Trouble with mice?

Wonder if any of these vintage solutions might be suitable?

What are we looking at here? A Rube Goldberg mouse trap?

I didn't have any intentions of using a furnace igniter, I just thought it was to good effect. Don't know how much current a microwave trans will put out and actually I probably have one from an old dead MW. I did measure the fence charger voltage on the board with a 5 megohm 100:1 voltage divider and when I first put the divider on the foil, it reads 12V and soon thereafter, about 7V. I know this thing will kill mice and not dogs because I used it on the front door on a large dog once, actually took 3 times for her to learn.

I'm thinking about how to install this thing and I think I'll go to the hardware and get a piece of wide plastic wood to put the foil on. I have my doubts if the foil will stick to the concrete very long plus it will probably bleed the HV. This way also I can make sort of a door where I drive into the 'fence' and not tear it up driving over it.

Actually all this came about from seeing a fence a guy made from 2x4s and aluminum flashing. If you don't like the elektrikity, just nail an 8" piece of flashing to the edge of 2x4s and put around your bike or car if it's not used much, say over the winter. The mice can't crawl up and over an 8" piece of flashing. Just don't give them a path to the vehicle some other way. But I don't have any trouble with mice getting into the bike, just the Miata, too many dark places in it, like under the dash and behind the seats and in front of the trunk. Plus I like killing the vermin, the fewer around the house the better. The stink bugs get into the fins on the bike, but they come out in a hurry when I start it, if they're not dead already.

i use rat snakes for the mice. they're pretty common out here and i catch all that i can as i drive around and let them go at the house.

DogT said:

What are we looking at here? A Rube Goldberg mouse trap?

Click to expand...

At least 8 distinctly different solutions to the same problem.

I did some quick calcs on MW transformers and I figure most of them are about a 1KW output and if they use 2KV, that's I=P/E results in 500ma. I looked them up and that's what they are essentially. So I'm not going anywhere near 2KV at 500ma. I remember getting shocked with about 700VDC with a 250ma transmitter power supply and it wasn't nice. Burned a hole in my finger. That MW transformer will kill you, bet your bippy.

I see some even re-wind them to make 20A 18V transformers for low voltage high current DC supplies.

Here is a µwave transformer I am modifying to make it into a spot welder. From what I have read, and from calculations, I should get about 500 amps out of it. You are right, µwave transformers "can" output 0.5 A @ 2Kv, but that's not the way it works to kill you, if you punched a wire inside your body and established a circuit that ran current right through your heart, you would indeed die, but skin resistance is high (dry hands) you will get a good jolt, just like grabbing a plug wire.

[album]562[/album]

Jean

Well, I certainly wouldn't leave 120VAC running around my garage floor for anyone to step on, much less 2KV at half an amp. It would jump out and grab you. House current will certainly kill you if your in the right path, like you say. Yeah, I saw those welders, I may do that with my transformer. But I don't know what I'm going to weld. A project looking for a job.

I don't get it. Get a cat, don't feed it and it will either catch the mice or not. If not get another cat until you find one that does.

Cat would last about 3 seconds against the 3 terriers.

Chain the terriers up and get more cats.
Dereck

I don't need no stinkin' cats. Besides they're not 100% or 24/7 like eliktrikity and they're horrible on the local native fauna. There's too many around here already, I shoot them and there's still too many. There's a neighbor about 3 miles away that feeds the feral cats and they multiply like crazy. They're worse than squirrels around here. I'm surprised the fox don't take care of them better, we have enough fox.

Terriers were bred and used specifically in England to go down rat-holes aggressively. Then a human would reach down into it and grab the tail and pull the dog and rat back up to the surface. Rats = disease and pilfered foodstocks.

Earth dog=border terrier.

Friend here has terriers. Tells me stories about what the one (Female of course) gets up to. Scary.
Not even fur left after.
This one replaces another he lost underground. Never seen again. Lovely bloke though.
Cheers, Martin

better than cats:



this one was about four feet. they can climb a tree as well as a cat can, just slower.