A stand-alone turntable for microwaves that don't have one built-in. (Perhaps something contracting / expanding as it heats up, "metal memory"?)
I've seen something like this, but it was mechanical; one simply winds up a spring.-- jutta, Mar 07 1997 Nordicware Micro-go round http://www.amazon.c...96-7394500?v=glanceThe wind-up kind [robinism, Feb 16 2005] http://web.archive....idea/Chez_20Monitor [hippo, Feb 16 2005, last modified Dec 07 2007] I've got one of the windup ones, and unless you do a lot of actual cooking <as opposed to just reheating> one 15 second windup will last for a couple of weeks...Would be hard to get a memory-metal to slowly expand over time like that, I think...-- StarChaser, Mar 04 2000 What's it made out of, that survives in a microwave? I assume there aren't any metal components.-- egnor, Mar 04 2000 Mice in wheels could be used to power it, I suppose.-- eehen, Jul 15 2000 Baked.
This device was advertised as the 'Micro-Go-Round' on North American TV about 4 years ago. It was a wind-up turntable like StarChaser described. And no- it didn't have any metal parts (I know- I took it part to see how it worked.).
Mice explode when you put them in microwave ovens anyway. (That's from personal experience- my neighbor did it.)-- BigThor, Aug 01 2000 [jutta], how did you manage to post this two full years before the existence of the site? (OK, I'm not genuinely asking, just pointing out the discrepancy)-- david_scothern, Feb 16 2005 Maybe that's when she first thought of it, so when she put it on the site, she back-dated it.-- robinism, Feb 16 2005 See [jutta]'s explanation on Chez Monitor (linked).-- hippo, Feb 16 2005 I don't get why it can't be metal - the inside of my microwave is stainless steel. I guess you just have to earth it to the case.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 16 2005 Dazzle your friends with a microwave that turns around and around. A bit of clever design where the power-cord meets the unit, but otherwise quite straightforward. The food sits on a very high-mass table that's either mag-levved or on some other very low friction bearing or kept in place with gyros.
More a conversation piece than anything else, but handy if you've got a lot of family photos or other stuff that you want to put on display on top of the overn.-- husband_of_bath, Dec 06 2007 This place has been around for 10 years?-- mylodon, Dec 07 2007 See [jutta]'s explanation on Chez Monitor (linked).-- hippo, Dec 07 2007 Maybe time to buy a new microwave? I don't think I've seen a turntabless one (but on the other hand, I don't look at a lot of microwaves).-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 07 2007 It could be powered by microwaves - probably fairly easy to do, and it would start and stop automatically as needed.
As for [husband_of_bath]'s idea, microwave turntable motors run at a constant speed, determined by the frequency of the AC power supply and their internal gearing (they are thoughtfully designed so that for multiples of (I think) 30 seconds they rotate a whole number of times, so the handle of your container is back where you left it). If the oven were rotated by a motor of the same type as the turntable's, but rotating in the opposite direction, friends could be dazzled as required.-- spidermother, Jul 01 2009 halfbakery