This Scratch-Built X-Ray Tube Really Shines

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On no planet is making your individual X-ray tube a good suggestion. But that doesn’t imply we’re not going to speak about it, as a result of it’s fairly darn cool.

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And after we say making an X-ray tube, we imply it — [atominik] labored from uncooked supplies, like glass check tubes, tungsten welding electrodes, and bits of scrap metallic, to make this dangerously pleasant tube. His instrument setup was minimalistic as effectively– the place we would anticipate to see a glassblower’s lathe like those utilized by [Dalibor Farny] to make his customized Nixie tubes, [atominik] solely had a small oxy-propane hand torch to work with. The solely different specialised instruments, in addition to the apparent vacuum pump, was a homebrew spot welder, which was used to bond metallic parts to the tungsten wires used for the glass-to-metal seals.

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Although [atominik] made a number of variations, one of the best tube is a sizzling cathode design, with a thoriated tungsten cathode inside a copper focusing cup. Across from that’s the anode, a copper slug goal with an angled face to direct the X-rays perpendicular to the lengthy axis of the tube. He additionally included a titanium electrode to create a getter to scavenge oxygen and nitrogen and enhance the vacuum contained in the tube. All in all, it appears to be like fairly much like a business dental X-ray tube.

The demonstration within the video under is each convincing and terrifying. He doesn’t point out the voltage he’s utilizing throughout the anode, however from the cracking sound we’d guess someplace round 25- to 30 kilovolts. The tube actually will get his Geiger counter clicking.

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Here’s hoping [atominik] is taking the correct precautions throughout these experiments, and that you simply do too for those who determine to copy this. You’ll additionally in all probability need to take a look at our take a look at the engineering inside business medical X-ray tubes.

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