This Scratch-Built X-Ray Tube Really Shines
On no world is making your have X-ray tube a superior notion. But that does not signify we’re not heading to speak about it, because it is very darn cool.
And when we say building an X-ray tube, we imply it — [atominik] worked from raw supplies, like glass test tubes, tungsten welding electrodes, and bits of scrap metal, to make this dangerously delightful tube. His instrument setup was minimalistic as well– in which we might hope to see a glassblower’s lathe like the types made use of by [Dalibor Farny] to make his personalized Nixie tubes, [atominik] only experienced a smaller oxy-propane hand torch to function with. The only other specialized resources, in addition to the evident vacuum pump, was a homebrew location welder, which was made use of to bond steel factors to the tungsten wires made use of for the glass-to-metallic seals.
Despite the fact that [atominik] manufactured several versions, the greatest tube is a very hot cathode structure, with a thoriated tungsten cathode inside a copper focusing cup. Throughout from that is the anode, a copper slug focus on with an angled face to immediate the X-rays perpendicular to the very long axis of the tube. He also provided a titanium electrode to build a getter to scavenge oxygen and nitrogen and improve the vacuum inside the tube. All in all, it appears to be like quite related to a business dental X-ray tube.
The demonstration in the video below is both of those convincing and terrifying. He does not point out the voltage he’s making use of throughout the anode, but from the cracking audio we’d guess somewhere close to 25- to 30 kilovolts. The tube truly receives his Geiger counter clicking.
Here’s hoping [atominik] is having the correct precautions for the duration of these experiments, and that you do also if you decide to replicate this. You’ll also almost certainly want to test out our glance at the engineering inside professional medical X-ray tubes.
