Interesting DIY XRay tube on Youtube

[diaz]

Just stumbled upon this guy on Youtube, doing all sorts of very interesting DIY valve making by glass blowing and thought others would find it interesting.

In this video he appears to make a successful xray tube. He also has other videos covering the equipment used, most of it sourced from eBay for much much less than you would think.

Always fancied an experiment with an Xray tube, good for investigating potted assemblies etc.

Anyway hope you find it interesting.

[metal]

I am wondering how old this person is now? Seems he caught both wars! Amazing indeed, such people should be squeezed to get all the science from them :- )

[solutions]

@diaz

"this guy"?

"this video"?

So, you're going to have 1300 members go off to google to try to find the links you are referring to?

Links please

[metal]

the links are working in the first post, what is wrong?

[diaz]

@diaz
"this guy"?
"this video"?

Just click on the word "this".

And yes Metal his hands look a good age. You get to see the face of the man right at the start of this Nixie tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrpMaX0m8Yo also if you watch a few of the videos you get to see him wearing some rather odd floral numbers in his "home shop" Gotta love the characters ! Your dead right though it's all gold information. Makes me want to have a try.

Without links his name is Ron Soyland and the Youtube channel is glasslinger. He also has a website with a ton more information http://tubecrafter.com

[Sideshow Bob]

This videos are by a french named Claude Paillard http://paillard.claude.free.fr/ They may have been posted before but to new members. These videos are clasic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-QMuUQhVM (part1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S5OwqOXen8 (part2)

 

[diaz]

Thought I had seen them before, but just watched them again, they are simply gorgeous videos, utter perfection. I sat watching, looking at all the bespoke equipment he has made to manufacture the valves, even the vacuum pump looked home made, and I'm thinking of the time taken, comparing them to the videos I posted and thinking this is a level beyond, and then he goes even further again and plots the response of the valve ! Stunning.

After watching Ron's videos and understanding a bit more, I see several differences in Claude Paillard techniques, for instance there seems to be no use of a getter. Shame there is no commentary on those vids, time to apply translation to his website !

EDIT: Apparently heating of the filament (in some process Google translates badly) causes tungsten to vaporize, deposit on the tube and form a getter.

[solutions]

the links are working in the first post, what is wrong?

Had the screen dimmed

Sorry Diaz

Posted on: January 11, 2013, 05:37:03 17:37 - Automerged

Thought I had seen them before, but just watched them again, they are simply gorgeous videos, utter perfection. I sat watching, looking at all the bespoke equipment he has made to manufacture the valves, even the vacuum pump looked home made, and I'm thinking of the time taken, comparing them to the videos I posted and thinking this is a level beyond, and then he goes even further again and plots the response of the valve ! Stunning.

After watching Ron's videos and understanding a bit more, I see several differences in Claude Paillard techniques, for instance there seems to be no use of a getter. Shame there is no commentary on those vids, time to apply translation to his website !

EDIT: Apparently heating of the filament (in some process Google translates badly) causes tungsten to vaporize, deposit on the tube and form a getter.

From my recollection (high school many decades ago), the getter could be held in a halo-looking thingie and flashed with an induction heater, or be a coating on the plate electrodes in the tube itself. 

I don't see how you could control the melting of tungsten to such an accuracy that the filament doesn't open, yet boils off just some of the metal.

[diaz]

Haha no problem on the screen dimming, not just me that does things like that then

The page Claude Paillard mentions using the filament is here: http://paillard.claude.free.fr/triodes/degazage/degazage.html or Goggle English here

Anyway ... after closing some tubes do not vacuum as good as you want it to do something ... The first remedy, known since the time of the "TM" is to significantly boost filament for several minutes to spray a bit of tungsten will be deposited on the bulb and make a "getter".

He also suggests it's a tricky and less preferred method. He then describes a process which uses ionization to "harden" the tube. He seems also to say it can be used to recover tubes, but between my lack of valve knowledge and Google translate it's hard to understand.

or be a coating on the plate electrodes in the tube itself.  

You might just have it ! You see him chemically treat the metal work before sealing it in, you then see him using an induction heater on the anode? (the outer cylindrical shield). Or is he just using the heater to help the metal out gas, but then what are the chemicals for ? All interesting stuff, be a very big shame to see it die with guys like this. Actually what am I saying there has to be a lot of books with this sort of info in, I'll have to visit one of those things the Internet replaced, libraries.

[Ichan]

Had the screen dimmed

Had wearing the wrong eye glass i believe  , and whos hand was that? 

-ichan

[solutions]

@diaz: Check out "bombardment", "bombard", or "bombarding", as used by the neon sign tube people.

@Ichan: you should be able to tell who she is by her thumbs:



 

[Ichan]

Wow, I can't even see the monitor with the thumb owner like that.. 

-ichan

[LabVIEWguru]

Thank you for the links. It is sad this craftsmanship is disappearing.

Did you see this link with the vacuum tubes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V407eou5ZZM

When you change bands on the radio, the front dial "collapses" to the rear! That is the most incredible bit of engineering I think I've ever seen! Of course, $140 USD in 1938 was quite a large amount of money!

[diaz]

That is a thing of beauty, completely gorgeous. I wonder what something like that is worth today, I want one !

EDIT, nothing on eBay, managed to Google one for 1750 USD, not that bad really.

Getting back to the original XRay interest, and some of you will no doubt have seen this but this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF3V-GHiJ78 has made himself an XRay CT scanner. Again worth a look. Links provided to software used etc...

[LabVIEWguru]

You did the same thing I did! (Ebay & Google) I just *know* some old woman has one in her living room in perfect condition with a sheet over it.

If I live long enough, I'm going to get one of these. I'm serious. Made in 1938, "Shutter dial" with "Robot tuning" Incredible level of workmanship!

I think this is the most beautiful radio I've ever seen. What is a real tragedy is that this level of craftsmanship has disappeared.  
It says a lot about the Sonsivri community that places like this are the only people that appreciate this.

$140.00 in 1938:
real price of that commodity is $2,240.00
real value of that commodity is $4,790.00
labor value of that commodity is $4,590.00(using the unskilled wage) or $5,880.00(using production worker compensation)