Project 326's Tiny Desktop X-ray Machine Turns USB Power Into Diagnostic Imagery — and Radiation
Following a path laid by William Morgan in the late 1700s, this desktop gadget is a fully-functional — if slow — X-ray imager.
Pseudonymous maker "Project 326" has built a surprisingly compact, USB-powered diagnostic device you're unlikely to find in many hobbyist workshops: an X-ray machine.
"This […] is a fully-functional homemade X-ray machine," Project 326 explains of the desktop gadget. "It is a tiny desktop X-ray device and it is powered by USB. At the heart of this device is an old-school vacuum tube that cost us about $50. So, put on your lead underpants and let's get on and make an X-ray machine."
First formally observed in the mid 1800s and dubbed "X-radiation" by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, a placeholder for "unknown radiation" that has since stuck, X-rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation known to most through their use in medical science for peering inside people without having to cut them open. Commercial X-ray machines were widespread until the further discovery that X-radiation is ionizing — a fact that puts upper limits on safe exposure in order to avoid DNA damage and heightened cancer risk.
Just because something is dangerous, of course, doesn't mean it's not useful, and X-ray machines are still used in science and industry — and you can, if you want, build one yourself. Rather than a dedicated, and expansive X-ray tube, though, Project 326's version uses a much cheaper 1Z11 vacuum tube: "We knew that basic rectifier vacuum tubes could produce some amount of X-rays," the maker explains, "but we wanted to find out if it is actually possible to capture images using such a simple and low-energy source of X-rays."
The answer: yes, perhaps surprisingly. Project 326's design, which echoes back to the use with partially-evacuated glass tubes in William Morgan's unknowingly X-ray-producing experiments in 1785, melds a vintage vacuum tube design with a modern USB Power Delivery supply to create a weak X-ray source — which, when aimed at self-developing X-ray-sensitive film originally designed for use in dental surgeries, can produce surprisingly clear images if given a long enough exposure time.
The project is detailed in full in the video embedded above and on Project 326's YouTube channel; while the maker has shared links for acquiring some of the parts required, however, they have stated that they will never share the schematics — through an apparent fear of fans irradiating themselves attempting to follow in the project's footsteps.