Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Broken Glass

The plate in my microwave is glass. It is large and square. My microwave is an Amana Radarrange. It is at least 32 years old. Still chugging along.

So yesterday I was in the mood for popcorn. I dug through my popcorn packets and found a Butter-lovers popcorn. I set it to 5 minutes, fully intending on stopping it when the popping stopped. But true to my distracted form, I wondered into the sewing room to find a perfect zipper for some tiny sleepers I am making for Dorothy, Em's doll. When I came out, I didn't pass the kitchen (through the laundry room) instead, because of my distracted nature, I came back through the living room and sat down at the dining room table to pick out stitches from the used zipper, so I could recycle it. When I decommission an article of clothing, I cut out the zipper, save it and cut up the rest of the item into the rag bag.

Suddenly I heard a loud POP. Not the kind that comes from popcorn popping, no a LOUDER POP. It sounded like it came from the microwave, and the only thing inside it that could make such a noise would be the large square glass plate. As I opened it, the terrible smell of burned popcorn wafted into the room. I grabbed the bag and threw it onto the counter top. It was HOT. But the room began to smell like the popcorn, so I grabbed a corner and hurried outside to the trash cans. I opened the bag and dumped the sizzling popcorn into the trash and threw the bag on top. My appetite for popcorn had gone away. I trudged back into the house, afraid of what I was about to witness. My faithful micorwave's plate cracked in three pieces. I knew by the age of the microwave that purchasing a replacement was out of the question.

Carefully laying each piece on the counter top, I assessed the damage. I tried to piece it together. I turned it over and tried again. This time it seemed to keep its shape. This is when I thought of my amazing sister (ZB). She is a stained glass artist. She does all sorts of beautiful things, the latest is to glue swarovski crystals to the glass, then paint around them, making them centers of flowers. And she has a glue that is cured by sunlight. You must have a steady hand and be willing to hold very still for 5 minutes, but then they are on for good.

I happened to purchase a bottle of it online when I heard about it. Luckily I also knew where to find it. Sewing project and popcorn forgotten, I began to carefully piece the plate together and stand near the west window where the sunbeams were shining through. Happily they are all pieced back together and the plate seems very sturdy. We will now see how it stands up to microwaving, and in the mean time, I will be on the lookout for a large square microwave plate to replace this ancient one. How badly I feel to have broken such a great microwave.

I just read some instructions online. It says that this will NOT come apart, but if you do need to break the bond, a heat source of 275 will soften the glue, so I may not have saved the microwave plate after all.
sad
~a

update, someone read this post and told me he had one for sale, so I paypaled him and he mailed me a new plate. WOOT

7 comments:

Sailor said...

What a resourceful lady! Mostly, I think the glue will hold. Zapping the potatoes won't heat it up so much. We might not be able to cook something for 30 minutes, but we very seldom do that anyway. 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." You are great, Friend.

ZB said...

I am proud of you for having it on hand at least! WHAT A BUMMER!!!! That was my tea kettle storry, but I was left with two large solid silver hersheys kisses… the bottom ot the pot was GONE! As was the use of my beautiful European kettle… sigh…

rental mobil said...

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God Bless you.

Katie @ makingthishome.com said...

Oh how interesting. Your getting distracted by a crafting project is so completely what would happen to me, too. That stream of sunlight you described? Oh I'm envious!
Katie

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Unknown said...

Minutes before reading your popcorn event. My wife came into the den with a glass tray from one of our old amana microwaves. I was checking around on computer sites about microwave trays and somehow saw your popcorn story. If your glue job fails or you want a replacement. I'll send you a picture. It's 14+x13+.

Annieofbluegables said...

Albert: You didn't leave me any way to email you, so I am not sure how you intend me answering you. . .
. . . but if you happen to check back:
Do you have an ebay account or can you put it on Amazon? How much would you like for it? How much for shipping? I am very interested, mine measures exactly 14 1/8x13 so it is probably the same one.

If you do see this, email me at annieofbluegables[at]gmail[dot]com

thanks for the offer.
~a
btw the glue job is still holding up just fine.

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