I heard of someone cutting small holes in two sides of a microwave and putting bow limb through and heating up wood to work with! Has anyone here tried this?

Wouldn't do that on my luckiest day ever.To many fire and safety issues.I would use a oscillating electric ceramic heater instead.IMO

What are they  trying to do, bend it or dry it out?

Dave

IMO, it borders on premeditated stupid.

Yes, there was an actual article about this in P.A. back in their earlier years. The idea was to heat from the inside out,for bending.

I'll have to look thru my back issues for it.

Jeff, you might want to ask this over on the bowyers bench, forum. Alot of all wood veterans there.

Probably void the microwave warranty

not to mention the microwaves would leak out the holes and fry your butt.

Yep there were guys at MoJam that were doing that.  Stupid is as stupid does!!

They had a radio going and everytime you walked between the radio and the microwave the trasmission cleared up.

LOL

Mike

I figured I'd use a old microwave. There a dime a dozen at sales. It would be nice not to have to let wood dry out after steam bending. Might work on arrow straighting. A added plus is I could cook a "WEENIE" at the same time !!!! Lunch and bow building what a concept !!!

QuoteOriginally posted by BWD:
IMO, it borders on premeditated stupid.

LOL!!!  

Microwaves are not nuclear and do not irradiate food.

Distance from a microwave's oven's magnetrons is effective in preventing exposure to the microwave.

Microwaves are used for many things including drying wood.

Microwaves do not cook food from the inside out.

Done correctly, bending wood by heating it with a microwave is probably safe.

I can't really imagine a way of doing it correctly with a garage sale microwave with a couple holes cut in the sides.  I'd not do it without some really good way of shielding.

Cut hole in it and there WILL be massive leakage of the microwaves.  Unless you are educated in microwave technology I really wouldn't do this , really really.

ChuckC

I knew a guy who cut holes in microwave an placed stave thru an stuffed rags around stave, He said it worked great as far as bending wood. I,m not so sure about the health issues. Seems dangerous to me. My friend did glow in the dark far awile.   8>)  Bob

jOhn, that's why they tell people with pacemakers to stay away from an operating microwave- when its closed WITHOUT HOLES IN BOTH SIDES- cause "IT'S SAFE!!!!"        

Microwaves are not sold or used in the Russia...there's a lot of science out there that says they do some odd things - to food, to us..

I'm just sayin'....

QuoteOriginally posted by Ray Hammond:
not to mention the microwaves would leak out the holes and fry your butt.

     :rolleyes:

Microwave? we call them a "Cancer box"

Email mythbusters and see what they say.  lol

I'm a little rusty on this, but microwaves are an offshoot of radar technology. Stand in front of a radar unit, and it cooks you. So, it stands to reason cutting holes in something meant to be sealed is not the best thing to do. Is it safe? Who knows? Is it worth finding out that it isn't some years down the road and suffered organ damage? No.

It also bears mentioning that during World War Two, the British were trying to invent a "death ray". What resulted was radar, from which the microwave came, which is why the first microwaves on the market were branded "Radar Ranges". It also bears mentioning that in the 1980s, our military was experimenting with microwave weapons, masers and such. I recall DARPA just unveiled a microwave weapon that is allegedly less-lethal, but only if the targeted people move out of its way. Take away lesson? If microwaves can be used as directional weapons, you might not want to use even a smaller microwave in ways the manufacturer specifically says to avoid.

Look at it this way. Native Americans, Paleolithic Europeans, and Medieval English bowyers all made outstanding weapons people to this day try to duplicate. They didn't have microwaves. Da, tovarish?

I thought the question was, has anyone tried this.

Even some of the most intellegant souls, can't follow instructions.  

Frank, no disrespect intended, but I bet someone besides Thelma and Louise tried driving off a cliff....but if someone asked about it here and said, "would my car hold up to that?" I'd still jump on the thread and suggest there might be better ways of finding out than driving the car off the cliff yourself.

The Russians did research on thousands of workers who had been exposed to microwaves during the development of radar in the 1950's. Their research showed health problems so serious that the Russians set strict limits of 10 microwatts exposure for workers and one microwatt for civilians.

In Robert O. Becker's book, The Body Electric, he described Russian research on the health effects of microwave radiation, which they called "microwave sickness." On page 314, Becker states:

"It's [Microwave sickness] first signs are low blood pressure and slow pulse. The later and most common manifestations are chronic excitation of the sympathetic nervous system [stress syndrome] and high blood pressure.

This phase also often includes headache, dizziness, eye pain, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, stomach pain, nervous tension, inability to concentrate, hair loss, plus an increased incidence of appendicitis, cataracts, reproductive problems, and cancer. The chronic symptoms are eventually succeeded by crisis of adrenal exhaustion and ischemic heart disease [the blockage of coronary arteries and heart attacks]."

According to Dr. Lee, changes are observed in the blood chemistries and the rates of certain diseases among consumers of microwaved foods. The symptoms above can easily be caused by the observations shown below. The following is a sample of these changes:

a. Lymphatic disorders were observed, leading to decreased ability to prevent certain types of cancers.

b. An increased rate of cancer cell formation was observed in the blood.

c. Increased rates of stomach and intestinal cancers were observed.

d. Higher rates of digestive disorders and a gradual breakdown of the systems of elimination were observed.

I'm not saying that this is what will happen to you if you cut holes in the side of your microwave- I'm not sophisticated enough scientifically to know if that's true or not.

But, I know that furniture crafters have been using alternate, much more safe processes for accomplishing your goals WITHOUT any potential for anything other than a second degree burn on your epidermis.

Is it really necessary to use a microwave in a way it wasn't intended to get this done?

I mean, what are the walls of the microwave there for, if its that safe? Wouldn't capitalism remove the need to have walls, if it was safe and so there'd be a hand held emitter of microwaves we'd stick in a cup of coffee or your Hungry Man chicken dinner if there wasn't any danger of the microwaves bouncing around the room and creating unintended havoc?