Yeah, as long as you don't generate any particles with the insulators, they're basically just ceramics at that point. Not something you'd give the kids, but not terribly dangerous either. Just handle them like any other potentially dangerous waste. It's been a while since I've been in appliance repair, what I see suggests that manufacturers are now using Aluminum Oxides because they're cheaper and less toxic.
The aluminum body is for heat dissipation as well. You're producing a lot of waste energy in there. Commercial microwaves have bigger versions of the same thing, but when you get into RADAR system and other microwave emitters, the type of device gets more specialized and looks less like what you'd find in an oven.
, I want to personally thank you for your insight and information.
I'm a structural welder and just about all I know professionally that I've been paid for is welding technique. The hand skill or artistry of laying down good welds, trouble shooting basic malfunctions we can remedy in the field which consists of checking our wires and cables to make sure the insulation is intact, leads and grounds are properly attached and not overheating, weld size, weld quality, shielding gas, etc.
Quite a few years back before the old Lincoln wire feeders got phased out I really loved them. They were a bit smaller than the new "suitcase" sized wire feeders, easier to maneuver through manways and tight spots inside ships so when I could get hold of one, I loved it. I got hold of one and half way through the shift the dang thing just stopped working completely. Not wanting to let it go I opened it up and under the back panel was a mother board like affair. Knowing nothing I decided to just look closely and see what might be amiss. I found one small resister or diode that seemed made of glass and was blackened. So it had overheated and burned out but how vital was it to overall function? I thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained and what could go wrong at that point? It's a dead machine and it's not like I am going to make it deader and it's not like the shipyard is actually going to repair it by purchasing another circuit board like that.
I used needle nosed pliers and crushed the little resister thing. It was glass and when I did that I ended up with two small wires sticking up from the soldered connections. I found an old tin can and carefully cut a strip that was just long enough and made a crease I placed over the two wire stubs and pinched it down. Amazingly it was back up and running perfectly for the remainder of the shift. Later I was using an identical machine and the exact same thing happened so I "fixed" it the same way as it was the exact same resister than had burned out.
Anyways, I think the design of important electronics is very interesting, I like the idea of using discarded electronics in interesting ways, (repurposing) and your insight in the industry is like a drink of cold water in a desert of ignorance. I'm kind of surprised you took the time to respond so yes, much thanks.
A glass-body part, that was probably a diode of some sort. Capacitors sometimes come as hermetic glass body but that's really uncommon these days. If there are any markings left on the board (gentle swabbing with denatured alcohol will sometimes remove enough of the char) you may be able to find out what it was. A diode symbol is a triangle with a line on the point, current flows one way against the arrow (electron flow, neg to pos.) Capacitor is two lines beside eachother, one may be curved. There are plenty of tutorials out there on electronic symbology if you have interest.
If it's a diode it's not a simple replacement, there are many types from fast ones to voltage-regulating ones, to just simple "current goes this way" devices. Glass would (usually, for consumer devices) indicate a schottky (fast, low voltage drop) or a zener (voltage regulating) device. Your device may perform poorer or fail completely eventually, so don't be surprised if it does.
That being said, hobby electronics is all about recovering old parts from devices. I've built entire circuits out of little bits I've cut out of boards and clips and stands and sockets, just to see if I could. I regularly buy things at shows to strip for parts. That's just the way it is in the game, if you can take something and re-use it, you do.
Welding is never something I've never really had the opportunity to get into, although I've tried at times. And yeah, those new welders seem to be junk. Nothing like the old copper-wound units.
Thanks for all the tips and information.
Some thoughts of mine on welding machines. Basically, you get what you pay for as usual.
Much of the new stuff such as home use wire feeders have rollers that are not really the best. Basically companies like Miller have combined stick welding, wire feed welding and TIG welding machines all into one unit you can carry around. It's a bit heavy so in my mind, not really portable like it's marketed. You just plug it in, set it for the process and go to work. Ones like mine can be used with 240 or 120 ac.
I prefer 240 if I can get an outlet since with 120 ac you need the shortest possible heaviest grade extension cord you can get. Too long an extension cord and you lose too much power so your arc doesn't really have the voltage to get a good weld.
My Grandpa had an old Lincoln stick welding machine that hadn't been used in many years so I replaced the 240 plug and electric cable with some new stuff as the old power cord and plug was out of date, cracked and worthless. I put in an appropriate outlet and the thing worked wonderfully for stick welding. I was able to build the frame for a deck behind his double wide trailer house, drag it in place and even weld on extensions per Grandma's request and cover it with 4" by 4" cedar joists and then red wood deck planks from Home Depot.
A cousin came by after it was done and complained I had way overbuilt it as he stood on the deck jumping up and down and saying you could drive a Mac truck on top of it. Uh, ya? And how is that a problem? The frame for the deck was the steel frame from under another old trailer house that had been languishing on the property for many years.
I did use my wire feeder rig to create a steel gate for the front of the property using old well drilling pipes from the oil industry.
A guy out in the countryside on some property can do quite a bit with a welding machine, an acetylene torch and a grinder. Of course you need an active imagination and some ambitions to make things better. For Grandpa's garden I put in a prefabricated steel gate he bought to replace his ragged barbed wire gate and then put in a small gate for persons. The small gate I rigged up with some fancy double latch system that had a turn crank to activate the latches. Very cute little system but unfortunately, our guard dog they had picked up from the pound decided he hated being left alone in the garden to fend off bears and deer and in one day figured out how to activate the latching system. We put on a lock for night time and he figured out how to climb over the gate. I extended the gate to make it seven feet high and extended the fencing on either side but he figured out how to climb over that. We got a collar for him but since he had very loose neck skin he finally realized he could just back out of his collar. So, Grandma got a heavy duty harness for him and would release him in the morning from his chain so he could have daytime freedom. He snuck back and chewed through the main straps on the harness making it unusable. We gave up and let him stay up at the house to keep an eye on us. LOL. I got a kick out of how this escape artist dog got by my gate system.
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