Friday 1 March 2013

DIY Microwave Part Changing





Old Wave Guide Cover of table top microwave 
Our table top microwave has a wave guide cover that looks so worn out after two years of use. This is an important bit of the microwave oven, which protects the sensitive components in the oven from food and steam as they are being cooked in the oven. If it is damaged the magnetron behind it would be damaged by food that gets splattered onto it. And the cost of replacing this part is as much as a brand new table top microwave oven.

So how much does it cost to replace this wave guide cover? About S$100 inclusive of part and service charges. But the part itself is less than S$30 and you can do the replacement yourself with a lot of patience and care.

I did this DIY on my own. You can do it too!

We could not find an exact replacement for our brand, but was assured that the material is the same and we just need to snip off bits of it to fit into the notches that hold the wave guide cover in place.
Replaced wave guide cover

As the wave guide cover is made with mica take extra care to snip off a millimeter at a time. The notches on the new wave guide are a few millimeters off from the microwave oven's. After each snip I would check if the cover could fit into the allocated space. That was repeated until it fits nicely.








The pair of  stationery scissors I used to snip the delicate mica.

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