So you wanna learn how to x-ray? Well then do I have some information for you!
Preface:
Why did I write this instructable? Well, to have a shot at winning that objet 3D printer!
And why would I want that?
To set up a hackerspace of course! There aren't any within 50 miles of my town, and that leaves those who wish to build things; people like my friends and I, sh*t out of luck. This is especially a pain when I'm trying to design a better, manufacturable, portable x-ray machine and have no access to a 3D printer!
I've spent the better part of two months writing this guide, just for the chance to give some geeks (me included) the tools they deserve. If you could vote for my instructable, that'd be just awesome :-)
Warning:
X-rays can kill. At the very least, they can give you cancer, which also kills. If you do not fully understand the dangers of ionizing radiation, and are not competent enough to handle voltages exceeding 50,000eV do not, under any circumstances replicate what I have done here.
Preface:
Why did I write this instructable? Well, to have a shot at winning that objet 3D printer!
And why would I want that?
To set up a hackerspace of course! There aren't any within 50 miles of my town, and that leaves those who wish to build things; people like my friends and I, sh*t out of luck. This is especially a pain when I'm trying to design a better, manufacturable, portable x-ray machine and have no access to a 3D printer!
I've spent the better part of two months writing this guide, just for the chance to give some geeks (me included) the tools they deserve. If you could vote for my instructable, that'd be just awesome :-)
Warning:
X-rays can kill. At the very least, they can give you cancer, which also kills. If you do not fully understand the dangers of ionizing radiation, and are not competent enough to handle voltages exceeding 50,000eV do not, under any circumstances replicate what I have done here.
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Signing UpStep 1: Be safe: Radiation Sickness
“Regular radiation” such as microwave, infrared and visible light typically doesn’t have the energy needed to break chemical bonds, so we may sit out in the sun and get bombarded with a thousand watts and feel no ill effects. Once we reach ultraviolet though, this radiation now has enough energy to break those chemical bonds –including the ones in our bodies. This means that high energy radiation such as that emitted from an x-ray tube can damage DNA, and in high enough doses may even cause radiation sickness.
Acute radiation sickness occurs when your body has absorbed a large amount of ionizing radiation, usually on the order of several sieverts. What makes radiation lethal is the effect it has on DNA. When a high energy particle, be it a photon or some other particle collides with DNA it breaks bonds and rearranges the bases. Normally your cells can repair this damage, but if a cell fails at that task it often commits suicide before it divides. For long living cells such as muscle this isn’t too much of a problem, since the other cells have time to replace the dead ones. For short-lived cells though, this apoptosis becomes a major issue as cells are dying too fast to be replaced.
Such short lived cells include the mucus-making cells that line the intestinal wall. When exposed to enough radiation, these mucus cells start to die off en masse, and so are not replaced. No mucus cells means there will be no mucus, and no mucus means there is no protection from stomach acid. The intestine stops absorbing food particles, acid burns the tissue, and eventually you die of sepsis. If somehow you survive this ordeal, you will now need a bone marrow transplant since the short-lived bone marrow cells have died off. Radiation sickness symptoms include nausea, stomach pain and a lack of energy, and a detailed chart of symptoms can be found here.
And that’s why we shield ourselves from ionizing radiation! Keep in mind that it takes a very large amount of radiation to cause radiation sickness, not something a fiestaware plate or even a radium painted clock could ever produce. However, a Coolidge tube is certainly capable of generating very intense radiation!
Acute radiation sickness occurs when your body has absorbed a large amount of ionizing radiation, usually on the order of several sieverts. What makes radiation lethal is the effect it has on DNA. When a high energy particle, be it a photon or some other particle collides with DNA it breaks bonds and rearranges the bases. Normally your cells can repair this damage, but if a cell fails at that task it often commits suicide before it divides. For long living cells such as muscle this isn’t too much of a problem, since the other cells have time to replace the dead ones. For short-lived cells though, this apoptosis becomes a major issue as cells are dying too fast to be replaced.
Such short lived cells include the mucus-making cells that line the intestinal wall. When exposed to enough radiation, these mucus cells start to die off en masse, and so are not replaced. No mucus cells means there will be no mucus, and no mucus means there is no protection from stomach acid. The intestine stops absorbing food particles, acid burns the tissue, and eventually you die of sepsis. If somehow you survive this ordeal, you will now need a bone marrow transplant since the short-lived bone marrow cells have died off. Radiation sickness symptoms include nausea, stomach pain and a lack of energy, and a detailed chart of symptoms can be found here.
And that’s why we shield ourselves from ionizing radiation! Keep in mind that it takes a very large amount of radiation to cause radiation sickness, not something a fiestaware plate or even a radium painted clock could ever produce. However, a Coolidge tube is certainly capable of generating very intense radiation!
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for example if you wanted to do a proper job of it then the following would be needed:-
1) use a singular international supplier (such as RS components or Farnell) and list the parts required to complete the project.
2) dont guess components, they should be available off the shelf and available to all, not bulbs tubes and valves that you have gathered together for your own use, where did you get them and can more be purchased (from an international supplier).
3) costing,, im not made of money how much does this project cost in total?? $50000 or $50... i want to know in advance rather then start a project and find out i cant get the stuff or its too expensive so i have to abandon it mid way through.
4) last buy by no means least,, a Full circuit diagram.. not sections separated out over many web pages, but one full circuit diagram showing everything!.
if these simple rules are followed i believe many users would vote in greater numbers and the topic/ your work would be greatly upheld, as its simple to follow, simple to order and compile the parts, its easy affordable by those who wish to start the project and its available to all on the web, due to the use of international suppliers.
and now i would like to say that i loved the project, really i do, but i would like to do it myself, but like all consumers of information; i just want everything in front of me before i reach into my pocket and buy the parts. Is that too much to ask?
Beautiful images too!
This is the finest example of how an Instructable should done and presented.
Good luck with the printer.
Go figure.
"uranium reactors neutron radiation is not much of a concern, but nonetheless it is best shielded with light materials of all things, materials such as water and aluminum "
I'm under the impression that water is used as a moderator, slowing neutrons down to thermal energies so that they can cause induced fission but not as a shielding material, it doesn't absorb neutrons hence it's use as a moderator. Aluminium is a good shielding material AFAIK.
The primary method (ie cost effective) method on shielding neutrons involves subatomic billiards. Not gonna give ya the full lecture, thats what the google-nets are for, but I will put you on the path.
"Tell no one that I have put you on the path."
Shielding is rated in "tenth thickness." How much of a material is required to "alleviate" the radiation field to one tenth of it's original value. Okay, big word, alleviate. Since Roentgen the 13th has already nicely explained the particulate nature of radiation, I will merely extrapolate.
Neutrons are already everywhere, but they are not dangerous. They have been captured. How were they captured?
Neutron radiation occurs rarely in nature, as a decay path in a couple of minerals. But it always happens in the core of reactors, sorta a requirement. U-23x needs Neuts of specific nrg levels in order to "chain react." An atom has to be hit with a bullet of just the right speed in order to break apart the figgy puddin on the inside. Too fast and it goes right through. Too slow and it gets sucked in or bounces off. There is a name for this nrg level that is "just right." Not to hot, not too cold, but just right Goldylocks. It's called, "thermal nrg."
"But ladies, if ya smack that sukka just right, blam, watermelon pie." -Gallagher.
U-23x splits in twain and statisticaaly usually spits out a Neut at about 2.03 MeV (Mega electron Volts)( Roentgen the 13's lil widget extroidinaire is poking around at nrg levels one hundredth of this. But anyway...) Back to alleviatin those pesky Neuts.
Fission trons, bad. so lets slow em down. Let's moderate, or alleviate 'em. Water. Good ole Dihydrogen Oxide. Billiards again! {Newtownian mechanics ALERT!
"DANGER, DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!"
Collisions. Inelastic collisions, and elastic collisions. Where objects of roughly the same mass collide, they share nrg rather well. What is the mass of an Hydrogen nucleus? Elementary my dear Watson. About twice that of those pesky Neuts zipping around. It takes, on average, 16 collisions for the thing to slow down to the right nrg level for the next phase.
Absorption.
Thermal neutrons have an nrg around 1eV.
Sulphur, Nickel, Germanium are the ones I remember topping the absorption chart. But hey, these aren't in the reactor. But a lot of water is. And, oh yes, waters Hyrdogen absorps the neutrons too. Not as well. But when you got that much, the job gets done.
A very condensed version of the path can be located at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_capture
Graphite is also a very efficient moderator, but it's not an inherently stable moderator, unlike water, and it also has the tendency to crack/catch fire/explode when things go very wrong.
I got several ideas from your ible and am planning another of my own. I do hope you win a prize for this one too.
Great Job!
Impresionante!!!
Rontgen descubrió los Rayos X (1895) usando un tubo Crookes, el Coolidge fue inventado en 1913. Es fácil simular un tubo Crookes con un tubo de vacÃo. Un polo es el catodo y otro es una pelicula de alumnio exterior. No necesita alimentar el filamento de caldeo y la alta tension se dispone entre la placa exterior y el catodo. El tubo Cookes es un tubo de descarga. Todas las medidas de protección son aplicables.
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Amanzing!!!
Rontgen discovered the X-Rays (1895) using a Crookes's tube. The Coolidge's was invented in 1913. I think is easy build a Crookes's tube with a power tube. A pole is the catode and other is an aluminium film external the tube. Don't need to heat the tube then d0n't conect the filament. ( easier).
The high voltage direct or alternative, is conected to the catode and the external aluminium film ( external plaque). The Cookes tube is a discharge tube.
ALL PROTECCTION MEASURES MUST BE USED.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_tube#The_discovery_of_X-rays
Thanks
i'm from india
-Doctordv
Very good explanation of the electronic design.
When i was around 11, i met a guy who teached me the basics in electronics.
(That was around the time the internet (not http://www.) was invented.
He had salvaged Roentgen devices, that had been used by shoe dealers to check, if the shoes fit.
I don't exactly know, when they stopped using them. It was before my time... I guess it was in the early sixties.
He also used them for photographs in a big lead-clad wooden box.
Mosfets haven't been en vouge back then.
But he was very fit in all things electron valves. He learned electronics, when the first transitors became available...
One of the best instructables i've seen.
Bravo!!!!
I must say that you have definatly produced a well informed instructable, and appear to have a greater knowledge of x-ray production than most of the students I have to deal with on department.Well researched and well done.