "punish" people who cut him off. After turning my lunch to near plasma, I don't think I would want a microwave maser point at me.

Maybe a red light camera "de-activator" is in the midst.

Cabe
 
update:
MASER stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation."
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  • I'm sure youtube holds the solution to this somewhere. image Thought along these lines before - on more devious days image

     

    Just be careful anyone with these crazy ideas! Thousands of Volts can kill. And the microwaves can damage you of course (especially your eyes apparently)

     

    Sorry, this is just pulled from Wikipedia (I'm lazy tonight):

    "Among more speculative hazards, at least one in particular is well known and documented. As the lens of the eye has no cooling blood flow, it is particularly prone to overheating when exposed to microwave radiation. This heating can in turn lead to a higher incidence of cataracts in later life.[18] A microwave oven with a warped door or poor microwave sealing can be hazardous.

    There is also a considerable electrical hazard around magnetrons, as they require a high voltage power supply."

     

    Wow, I'm not usually so sensible. And anyway, these dangers should be assumed when doing this sort of thing...

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  • I'm sure youtube holds the solution to this somewhere. image Thought along these lines before - on more devious days image

     

    Just be careful anyone with these crazy ideas! Thousands of Volts can kill. And the microwaves can damage you of course (especially your eyes apparently)

     

    Sorry, this is just pulled from Wikipedia (I'm lazy tonight):

    "Among more speculative hazards, at least one in particular is well known and documented. As the lens of the eye has no cooling blood flow, it is particularly prone to overheating when exposed to microwave radiation. This heating can in turn lead to a higher incidence of cataracts in later life.[18] A microwave oven with a warped door or poor microwave sealing can be hazardous.

    There is also a considerable electrical hazard around magnetrons, as they require a high voltage power supply."

     

    Wow, I'm not usually so sensible. And anyway, these dangers should be assumed when doing this sort of thing...

Children
  • in reply to Former Member

    The danger doesnt stop there, Berylium is often used in the magnatrons insulator, very nasty if you get that in your lungs.

    2 Nice big magnets in there (if you need powerful magnets you would be better stripping a hard drive though).

    There are stories on the net about 12 or so of these magnets can be used to make a pretty powerful home generator/wind turbine. I believe there is 2 in every microwave.

    Oh and the magnatron can be used as a battery (but low voltage <0.5V).

    The weapon you talk about has the name HERF (look it up in Wiki).

  • in reply to JohnDSiviter

    To say nothing of the stories I've heard about military people tossing an apple in front of the doppler output, and watching it explode.  Or worse stories of warming themselves by standing in front of the low-power doppler output. (Yes, they actually did things like this! and probably ended-up with advanced cancer, or sterile for the rest of their life.)  Sorry to say, I've felt the effects of just being in front of such.. Riding in a hot-air balloon, passing over a dish farm for a popular cable sports networks.. When we passed over one of the dishes, we felt REAL warm! (in February.)

     

    I admit to scrapping a few Microwave ovens for the magnets. I was never aware of the Beryllium though. I used to keep a couple of the magnets handy to hold signs to metal vehicles, but stopped the practice when shortly after the signs were removed, a round circle of dust kept forming where the magnets were  (Yes, actually magnetized the surface. the dust, was micro iron filings.)..