I love dangerous high voltages as much as the next guy.
I used to keep an old microwave out in the garage just to put strange stuff into, to see what would happen. My favorite was loosely wadded bronze wool. (steel wool burns). This in addition to many high voltage, high power electronic and mechanical projects.
That said, I have never found a reason to mess with the guts of a microwave oven.
So, will 0bama give me a couple of really large caps for free?
I was 5 when dad taught me about capacitors. He had an axial lead electrolitic charged up on his bench near his DeVry books.
He picked it up by one lead.
Looked at it.
Set it down.
Picked it up by the other lead, looked it over and set it down.
Then he went back to the DeVry books.
So I reached over and picked it up.. with both hands.
It was a learning experience.
He did, during that teachable moment impress on me how capacitors worked, and how to be safe around them. I already knew about the brown shorts part.
/johnny