Would a microwave oven still work if you removed the screen, behind the glass door?

The Microwave will still work. The only way to stop it working would be to break the safety mechanism on the door (this is easily rigged as it tends to be a push button). Breaking the Magnetron inside (makes the microwaves) will render the Microwave completely inoperable. Damage to the inside walls will only stop the microwaves being reflected back as much and breaking the turntable will mean your food only gets cooked in hot/cold segments, this is because the microwave is designed to have a standing wave of microwaves inside it so you need the turntable to even the absorption into the food to get even cooking. This is also partly why you can't microwave ants, they can detect the cold spots in the microwave (where the microwaves are at their lowest power) and they keep moving so they stay in this area. I would seriously advise not removing the screen behind the glass door, this is designed to reflect the microwaves back inside the microwave, to remove it would mean that a large ...  more