Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!inc
From: inc@tc.fluke.COM (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Microwave Oven Repair
Message-ID: <10931@fluke.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 89 11:59:24 GMT
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 38

Last night my 4-year old Tappan microwave oven chattered, buzzed, and died
in the middle of baking some potatoes. Removing it from the counter, I heard
some rattling noises inside, so down on the floor, I kind of jiggled it, and
confirmed that yup, something was in there. Continued jiggling resulted in
half a rather large diode dropping out onto the rug.

I was all ready to take it into the shop until a visibly defective part fell
into my hands. My experience with all kinds of repair shops is they charge
what the traffic will bear, regardless of the problem's difficulty or being
presented with a solid troubleshooting clue like half a diode.

Now I'm a safety-conscious kind of guy, and so I always heed those little
warnings on the back of things I've never worked on. In other words, I
usually ignore them, figuring my electonics background, 5 years repairing
stereos, and inate carefulness probably qualify me more than your average
appliance repair person, but something about opening up a microwave oven has
me a little spooked.

Does anyone out there have experience in repairing microwave ovens? If I
open this unit up, what are the chances I am going to destroy the dimensions
of a precisely formed cavity's geometries and wind up with a microwave canon
to the gonads instead of an oven? Are there any special seals or safety
interlocks to look out for and replace? Once inside, I should be able to
find my way around the circuit ok, and if I go in, I would also want to
check the klystron. But I figure the tube checker down at Radio Shack
probably won't have the right pinout ;-), so do you have any ideas on how to
check the tube? Take it into the local appliance repair guy?

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

--
Gary Benson    inc@tc.fluke.COM
John Fluke MfgCoInc, Everett WA


-- 
GaryBenson_-inc@tc.fluke.COM-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-Tell the girls to slice the ham thin -J.C. Penney