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Glorious find!

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BradStockdale

Sun Jun 07 2009, 02:29AM

Registered Member #2119 Joined: Mon May 11 2009, 04:30PM
Location:
Posts: 15

Everyone,

I'm not writing this to gloat about my good find, but I've gotta share the enjoyment with other people who understand the fun of finding a 'piece of junk', ripping it apart, and getting beautiful parts out of if for use in our own designs... This thread will detail my latest find...

About three months ago, I put the word out to two scrap yards in my area that if they ever got any X-Ray machines, medical lasers, MRI stuff, CT stuff, (as well as mainframe computers and the like), that I would buy such scrap from them. The two I talked to say they regularly turn away this type of stuff for fear of being busted by the 'Radiation Cops' that scan junk yards on occasion and such. I explained the science behind x-ray machines and that its impossible for them to be putting out emissions while disconnected from power and that they would be safe... He said that he'd think about taking the next one that calls for disposal, if I garauntee I'll get it out of his yard fast.

So a month ago, I got a call from the owner of one of the metal yards... He told me he had what he thought was 'some kind of MRI machine' and that I could buy it for $50.00 USD. I asked him to explain what it looked like, and it defiitely wasn't an MRI. Sounded like some odd X-Ray system... I told him I'd take it and to put it somewhere safe in the yard so the crane drivers wouldnt run over it or anythign stupid. He did so.

The next day, I stopped at the yard on my way to my dayjob. And there it sat... A large, heavy, very medical-looking piece of machinery. It was built by Siemens. I don't have the model name or anything... At first, I didn't really know exactly what it was. It has a big like, half-circle track on which a self contained X-Ray head is mounted. The opposite end of the track is mounted a large can shaped enclosure. Pulled the enclosure (hoping to find an X Ray tube here maybe) and ended up with what I can only describe as an "X-Ray Image Intensifier"... I believe it works on the same principles as a military night vision image intensifier tube (when they still used the tube ones ...)... Except this one has a solid metal rounded end, probably coated with phosphors of some sort on the inside... Behind this intensifier tube thing, is a set of EXPENSIVE optics... And a camera somewhere. I haven't pulled the camera out of its enclosure yet, but I suspect it is high resolution since we're looking for very small things in the human body...

As far as I can tell, this machine is some form of fluroscopy machine. The Track... The head filled with an image intensifier tube, gorgeous lenses, and suppsoedly a camera on one end... The 5 gazillion pound box at the opposite end which appears to be a self contained X-Ray head. I figure the tube is living down in there, as well as the (this is what the specs say on the side 106 kV transformer. It also has several motors on top near the emission aperture. Those motors seem to control shields to shape and form the beam profile.

I guess I'll make a little list of what I obtained...

Self Contained X Ray Head
Self Contained X Ray Image Intensifier
Various high quality optics and cameras
A PILE of various xformers. Nice ones. I think the drool worthy one is in the X Ray Head though.
Several sets of EuroCard Card Cages (populated to the fullest with interesting parts)
A little face mount motor that controlled swinging the half-circle track around with all that weight on both ends
Power supplies coming out my butt. Like, six or seven different PSU modules.
A REAL NICE custom multi-voltage transformer.. Big monster.
Some sort of control system consisting of a bundle of boards with heavy duty triacs.
A nice set of 450V electrolytic caps, five of them in a bank.

I wish I would have taken a 'before' picture so you could see what this machine originally was... I only have the gut left -- casings and metal chassis is gone.

I WOULD like to take photos of the interesting stuff I've found and post it here if anyone thinks there would be any interest. I'd be more than happy to dig it all up and get my camera charged up. Could have the pics online tomorrow morning/afternoon... But if no one is interested in seeing what the parts are, I guess it's a moot point..

Let me know if any of you guys would like to see the cool stuff I salvaged.

On a slightly different note -- The X-Ray Tube and associated transformer, are contained in a sealed unit.. Weight is about 70-80 lb I would guesstimate. All joints are welded. I'd love to open that head up so I coudl reterieve the tube and the transformer without incident. Does anyone have any thought on how the process could be done while giving a fairly high liklihood of not breaking the tube or cutting through windings on the hv xformer? I guess I could use a metal grinder.... Or maybe a dremel tool if I've got enough metal cutting disks..

Anyway, I'll check back in later. I'm kinda hoping someone will want to see pics -- I'm excited about my find. :)

...

Sun Jun 07 2009, 03:31AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

Start with posting the pics, when we can talk about cutting into your x-ray head...

Nice find!

BradStockdale

Sun Jun 07 2009, 04:00AM

Registered Member #2119 Joined: Mon May 11 2009, 04:30PM
Location:
Posts: 15

Alrighty. Sounds good to me. I just grabbed my digital camera and put its batteries on charge (they were dead -- been years since I've used the camera)... Batteries should be charged when I get up in the morning.

Tonight, I spent the last hour or so stripping down the X-Ray head. It still had some control boards, brackets, and such the beam shaping 'optics' for adjusting the size/shape of the x-ray emissions. Now it's stripped down and looks something akin to a large neon transformer. About as heavy too, maybe more.

On one side of the head, I found two mineral oil refill ports. I opened them and saw right down into the unit. oil looks clear to light brown.

There was also a half-doller sized steel plate held down by a lock ring. Under all that is a gasket. I got my lonk ring pliers, and popped off the port cover. Once I opened it, I peered down in and a beautiful X-Ray tube window was staring at me. Light brown, with the silver head showning through.

Anyway, tomorrow I will take some pics and post them...

I think I have an idea of where to cut. Going to try a dremel tool with metal cutting bits. I'll chew through a ton of them, but feel it would cause less damage then a metal grinder or some saw would. Its depth is fairly limited, and I'll have to take my time due to the slow cutting speed..

G'night everyonje. Ill post pics tomorrow.

Laser Ben

Sun Jun 07 2009, 07:44PM

Registered Member #2163 Joined: Sat Jun 06 2009, 10:49PM
Location:
Posts: 12

Interesting, that kinds sounds like a X-Ray imaging system for something other then medical. I have seen some X-Ray imagers at Lumileds for imaging the thickness of the gold coatings on the wafer or something like that. They are pretty large units.

BradStockdale

Sun Jun 07 2009, 09:18PM

Registered Member #2119 Joined: Mon May 11 2009, 04:30PM
Location:
Posts: 15

Okay, wellllll.... I got the unit open. Had to go stock up on Dremel metal cutting blades. Used three of them, but cut it open like a can of sardines...

I also took pics, before, and after. Just of the cool bits after.

The metal box was about the size of a shoebox. Filled with high voltage oil. I drained all of that into a bucket before I started cutting. Put on a respirator and protective glasses before too. The box was made out of steel, lined with what appeared to be about 1/8" thick lead shielding. I cut the end off first to get an idea of how close the tolerances were. I had anywhere from a quarter inch to a half inch of clearance between the metal casing and the 'guts'...

Inside, as you all can guess, I found an x-ray tube, the high voltage transformer, the filament transformer... There are also two bundles of something wrapped in oil soaked paper near where the tube was cradled.. I would imagine when I rip off the paper, I will see strings of diodes. Gotta be in there somewhere, eh?

The tube is a cute little thing. Smaller than I had expected. Stationary anode type. Larger than a dental x-ray tube. It'll look good sitting next to my big rotating anode tube.

When I went to the hardware store to get the dremel blades, I searched Lowes and Home Depot for mineral oil, but couldn't find any. I asked about a half dozen salespersons between the two stores, and no one thought they sold it. Also got some plastic buckets with lids, one for the old oil, and one to install the HV transformer in. Got some bolts, nuts, etc, to make terminals. I guess I just need to find oil now.

Ok, that's it for now. Let me see if I can find my CF card reader so I can post some photos of the 'goods'...

Oh, BTW, this was definitely a medical unit. It was a flouroscopy unit out of the local hospital. The accompanying video DISPLAY equipment either wasn't saved for me by the junk yard, or wasn't scrapped at the same time or place as the imaging unit.

BradStockdale

Sun Jun 07 2009, 09:39PM

Registered Member #2119 Joined: Mon May 11 2009, 04:30PM
Location:
Posts: 15

Ok, here's some pics...

The three 'whole' pics were found online because I unfortunately did not take any pics of it before I started attacking it with various hand tools... But this looks exactly like the unit used to look before it turned into a big pile of parts...

The rest of the pics are of the x-ray head before and the parts I scavenged from it...

uzzors2k

Thu Jun 11 2009, 10:21AM

Registered Member #95 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308

Awesome find! Do you plan on using it, or is it just for display? A bit late now, but if you want to use it you should have left it in the head assembly for shielding purposes.

OiD

Sat Jun 13 2009, 04:13AM

Registered Member #2150 Joined: Tue Jun 02 2009, 08:33PM
Location:
Posts: 29

Looks great! I saw a medical device that look interesting in a scrapyard. Took a closer look and it was a sort of dentist light on a stand.
Hope you have fun with that!

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