X-ray imaging works. That is why you should probably not try to build your own at home. Radiation is serious stuff. The goal of an X-ray machine is to shoot beams at an object and see what happens. Do it wrong and things get bad fast. You can admire DIY creator Mirko Pavleski’s work from a distance, though. He managed to build a functional, homemade X-ray device. And he didn’t buy a kit. He did it from scratch.
The Source of the Beams
Where does the radiation come from? In Pavleski’s setup, it wasn’t a modern, expensive industrial part. It was a vacuum tube. Specifically, a DY86 tube stripped from an old CRT television. These sets are dying out, but their guts are useful. The DY86 was the component that accelerated electrons to create the high voltage needed for the screen. Repurposing it for X-ray generation was clever. But it required careful handling.
Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895. He won the first Nobel Prize in Physics for the find. Over a century later, the basic principle hasn’t changed much. Beams hit an object. Denser materials absorb more radiation. Less dense materials let the beams through. In a human body, bones show up white. Soft tissue is gray. Air is black. Pavleski applied this same physics to his workshop items, not people. Safety was the priority. He imaged a microSD card and small transistors, not fingers or toes.
The Power Chain Challenge
Getting the DY86 to emit X-rays wasn’t just plug-and-play. The vacuum tube demands specific voltage conditions. Too low, and you get nothing. Too high, and the tube shatters. Pavleski learned this the hard way. Three tubes exploded before he got it right.
He used a chain of power supplies to manage the load. It started with a low-voltage DC generator. This fed a high-voltage AC inverter. The inverter pushed current through a transformer. Finally, a voltage multiplier took over. This stage was critical. It boosted the voltage enough to force the tube into X-ray emission mode.
Developing the Image
Once the hardware was stable, he took the photos. Standard dental X-ray film did the job. He placed the film behind the subject—usually a small electronic component. He zapped it. Then came the darkroom work. Washing. Fixing. Rewashing. It took about 30 minutes total. The results were clear. You could see inside the casing of the microSD card. You could spot individual transistors.
Is this a project for everyone? Absolutely not. The risk of radiation exposure is real. The explosion risk to the vacuum tube is also real. Pavleski did his research. He wore protection. He worked in a controlled environment. Most people should just look at the pictures and learn why proper medical imaging equipment is so expensive.
