Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2026 Poal.co

690

Archive: https://archive.today/RCuFh

From the post:

>Just because you probably shouldn’t make a DIY X-ray machine, doesn’t mean nobody would. [mircemk] shows off his DIY unit, how it works, how to use it safely and of course, some pretty X-ray photos of household objects. The machine repurposes a DY86 vacuum tube from old CRT TVs to emit X-ray radiation. To drive the tube without blowing it up, a rather specialized series of power supplies is needed; a low-voltage DC power supply powers a high-voltage AC inverter, which is then sent through first a transformer, and then a Crockfort-Walton voltage multiplier, to reach the incredibly high voltages needed for such a vacuum tube’s radiation emission to reach X-rays. Naturally, this didn’t go to plan first try, leading to the unfortunate demise of three vacuum tubes (as well as another three which had already lost their vacuums).

Archive: https://archive.today/RCuFh From the post: >>Just because you probably shouldn’t make a DIY X-ray machine, doesn’t mean nobody would. [mircemk] shows off his DIY unit, how it works, how to use it safely and of course, some pretty X-ray photos of household objects. The machine repurposes a DY86 vacuum tube from old CRT TVs to emit X-ray radiation. To drive the tube without blowing it up, a rather specialized series of power supplies is needed; a low-voltage DC power supply powers a high-voltage AC inverter, which is then sent through first a transformer, and then a Crockfort-Walton voltage multiplier, to reach the incredibly high voltages needed for such a vacuum tube’s radiation emission to reach X-rays. Naturally, this didn’t go to plan first try, leading to the unfortunate demise of three vacuum tubes (as well as another three which had already lost their vacuums).
You are currently inside a comment thread.
Click here to see all the comments (1).
[–] • 1 pt

In case anyone is wondering, there's nothing special going on here. High-voltage vacuum rectifiers naturally produce X-rays.

I can't remember the name of the effect, but essentially: accelerate an electron to a super-high energy level. It hits the plate (target) of the tube, and the abrupt stop at the end knocks X-rays out of it. It's the basic principle of any X-ray device.

That's why the high-voltage flyback and rectifier in an old television were enclosed in metal. Not necessarily to stop your delicate fingies from getting toasted when you didn't pay attention to the warning on the back, but to stop the X-rays.