OT X-ray machine on Craig's List

I think a medical x-ray machine would be inert when not powered up and then triggered. They produce x-rays by firing a heavy burst of high energy electrons into a metal target in a vacuum tube. They don't have a radioactive source in them. Still, it's not something one would want to play with without training.

Now a radiation treatment machine of the older types where they had a radioactive material source.... Hmmmm. Some, maybe most, of the newer ones I've heard of/read about use linear accelerators instead of radioactive materials.

You are, of course, correct. All it consists of is a high potential transformer and a vacuum tube.

Most x-ray trannies get used by high voltage experimenters, but the particular auction referrenced by OP has develpers and shields which would only be of use to someone who actually wanted use it for it's intended purpose, especially given the price.

Jon

well you could take your own bite-wings and save money at the dentist !!

Maybe there is a Lindsay book on the subject, Home Shop Dentist!

:^)

Not by Lindsay but...

Go to the Closeouts and get "The Amateur Scientist" on CD-ROM. $24. July 1956 tells how to build an X ray generator. If you're interested in producing low-energy protons and deuterons instead, look at Aug 71. Wanna build a cyclotron? Sept 53. Plasma jet generator? Nov 61.

Ah, for the good ol days of science with hazards!

Best -- Terry

I may be wrong - but I believe it is illegal to sell that X-ray machine. Not that it is film based but that it is and contains radioactive elements that are by themselves dangerous.

This is a hasmat item and the $700 won't cover the cost.

Home defense trap ? or needs to respond. Wonder!

The modern ones are all computer based. Martin

Mart> well you could take your own bite-wings and save money at the dentist !! >

What radioactive elements are in an X-ray machine?

Absolutely and completely wrong. Xray tubes don't generate gamma particles until you give it somewhere around 30K Volts in the right configuration. Turned off, it's just an inert lump of tungsten and copper.

It is most certainly not. Over the years I have grown to respect your opinions but, sorry, on this topic, you know not of which you speak.

That doesn't change the physics that you need HV to generate xray with an xray tube.

None at all.

I'm not sue whether it is illegal or not, or whether you need a BRH license to operate even an industrial (as opposed to uese on people) Xray machine, however a few points:

1 Dave s correct, there are no radioactive sources in an x-ray machine. The x-rays are generated in the tube when high voltage is applied, and when it is, the x-rays shoot out in a somewhat divergent conical beam.

1. The computerized systems (as opposed to the film type deals with the method that the image is created, viewed and stored. Film is always an option and may have certain benefits, however is being generally phased out. The computerized units use an imaging array, (sort of like the ccd in a digital camera) to generate a digital image which is viewed, manipulated (and enhanced) and stored on a computer. The film types require chemical developing of ther film.

2. An x-ray machine is inherently a limited life device. The tube ages with use and eventually fails and must be rebuilt or replaced, The high voltage components deteriorate, cables get damaged etc. Whether you can personally buy and operate one or not for your home shop, I can assure you that when it needs service none of the x-ray machine manufacturers or service companies will touch it with a 10 foot pole, so unless you are sure that the machine is in good working order, and has plenty (or at least sufficient for your purposes) life, forget it, you will eventually have a rather large boat anchor.

1. You will want fluroscope ability, which can be dangerous because the x-rays shoot through the test object into the screen. Use should be limited to short durations due to scatter.

I didn't think so. I was wondering what I might be missing...

Most of the target area where the X-ray has hit for years. The tube and the entire enclosure are.

One of the more infamous cases of scrap metal.

A Hospital dumped their machine. Inside, IIRC, were ball bearings that were used in the design. I don't recall if they were a focusing or from just weight that could be added once installed. A person bought it and put it on his truck and headed to L.A. - thinking he had a good buy for a doctor... The coolant leaked a long radioactive line. Some bearings had rattled out and were rolling around in the truck. Said pretty item was hot. They traced the truck from Mexico to the local junk yard where it was dumped. A bearing or two went home. The home area and persons had to be de-contaminated.

Mart> "Mart>

Dave, I don't say you will get x-rayed. A tube has to be fired up for that. I know - I designed on in an + tube - in the labs.

But when X-ray smacks stuff it makes it a little funny. It might be giving off alpha or beta or gamma rays. Just bounce an atom here and there and glow in the dark.

The coolant is bad also.

That is why you are limited in so many 'rads' a year so you don't look like swiss cheese.

Mart> >> I may be wrong - but I believe it is illegal to sell that X-ray machine.

You don't recall correctly. Here's the story:

Short form, it wasn't an X-Ray machine, it was a radiotherapy machine. Those weren't ball bearings that got irradiated over time, they were pellets of Cobalt-60. Big, big differences.

According to Martin H. Eastburn :

That was *not* an X-ray machine. It was a radiation treatment machine with radioactive cobalt or some similar substance in a lead enclosure and an electrically-controlled lead shutter to turn on and off the radiation. *That* was certainly hazmat. But an X-ray machine is *not*.

Enjoy, DoN.

Martin, you are a great contributor to this group. But in this area, you don't know what you are talking about.

A small dental x-ray machine will never have any residual radioactive materials. Not even the oil coolant.

Tom

X-rays, alpha rays, beta rays, and gamma rays are all "ionizing radiation." They do cause tissue damage but that damage is chemical, not nuclear. With a very few exceptions (e.g., beryllium bombarded by high-energy alpha rays) those four types of radiation simply do not possess nearly enough energy to cause other materials to become radioactive.

When an individual undergoes radiation therapy, the dose may be high enough to cause radiation sickness, but again, that is the result of chemical reactions. No radioactive isotopes are generated in the body. When a person has been exposed to large doses of gamma rays for cancer treatment, and is returned home, a geiger counter will not 'click' on that person.

The dosage from a single chest x-ray is about 0.02-0.04 rem. The dose you get from the natural potassium-40 in foods and such is about 0.01 rem per year. Interestingly, the dosage obtained per year by smoking

1.5 packs of cigarettes per day is about 7 rem, if memory serves. This is thought to arise from the fertilizers used, which contain tiny traces of uranium ore. The decay products have an affinity for tobacco leaves.

Here's a good general chemistry textbook with a chapter on nuclear chemistry...I'm very familiar with one of the authors...

Best -- Terry

I don't know how much X radiation comes from a small fluoroscope but when one was used on me the doctor was very careful to only actuate it for very brief time periods. I suppose he was concerned for my health but it seemed to me that he also recieved some X radiation to his hands. Kinda creepy. ERS

Most radiation therapy (Radio therapy in the UK) these days is given using a linear accelerator. It produces strong Xrays. There are still some cobalt machines, but they are few in number. I know, because I had radiation therapy for prostate cancer 2 years ago. The local cancer research clinic retains only one cobalt machine.

Steve R.