Source for Lead Shielding / Electromagnetic Radiation / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: Electromagnetic Radiation

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Source for Lead Shielding

1 2 next

Move Thread

LAN_403

BudDog

Sat Dec 12 2009, 08:14PM

Registered Member #2539 Joined: Sat Dec 12 2009, 07:51PM
Location:
Posts: 4

I'm located in Northern California (Sacramento area) and I'm looking for a local (N. CA) source for lead sheeting to use as shielding for x-ray experimentation. I assumed I could easily find a local vendor for lead flashing, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or I'm not looking in the right places... I found a site for a company in Santa Rosa, but they're wholesale only. Is there somewhere in the Sacramento or Bay area?

Download

Sun Dec 13 2009, 02:57AM

Registered Member #561 Joined: Sat Mar 03 2007, 02:46AM
Location: Adelaide Australia
Posts: 230

You could just go to your local hardware store and get some lead sheets the use on roofs.

klugesmith

Sun Dec 13 2009, 07:38AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

BudDog wrote ...
Is there somewhere in the Sacramento or Bay area?

Try Ford Wholesale Co., Inc:

I've been their customer in San Jose, and see they have a site in Sacramento too.
Don't be put off by the W word. Though they cater to contractors, and have no showroom per se, I had no trouble walking in and buying 1 pound of copper roofing nails. Salesman led me into warehouse to choose between about 20 sizes. Please let us know if they lead you to satisfaction.

Funny you should ask right now about x-ray shielding. Last week I measured a hunk of roofing lead -I- scrounged almost 20 years ago. It's a bundle folded in both directions, but if laid flat would be about 54 x 60 inches x 1/16 inch -- 4 lbs/ft^2 in the book, consistent with overall weight of 80 or 90 lbs. I'd love to stay in touch about other paraphernalia for shielding and measurement of x-rays.

[edit] Sulaiman's response reminds me of a standard response when people ask about where to get Pb for weights: it's economical only if compactness is an important consideration. Steel is much cheaper per lb, and concrete even cheaper by a large margin. Lead is favored for x-ray shielding because of high atomic number (much less mass required) and easy workability. When compactness is even more critical, depleted uranium is popular as a radiation shield.

Sulaiman

Sun Dec 13 2009, 07:41AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3141

Lead is not the only x-ray shield material - almost any mass will stop x-rays,
you could use concrete, steel, gold, paper, testicles etc.

If you're going to play with x-rays you really should have a method of measuring them, to make sure you are keeping safe.

Proud Mary

Sun Dec 13 2009, 08:35AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

Hon1nbo

Sun Dec 13 2009, 05:28PM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042

just a little detail I might throw out here: depending on your setup, you might consider along with some normal shielding what hospitals do with their machines, which is to build much of the shielding directly around the tube: you can get a "PIG" lead container on ebay every now and then, and many of them will fit around a hobbyist sized tube (unless you have a pretty big supply)

then you just cut a slot in the side, and use the piece cut out as a little slide-into-place adjuster for the beam if it is suitable

by all means though, always have a means to measure your x-ray production and dosage, and do not relay simply on direct tube shielding, because there is a hole it comes out of!

and as for finding lead sheeting, good luck with that: when I get into x-ray stuff (mainly inhibited by lack of a GM counter that I own rather than the school) I plan to just get materials from my chemical supplier, as they provide some free shielding with their supplies like the tube

if you cannot get a good local source of lead, look up the tables (like the one Proud Mary provided) and see what it would take to use something like steel, which you can get in very good thicknesses at a hardware store in the form of sheet or plates

-Jimmy

Genocyde

Sun Dec 13 2009, 07:09PM

Registered Member #1575 Joined: Sun Jul 06 2008, 12:21AM
Location:
Posts: 6

Unitednuclear.com has lead shielding. Along with a lot of other stuff you might one day find useful.

LutzH

Wed Dec 16 2009, 01:05AM

Registered Member #1721 Joined: Sat Sept 27 2008, 08:44PM
Location:
Posts: 136

Hello:

I live in Hawaii where it is hard to find anything!!! But even here I can find Lead sheet, the last roll about 75# of it I purchased at Lowe's Home and Garden, they had it in the roofing section on the floor I think it was about a buck a pound. If you have a local roofing supply company they may help also. If you are under 80KV plain mild steel, copper or brass will work fine. A rough conversion for shielding is simply the density. The most common sheet lead is the about 12 x 12" piece with a lead cone in the center sold for toilet mounting, at just about every hardware store if you need only a small amount. To convert from lead to other metals:

For example: Say 2 mm of lead is required, the density of lead is about 12g/cc, if you are substituting a brass alloy with say a density of 5g/cc then 12 divided by 5 = 2.5 which is now your conversion factor. Now originaly you needed 2mm of lead, so 2mm x 2.5 = 5mm, So 5mm of this Brass alloy is about the same as 2mm of Lead.

I just like using lead because it is easy to form and work, and it is compact. In low use and energy dental offices they allow contractors to substitute 4 layers of sheet rock for 1/32 of an inch of lead for shielding.

Another great alloy for making x-ray collimators and small shields are some Bismuth alloys, some of these melt at below boiling water temperatures (about 160-180F). They use this alloy to make the beam shaping blocks for radiation therapy, they melt the alloy in a big coffee pot, and pour it into computer generated foam molds. Real cool stuff!!! very handy, when cold its harder than lead, almost like pot metal, it is almost as good as lead. Check with your local hospital Radiation Therapy department, chances are they will let you have a chunk if you are very nice and ask for a piece of the low melting beam shaping metal alloy for educational use etc. You do not have to lie, you can go ahead and melt some for the kids in your local school as a thank you to give back :)

Stay away from vendors selling sheet lead for silver prices with the name "amazing" in their company, while not the alchemist they are able to turn lead into silver via suckers who will pay this much for lead.

wylie

Fri Dec 18 2009, 11:00PM

Registered Member #882 Joined: Sat Jul 07 2007, 04:32AM
Location:
Posts: 103

Please let us know if they lead you to satisfaction.

Good One ;)

I love how they're willing to sell to walkins.

EEYORE

Sat Dec 19 2009, 12:33AM

Registered Member #99 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637

Sulaiman wrote ...

Lead is not the only x-ray shield material - almost any mass will stop x-rays,
you could use concrete, steel, gold, paper, testicles etc.

If you're going to play with x-rays you really should have a method of measuring them, to make sure you are keeping safe.

"Testicles"

My favorite method!
Matt

1 2 next

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob