Medical X Ray machine

Anyone ever scrap an old x ray machine? The thing weigh about 800 pounds and I am sure has a substantial amount of lead in it.... just curious of any experience out there before I dive into tearing it apart.

Id be careful because if you yard has a radiation monitor it will most likely go off and then they will reject your load.

Do some reading first please. There are some concerns, but I also found the following quote from someone when they were finished.

"Thank you for the heads up. Doing more reading on it I found out that there is no radiation produced unless the machine is powered up. I took load of the stuff to the yard today, thank God no bells and whistles went off. lol.. Btw i got 10 lbs of lead,80 lbs of light iron, 10 lbs of stainless, and 30 lbs of aluminum from one machine."

Be very, very careful...I would recommend not touching it. What are you going to do if it has a radioactive source in it? (Ie. doesn't need to be plugged into to be radioactive) See the following-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

As long as you dont plug er in when yer tearin into it you'll be fine.

Originally Posted by 250man

Be very, very careful...I would recommend not touching it. What are you going to do if it has a radioactive source in it? (Ie. doesn't need to be plugged into to be radioactive) See the following-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

The radiation in an X-ray machine is produced by the anode when they are plugged in. I tore apart a few last year, but still have one or two left in the shed.

Thanks for all the responses, I think it is pretty safe to tear apart short of busting the vacuum tube... I am certain you dont have to worry about radiation cause X-rays for bones are produced from the electromagnetic radiation emitted by X-ray tubes vs. the radiation emitted by radioactive nuclei (gamma rays) as was mentioned in the disaster mentioned above.

Again thanks for the responses and keep them coming. I will post on progress.

Did you seperate the lead, stainless, and ferrous to scrap. How did it turn out???? Thanks,

Originally Posted by Rich

The radiation in an X-ray machine is produced by the anode when they are plugged in. I tore apart a few last year, but still have one or two left in the shed.

Did you seperate the lead, stainless, and ferrous to scrap. How did it turn out???? Thanks,

I'm not sure what type of machine you have but here are a few pics of the ones I took apart. http://www.flickr.com/photos/64957169@N06/
The outside casings are made of aluminum, it is lined on the inside with the lead. They weren't terribly bad to separate once I used a grinder instead of a hammer to bend the aluminum to get the lead off of it. The rotating anode tube is where the better metals are, it is mostly all copper but the disc part of it could be molybdenum. Here's some info on the anode tube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_tube I've cut off the anode discs and have a few saved to turn in.

Originally Posted by Rich

I'm not sure what type of machine you have but here are a few pics of the ones I took apart. http://www.flickr.com/photos/64957169@N06/
The outside casings are made of aluminum, it is lined on the inside with the lead. They weren't terribly bad to separate once I used a grinder instead of a hammer to bend the aluminum to get the lead off of it. The rotating anode tube is where the better metals are, it is mostly all copper but the disc part of it could be molybdenum. Here's some info on the anode tube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_tube I've cut off the anode discs and have a few saved to turn in.

Thanks Rich, you da man! Appreciate all the help on here!

When you do process your machines try to take some pictures of the tear down. I'll do that when I scrap the last couple of machines I've got left.

Originally Posted by Rich

When you do process your machines try to take some pictures of the tear down. I'll do that when I scrap the last couple of machines I've got left.

will do Rich, with my cell phone which is probably better than my actual digital camera these days.

Wouldn't the lead absorb some of the rays when the machine was in operation? Lead is a shield of sorts, but it's rather porous.