[sdiy] OT: Today's toxic mess

[KA4HJH]

>What I want to know is, why did you feel compelled to dismantle it in the
>first place? Were you just curious as to what the insides looked like? I
>assume yours had a motorized rotating anode, and the tube was surrounded by
>a heavy metal housing?. I have no idea  if your tube was still functional
>before you took it apart, but those are very expensive items. They cost
>several thousand dollars to replace. I'm not sure what sort of amateur
>purpose one could use such a tube for, unless you wanted to construct your
>own X-Ray machine and flirt with getting cancer in the process.

Belive it or not some people were actually throwing it away! I've gotten
some good stuff this way--Sony reel-to-reel (tape lifter solenoid stuck),
5A variac in a housing (fuse holder broken), bottles of carbon tet and
other poisons, etc.

It's a small dental X-ray unit--no rotating anode. I was disappointed. But
as far as I know it was operational. I didn't test it.

Since I had no intention of ever attempting to use it, I thought I might as
well take the tube out and put it in my collection. I should have known it
would be sealed up like a tomb. If I had know how much trouble it would be
I would never have bothered with it, but once I got started...


>Perhaps Eric Barbour knows of some way to use one of these tubes in a
>synthesizer application?  :)

Looks like it would make one hell of a rectifier for a tube synth, plasma
tweeter, electrostatic speaker, etc.

I have the whole arm assembly for it. Could probably put a computer monitor
on it or something.


>P.S. I used to install and repair X-Ray machines in the past, but I've
>never personally owned an X-Ray tube.

Why do they rotate, anyway? I was hoping someone would tell me.


-- 
Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"