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Microwave gun

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windozeuser

windozeuser

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I'm a curious teenager. My neighbors had an old microwave sitting outside(Ready to be thrown away :eek:) . From my curiousity I wanted to take it and rip it apart to see how it works. Then I remembered from my favorite show "Mythbusters" that they talked about a microwave gun using the magnetron to produce the waves. I pulled the magnetron and started experimenting with it. I want to melt objects at a distance. So far it's not working, and I think I need a funnel of some kind to concentrate the waves like a LASER. Any ideas/ tips?

Btw - the microwave worked perfectly before I tore it apart, I cooked my daily hot pocket when I was in my lab.
 
DO NOT play with a magnetron!
Microwave burns are very nasty because your insides get cooked first and you don't have many nerves inside to feel it. The stuff inside your eyes could boil before you know it. Dangerous!
 
Whoa, good thing your still alive to hear this:

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THE MAGNETRON OR OTHER HIGH-VOLTAGE MICROWAVE COMPONENTS UNLESS YOU KNOW *EXACTLY* WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!

The magnetron uses 4000 volts which needless to say will cut short your experimenting days.

Even experienced engineers have on occasion been killed by these things.

Just last week in the newspaper i heard of a father of two that "didn't want to pay the repair bill" for his microwave and right in front of his kids opened up the microwave and got electrocuted.

If you need to ask how to power up a magnetron you clearly don't know how to safely control it. This is not meant as an insult in anyway but a stern warning, the microwave is not something can that be toyed with.

You're better off salvaging the other components. Search the forums for information about this.

PLEASE, do not attempt to use the magnetron or the transformer until you've at least had some experience working with "lesser voltages". Otherwise, things can only end badly.
 
Thanks for all the warnings. I was well aware of the risks, and have took some precautions. I do have the magnetron powered It's just not heating anything up outside of it's box.

But I dunno if I'm gonna continue working with it. I might just salvage the components like you said

I basically have the magnetron pointing to a cup of water (the cup is a cermanic one) filled with dilluted water. I have a thermometer in the water. I was getting some temp increase but not much.

The magnetron is surrounded by a copper cage I made to try to absorb any microwave leaks.

I just have to worry about superheated water exploding


I think I need to concentrate the output of the magnetron.
 
windozeuser said:
I was well aware of the risks, and have took some precautions. I do have the magnetron powered It's just not heating anything up outside of it's box.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if we're in agreement with the "I was aware of the risks" part...
just what precautions are protecting you??
 
I unplugged the microwave from the wall.

I put on my electricrian boots, I grounded the entire microwave to an earth ground. I put on latex gloves and then Dry thick leather gloves. Unscrewed the cover. I discharged the capacitors. then tested them with a meter. Then I pulled the magnetron and then made a copper box type thing to enclose the entire thing except for the front to obsorb microwave leakage. I then moved outside so the microwaves can't bounce back off of near by objects. I am 40 ft away from it when it is turned on by a extension cord.

I also was wearing a full face sheild. I look at the thermometer with my webcam
 
How are you powering the magnetron? Is it still connected to the transformer?

Doesn't sound like you can remotely control it with an extension cord. unless you somehow jammed the front control panel to "permanent on"
 
Yeah everything is still connected. I shorted the door safety switch.

It's the microwave with the dial timer so if you set it to like 40 mins and just send power it will just come on
 
Ya probably didn't have a proper waveguide to channel the microwaves to the cup.


But nonetheless, unless you got the proper equipment for measuring microwaves, best to stop this experiment and try making a windmill with the transformer (its been done, working electrical wind generator from microwave parts) or something.
 
If you cant melt objects IN the microwave, its very doubtful that you will be able to melt them at a distance. You cant concentrate the waves into a small beam like a laser either.

What you CAN do is fry electronics with it, all the copper tracks act like antennas and get hundreds of volts across them, literally frying them. If your microwave is still intact, try sticking a circuitboard in there, but not for long, it will smoke like crazy. Also, try putting a lightbulb in it, its pretty cool.

As for making a gun out of it, i wouldnt encourage it because you can blind yourself, make yourself sterile . . . Not to mention blind the unsuspecting person who you didn't realize is standing right on the other side of the wall, which is invisible to microwaves :cry: . And youl slap yourself across the face when you accidently channel microwaves right at your computer . . . :lol:
 
Hmm thanks Zach!

That gives me another Idea, how far can the output destroy electronics if it is channeled to them. I remember the police had this thing that destroyed the car computer from a distance. IS that a microwave gun?

I don't want to melt things now, I want to destroy electronics from a distance

like the police with their masers
 
Disclaimer: im not encouraging you, im simply being a source of information :lol:

Yes, it is a microwave gun. Im not sure if thats just a rumor or what, but ive heard both sides of the argument as to whether or not it will work and im not sure. I was reading on a different forum that some guy had a CD player and he walked in front of his microwave gun (with protection i might add) from a distance off and all he was able to do was to get the CD player buzz.

For your protection, go ask these people how to build one: www.4hv.org They will probably tell you not to :lol: Its a forum all about that kind of stuff. And read a bunch of the postings on that forum, there's a lot of knowledge to be gained on microwave guns from that website.
 
microwaves are VERY dangerous!

DO NOT play with them if you dont know about them, the magnetron is 100% evil and not a toy of any kind!

if you want, read up on them and go to dans workshop, he has a stick welder made from a few microwave transformers. i made one myself and it works well.

www.dansworkshop.com


you will not be able to melt objects from far distances but if you find another microwave put some copper or light bulbs in it and watch from a good 10 feet away.

the bulbs explode after lighting up in a greenish blue color and copper will produce plasma, grapes are also good in the microwave

these are all fun but dont play with the magnetron.
 
Moody, i couldnt find the stick welder, could you point right to it with a link? that just links to the homepage.

Sounds interesting, especially since i have an old microwave laying around
 
windozeuser said:
Hmm thanks Zach!

That gives me another Idea, how far can the output destroy electronics if it is channeled to them. I remember the police had this thing that destroyed the car computer from a distance. IS that a microwave gun?

I don't want to melt things now, I want to destroy electronics from a distance

like the police with their masers
Click to expand...

These fantasy gun ideas will get you killed. There is not enough power available in what you are dangerously playing around with to do any such thing. You really need to dispel the notion right away that anything useful will come out of your experimentation.

You really don't have the education to be messing with this stuff. Thats not meant to be an isult but if you were educated enough, you would realize that this is not the way to go about learning about masers or any other such nonsense...

IMO, you are really wasting your valuable time playing around with something extremely dangerous. Now, if you could put that same dedication into something much safer, think of how much better off you'de be. you really should STOP before you make a fatal mistake.
 
Save yourself while your still young. Unless you aim to severly impede your chances of bearing offspring forget it.

There is no chance of you being able to melt anything with some thing like that. As said before all it will do is simply fry electronics. If you fry a cars ECU and they crash, you could be charged with manslaughter!!

Get a carbon dioxide laser if your really want. That will cut through steel if you have enough power!!
 
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