Has anyone made an electro magnetic chuck from the guts of a microwave?

DangerZone said:
I have an old microwave currently sitting in my shop on my workbench. I got it for free, and for the past year, its only purpose in life is re-heating coffee every so often when I get busy and it gets too cold.

It suddenly looks like I've got some more shop projects for this weekend!
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Game on!!!
 
Just note he used two microwave transformers for the chuck.
 
We've been discussing a new microwave, now I know what to do with the old one! I had no idea..
 
A sneaky source of ready to go magnetic chucks is magnetic door locks...

On another tack, it is possible to make an electromagnet that grabs Aluminum; I built one. It's basically a shaded pole motor set up so the field travels inward radially. Buzzes, but holds Aluminum!

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Induced currents in Aluminum don't count! A lot of stuff you would not think is magnetic actually is including people. Does aluminum have an unpaired spin?
On a more practical note; what was the epoxy resin he used to embed the magnets?
Robert
 
rwm said:
Induced currents in Aluminum don't count! A lot of stuff you would not think is magnetic actually is including people. Does aluminum have an unpaired spin?
On a more practical note; what was the epoxy resin he used to embed the magnets?
Robert
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Looked like "potting compound" as commonly used in the electronics industry. Cheap and readily available :)
 
Ah crap, I've got the old microwave sitting in the storage trailer/shed, and I just loaded up the old (running) dishwasher yesterday onto the scrap trailer to haul away.
'WANT_To-Do' just increased by two projects, - possibly.
 
As a side note, the commonly-available JB Weld has magnetic iron oxide as a filler. You don't want to use it if you don't want a magnetic material in your application. And using it to glue down super-magnets gets real interesting. On the other hand, it might work to glue the pole pieces of your made-from-scratch electromagnet together.

Once you add in the cost of the magnet wire for a total DIY approach, it actually might be more cost effective to BUY a couple of MOTs (a commonly-used acronym) from Ebay, but, as has been mentioned, you'd want the old-school type with some real heft to them. Microwaves that use a switching power supply won't work for this application. And if you can get 'em for free....a no-brainer there....
 
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