HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

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Dennis P Brown
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Dennis P Brown »

Just wow! I keep telling people about getting deals on fusor stuff and that it can be done but apparently, the best deals are at HEAS! Maybe next year I will remember this and be there as well!

That is really good and useful stuff, Richard!
Silviu Tamasdan
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Silviu Tamasdan »

Susan51160 wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:06 pm These are photos of the lab activities from the Friday night.
LOL @ the Geiger ray gun.

I made recently a GM counter based on Arduino+LCD. It's mounted on a 4-foot long piece of wood (which I had previously used to test various compositions of wood varnishes) The GM tube is at one end of the stick with HV wires taped along the length of the wood. The Arduino, LCD and battery box are near the other end - the handle. I dub it my GeigerStik. It allows me to test stuff from a distance. :)
Unfortunately it's not rain-proof.
I plan to upgrade it at some point with a case for the Arduino+battery, and a HV connector at the tube end so I can change tubes easily.
There _is_ madness to my method.
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Richard Hull
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Richard Hull »

You must be around some really hot stuff to need a GM on a stick!

I regularly handle some ore samples that are over 100,000 cpm as measured with a 2" mica windowed pancake tube....no problem, of course. After all, it is just NORM (Naturally Occuring Radioactive Material)....It's just rock! I picked these rocks up off the ground in the high desert of Utah.

As always, a smart person knows how to be safe. For protection I use the physics of the inverse square law, but when that isn't possible, (ore in my hand), I use the physics of tiny exposure times followed by inverse square law. I believe in hormesis, as well. Alas, I am never around enough radiation to let hormesis take effect.

Many, non-smoking miners in the poorly ventilated U mines of the 1950's lived to a ripe old age. It is mostly the common American of that period, who mined and smoked 2-3 packs of old unfiltered cigarettes each day that suffered a shortened life span. This was not due to exposure to uranium ore's intense and continuous radiation bombarding them within the mine, but the radon daughters they sucked in with each puff of satisfying tobacco smoke, that took them out early. Death came early due to the ultimate chronic exposure to radon daughters while inhaling smoking debris from a tubular weed that they set on fire and happily dragged into there lungs on a continuous and perpetual basis. It was never the particulate radiation given off by the ore that took them out, it was continuous daily exposure to Radon daughters and the two packs of old "Lucky Strikes".

For those who never smoked, that is 40 cigarettes set on fire and inhaled per day! I never smoked or drank but have worked around folks all my life who had both vices.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Jon Rosenstiel
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Jon Rosenstiel »

As a 15-year old in the mid 1950's I remember my dad asking me: "Do you know what LSMFT means"? My answer was: "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco"? Dad answered: "No, it means Lord, Save Me From Truman".

Jon Rosenstiel
Silviu Tamasdan
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Silviu Tamasdan »

Richard Hull wrote: Sun Nov 05, 2017 12:50 pm You must be around some really hot stuff to need a GM on a stick!
Nope just lazy, don't want to bend down to test stuff that's on the ground. :)

Like that 50lb bag of KCl that sits in a corner of my garage and I occasionally use as a check source. Though that's not its primary use.

It's amazing how many things one wants to check when one doesn't have to crouch or climb on a ladder to do it.
There _is_ madness to my method.
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Richard Hull
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Richard Hull »

Amazing!! I was also asked at HEAS 2017 why I had a 50lb bag of KCL sitting under a bench in the lab. One of its common uses is as a water softener in homes that have hard water with a lot of iron. I bought it just for the 1million electron volt ++ gamma rays coming out of the bag. Fun stuff for my gamma spectrometer. It turns out that KCL is the highest mass, (atomic percent), potassium source that is easily and readily obtainable that is not chemically nasty like KOH.

When demo'ing a large lump of the stuff, pulled right out of the bag, and before throwing it under my GM counter, I always lick all over the piece with my tongue. It freaks people out.......some of whom, are on a low sodium diet and use "No Salt" (KCL) and sprinkle it, unwittingly, on their food.

When I would see folks using no salt in the lunch/break room at work, I used to say...."Oh I see you are using the radioactive salt substitute." They freaked out and said it is not radioactive. I would go get my counter from my desk and prove it. They were not amused.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Silviu Tamasdan
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Silviu Tamasdan »

KCl, jack of so many trades... Water softener (not my main use), salt substitute (not my main use), gamma check source and amusement for mad scientists (my secondary use), cheap feedstock for making potassium chlorate and perchlorate for pyrotechnics (my main use)
There _is_ madness to my method.
ian_krase
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by ian_krase »

Huh, I did not know that was a thing you could do.


To all of this I would add flux for DIY aluminum casting.
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Dennis P Brown
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Dennis P Brown »

Oh, thanks Richard, for that reminder! I use KCl for food and I really am now glad to know that it is also radioactive... well, I've been irradiated well over a full sievert so, I really don't think the KCl is too much additional. ;)
Silviu Tamasdan
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Re: HEAS 2017 - post all images here!

Post by Silviu Tamasdan »

ian_krase wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:40 am Huh, I did not know that was a thing you could do.
It's easy. All you need is an appropriately large power supply (5V at min 10A but 30-40A is better), electrodes (titanium cathode and titanium coated with iridium/osmium/rhenium mixed oxides aka MMO for anode, or if you're rich platinum anode) and patience. If you want a full description send me a message.
There _is_ madness to my method.
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