Heating Question?

[CTBASS56]

When heating, say laminate plastic/colors, can you put two pyrex cups in a microwave?

Do you need two microwaves?

OR....

do you heat one, take it out, then put the other one in? (in the last example, wouldn't that cause one to cool and solidify too quickly?)

[Frank]

When heating, say laminate plastic/colors, can you put two pyrex cups in a microwave?

Do you need two microwaves?

OR....

do you heat one, take it out, then put the other one in? (in the last example, wouldn't that cause one to cool and solidify too quickly?)

I do not use two microwaves but it need two. I commonly heat two two cup pyrex containers. This takes along time to do, like more than ten minutes. And when they get close I pull out one and stir then switch then put both back in . A real pain. But it can be done. The colors dont heat up the same either. and the amount in the cups needs to be real close also or you will need to watch very close. I use a infrared temp guage to ck to see that they are the same or close. Frank

[nova]

I use a micro and a hotplate. Works better for me; especially when you are doing three or four color baits.

www.novalures.com

[Piscivorous Pike]

It is not the number of microwave ovens, it is the amount of watts of microwave energy they put out! You should be aware of the energy output, the more the better, the more efficient and also balance the cost of the microwave against what you are getting.

The cheap ovens, 600-700 watts probably do not handle more than a cup very well.

I bought off craig's list an old analog style microwave, (looks bad) for $10. It has 1100 watts of out put power, that is almost two of those small microwave ovens in heating capacity!

I heat two cups in it simulataneously frequently. Remelts and virgin plastic with two cups in it takes about 3 minutes to 350 degrees.

Also, all microwaves have hot spots, cold spots, it has to do with the physical pattern of where the waves land, more energy will be in certain spots. If you do not use the turn table (the hot and cold spots is why they now have turn tables) you can find those hot and cold areas and use them to heat your two or three containers at different rates; e.g. one container may have 1 cup of material and the other a half cup, naturally if heated with the same amount of energy one would heat in half the time. By using the hot cold spots you can generally get the uneven containers out at the same time. I recommend an IR remote thermometer to moniter your plastic.

I have for my oven found those areas and I use them to heat the containers at diffferent rates simultaneously.