Removing a coin from a lucite/acrylic paperweight block.

I think putting a single coin in the microwave would be about the same as running the microwave empty, which isn't good for the appliance. The microwaves would mostly just bounce off the coin.

Now, two coins close or touching - that would be bad. You'd get arcing between them, plenty hot enough to melt/vaporize metal. Also not great for the microwave. Or your lungs.

 

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It doesn't take two piece of metal to create arcing in a microwave. I know because I've had co-workers in the past put those Chinese food to-go boxes in the microwaves that had the metal handle/wire built in and it was sparking with just the one wire handle before the microwave decided to give up the ghost.

And that's the primary reason they stopped manufacturing the Chinese food to-go boxes with the metal handle built in. How many microwaves met their premature demise because of that?

 

What it takes is a gap between two large-enough conductive objects, or in a large-enough conductive loop.

I've made a nice little ball lightning by forgetting to remove a metal twist-tie from a bag containing frozen stuff. As you said, wire handles on takeout containers also make great antennas. I've even had arcs happen between chunks of salty food I was heating.

Please stop tempting me to start playing with the microwave again!

 

I only use the microwave to dry the cat after it's bath. Well, back when we had a cat...

 

I'm going to have to "like" this.

 

I'll only "like" it indirectly. I'm still not convinced that The Cat Cabal isn't monitoring my activity here.

 

We had tanks of THF where used to work

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LY6xeFpBeMQ

Grape in a microwave oven

 

Back when I was cleaning ancient coins, I sometimes put one coin in a cup of water in the microwave...no problem

 

THF is not that hard to obtain as it doesn’t have the restrictions of chlorinated hydrocarbons. About $50 per liter in small quantities. It’s the main solvent in most PVC cements. If you’ve cemented plastic pipe, you’ve sniffed it. I’ve used it to remove PVC residue from coins, and it worked really well. It is just as flammable as acetone though. For most purposes, stabilized THF should be purchased. Over time and with exposure to air and light, non-stabilized THF can form potentially explosive peroxides. Do not try to repurify used THF by distillation or other means; the repurifying process may remove the stabilizer. Not highly toxic, which is why it can be part of PVC cement. As long as small quantities are used carefully in a well-ventilated area, it’s not necessary to use a fume hood. Have never tried to dissolve polymethacrylate with it. Mike

 

Yeah, I remember the days when chlorinated solvents were readily available. Carbon tet was used in fire extinguishers. Chloroform was in Parke-Davis throat tabs. They worked better than any cough drops available today. Part of the reason is the chloroform vapors reached everywhere including the back of the nasal cavity.
Mike

 

I remember when Ny-Quil was @ or 3% chloroform

 

A friend of mine would fill his Zippo lighter with THF and as it burned on the wick, the flame would pulsate and we took it to be the peroxides decomposing in the flame.

 

...unless you know what you're doing, as opposed to thinking you know what you're doing.

I won't, but if I did, I'd put some sodium wire in with the fraction I kept. I mean, as long as I'm being crazy.

 

I remember reading about carbon tet fire extinguishers, but they certainly weren't in use in my lifetime.

When I first got interested in chemistry in elementary school, a favorite aunt gave me the UNESCO "700 science experiments" book. It wasn't titled "science for places where equipment is expensive and life is cheap", but it certainly should have been. A number of experiments called for mercury and/or carbon tet.

I talked my parents and my school into letting me order some stuff from one of the science catalogs. I think I ordered a four-ounce bottle of carbon tet. They sent a gallon jug.

I probably used about half a pint of it over the course of my home-chemistry career. I found it was great for resuscitating Mom's Wite-Out correcting fluid that had dried out (sorry, Mom). I ended up lugging the still-mostly-full jug (carbon tet is heavy) to the hazardous-chemical collection window at my college. I'm still kind of miffed at myself for doing so - every once in a while it's good to have on hand, and just try getting your hands on any now. (But do not try getting any on your hands, of course.)