41–50 of 69 posts
3.6 roentgen. Not great. Not terrible. Very cool project. Always impressed the level craftsmanship some people have.
[1] https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/01/f46/doe-ioni...
Great work! I liked how well the vintage look and the modern core fit. I'm not sure where I read it but it was stated that the Geiger counters which are manufactured after the Chernobyl (?) incident were not as accurate as those manufactured before it. The reason is that all the metal after the incident and the radiation experiments performed afterwards is contaminated with radiation particles which alter the radiati…
I don’t know about Chernobyl specifically, but so-called low background steel from before 1945 is harvested specifically for use in radiation sensing applications. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel I think most of the radionuclide contamination comes from Cold War atmospheric nuclear testing. Some low background steel is recovered from sunken battleships!
Why didn't you go full brass on the decatrons, instead of mixing stainless and copper? Same goes for the counter box: you only wrapped 2 sides when you pro'lly could have wrapped the whole thing in brass... you probably saved yourself 10 hours by not doing that, but you're already in for what, 30 hours already?
Now I'm going to nitpick. :) My only critique is the high gloss finish on the wood looks unfinished in the final assembly picture: you can see drips/wrinkles, and the grain wasn't filled which isn't a good match with high gloss, or if unfilled a hand-oiled finish would not have called attention. This is a consequence of working with mahogany. (And what's with the hand filed-gouges in the cutouts. Yes they are hidden, but details count, man!)
I'm also jealous you have a machine shop. Very jealous.
Super job!
3.6 roentgen. Not great. Not terrible. Very cool project. Always impressed the level craftsmanship some people have.
If anyone wants some context about radiation dose units across various orders of magnitude, I recommend the charts in this DOE chart (see page 6) [1] [1] https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/01/f46/doe-ioni...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP links to their repo which has full instructions on how to integrate a geiger counter board with the RPi: https://github.com/balenalabs-incubator/background-radiation... Even has some links to the model(s) used.
I hope you see the difference between building a Geiger tube and buying one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope you see the difference between building a Geiger tube and buying one.
Building a Geiger tube is probably beyond the reach of most people. That’s a precision piece of equipment.
The key ingredients are aspiration and time.
Looks fantastic! Well done! Why didn't you go full brass on the decatrons, instead of mixing stainless and copper? Same goes for the counter box: you only wrapped 2 sides when you pro'lly could have wrapped the whole thing in brass... you probably saved yourself 10 hours by not doing that, but you're already in for what, 30 hours already? Now I'm going to nitpick. :) My only critique is the high gloss finish on the w…
For the Dekatrons, it was simply a case of I had 50mm stainless steel bar already in the shop, but the biggest brass I had was probably 30mm diameter. I bought a whole load of bar stock offcuts from an auction years ago and pretty much everything I make is made from that lot. That being said I broke so many tools trying to work with M2 threads in stainless that I could have just bought some brass bar!
As for the dips/wrinkles in the case, those were caused by my use of an oscillating drum sander. There's a photo in the blog post where you'll see I used the drum sander to bring the lid to size. I foolishly let it mark the previously pristine planed surfaces, and didn't realise until I had coated it with gloss. This is definitely a lesson learned from this project, I won't make that mistake again.
I have no defence for the hand-filed gouges hidden in the openings, and not filling the grain - more lessons learned for next time there. :)
Thanks for the comment!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anyone wants some context about radiation dose units across various orders of magnitude, I recommend the charts in this DOE chart (see page 6) [1] [1] https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/01/f46/doe-ioni...
Was expecting someone to downvote me because they haven't seen Chernobyl on HBO. Haha
This is awesome though, I especially like the mechanical counter.