[meteorite-list] Silica Gel Drying

From: FERNLEA4_at_aol.com <FERNLEA4_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:49:02 2004
Message-ID: <ba.1a041e26.28dd2001_at_aol.com>

In a message dated 21/09/01 23:01:08 GMT Daylight Time, mlblood_at_home.com
writes:

<< I can tell y'all are not cheffs! >>

This is very true......I've been known to burn the cornflakes.

<< Most microwave ovens have
 the ability to set the degree of heating capacity prior to setting
 the timer. Typically, there is a "defrost" setting - which is typically
 50% of full power - but normally, you can also choose the
 % of power, from 10% to 90% in 10% incraments (100%
 is what you get if you DON'T set it otherwise). A little
 experimenting here would prove usefull. >>

The power setting on a standard microwave can be a bit misleading, because
it's not actually reducing the power output in real time.....during
operation, it is either fully on, or fully off, with nothing in between. What
the power setting does is to vary the "on" TIME against the "off" time,
giving longer or shorter burst of microwaves into the oven itself. For
instance, power level 9 is on all the time, while power level 5 could be on
for 10 seconds and then off for 10 seconds.....level 1 may be on for 5
seconds and off for 15 seconds, and so on. The table continues to rotate and
the internal light stays on throughout, giving the impression that it's still
cooking, but the microwaves are actually cycled on and off. If you're cooking
on a low power setting, you'll hear a "clunk" every few seconds as the
microwaves are turned on and off.
Those little beads/granules of silica gel desiccant need to release their
water vapour without damaging their microporous structure.....if they get
blasted with microwaves, there's a strong risk that the water vapour will be
evaporated and expand faster than it can escape, and burst those microscopic
pores in the process.
Use an oven, it's much more controllable and safer.

Anyone interested in the recipe for Haggis a la Microwave? ;-)

Cheers,
Rob.

http://fernlea.tripod.com/forsale.html
Fernlea Meteorites,
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Received on Fri 21 Sep 2001 06:58:09 PM PDT