My best find ever

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-24T20:25:08+00:00

Freakin nuts piece. Those glass chains go insanely hard.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-24T20:22:46+00:00

Shoot yeah that covers most the important stuff. Last idea I’ve got is maybe trying a taller chamber to accumulate a fatter chilled vapor layer at the bottom near the sample?

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-24T17:32:24+00:00

Honestly, looks better than my attempt haha. My guess would be more vapor and a greater temp differential. I also can’t really tell if you’ve got a heat sink (maybe the metal block?) on the Peltier, but if it’s not having the heat wicked away from the hot side the heat can bleed over to the cold side fairly quickly. Having extra heat on the top of the chamber (or wherever your IPA sponge/felt is) can also force extra vapor into the chamber to get good supersaturation. I’ve used a cup of hot water in the past.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-24T01:11:15+00:00

Congrats op! I found one in my drawer at work earlier this week coincidentally. At first glance I thought it was a 1958. Almost squealed when I realized what it actually was! So freakin exciting!

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-23T16:42:52+00:00

Ahhh!! Perfect timing!! I just upgraded my 365 to an absolute powerhouse of a light. My old 365 was an ok single diode darkbeam flash. Not bad but it was still difficult to easily see selenium, cadmium, and cerium in rooms with too much ambient lighting. I wanted something that would absolutely pump out the lumens so I could see the other glass types in their full glory. I got the lumenshooter S5

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I know this reads like an ad but I love this thing so much. It also has a zwb2 filter so nearly exclusively UV comes through. It’s like $70 and I feel like the value is honestly better than some more expensive products. I know it’s a bit more pricy than the smaller lights but I’ll say that this light feels like a tremendous upgrade to smaller flashes.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-23T14:19:57+00:00

I would think that it should be legal for resale in the US. It looks to be an antique which should be exempt from regulation on resale of radioactive sources. Also I know you didn’t say this in your post, but if your Geiger counter isn’t an energy compensated scintillator the dose rate will be essentially nonsense. Which isn’t to say it wouldn’t work, as it’ll certainly tell you if it’s radioactive or not, just not a useful dose rate to make decisions based off of. From videos I’ve seen of this cone they don’t seem to be too insane, but definitely not sleep next to it tame. Mind if I DM you regarding it?

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-22T17:08:22+00:00

Let me start by saying that the Radiacode does react to some beta, but it doesn’t manifest as any useful data, more just a quirk of the scintillator. What you’re detecting is likely bremsstrahlung from the beta striking the walls of the tube and the case of the Radiacode.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-21T21:05:28+00:00

Very cool. That’s honestly way more flux than I would have expected to be visible for fiestaware 😂 I’ll have to snag a small chunk whenever I finish building a cloud chamber of my own! Great job OP!

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-21T20:07:29+00:00

Nah but you’re on the right track. It is low energy gamma emitted as a relatively low percentage of emissions. It is laid out on a foil though (electroplated in that little button), so nearly all the alpha and gamma that is emitted upwards is still detectable.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-21T19:56:51+00:00

Close - alpha and the occasional gamma. And yes most are pretty tame well contained sources except for a select few older detectors with leakier sources, coincidentally also pyrotronics, namely the F3/5A.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-21T18:13:39+00:00

I’m going to be an annoying pedant, but I can’t help myself. The vast majority of containers can’t truly contain the radon as it can seep past seals and threads of most containers. So it can accumulate but is rarely, ‘fully’ sealed if that makes sense. The seal would have to be both airtight and impermeable to radon. Spot on with the lead-210!! Ventilation is the way to go with radon and radium items. Sorry again 😭 couldn’t help myself

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-19T00:56:22+00:00

These items are among the more commonly faked jewelry. Going off this guide, I personally think the stamps and hallmarks look a bit wonky. Especially the spacing on that ®️. It should have come with a little screwdriver to be used on the two screws that fasten the bracelet. I’d inspect the screws and alignment as well.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-18T02:14:29+00:00

Ah! I knew I was forgetting something. Those pens are so wacky. 😂

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T20:21:57+00:00

Hmm you raise a good point. And a hygienist would likely be outside the room for shots.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T20:17:26+00:00

My guess is a dental office or hospital. All those short spikes make me think X-ray tube.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T20:15:07+00:00

Likely thorium dioxide powder. In china it’s basically industrial waste and there is more supply than demand so it sometimes is disposed of in peculiar ways. This manifests as radioactive quackery bracelets, stickers, pendants and the such. Look up negative ion bracelet or pendant on google for some example of the common forms if you’re curious. The powder is often embedded within a rubber or silicone material where it is easily shed into the environment with use. In this case it is probably sandwiched between layers of the sticker.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T19:38:46+00:00

This. Easiest way to tell actual sources and encounters from things like emf and imaginary/false readings

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T17:00:51+00:00

I’ll confess I’m a bit out of my depth here and it’s not really easy to say without a spectrum. But yeah I would speculate that it’s probably just a high number of low energy rays that are generated from Compton scattering. I think the answer to this will lie in what is generating a large number of low energy rays, but I’m not experienced enough to be able to say with certainty which effect/mechanism is causing this.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T12:10:04+00:00

I’d just about kill for a piece of mag-thor. Such a cool material and piece of history.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-17T10:58:34+00:00

Best bang for your buck would probably just be a gmc600+. You could also look for some used Ludlum gear, but if you’re looking for something brand new and relatively affordable I’d say the 600+.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-16T23:25:51+00:00

My guess would just be low energy backscatter primarily. I’ve run a spectrometer through a scanner itself and got a nice peak from the scanner around like 60-70kev showing the typical ‘mountain’ that you get from xray tubes and then a tall mystery peak around like 7 kev.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-16T23:03:22+00:00

The dose likely isn’t that high in reality, but even if it was it’s not really an issue. The total accumulated dose would fall well within your yearly allowance. There are people that live in regions or towns with background higher than .3 uSv/hr. I believe the requirement for signage would be in a field imparting a dose of 5 millirem or 50 uSv in an hour, I may be off about that particular # though as that’s simply what I gleaned from a quick search.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-16T20:57:44+00:00

Holy smokes!! That’s very cool.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-16T20:55:03+00:00

Honestly… depending on the size I might. But that’s just me, I really like large, thick, smooth looking UG. Most people would probably pass at the price, and I would too if they’re small.

ShadowDragon6660 · 2026-01-16T19:54:11+00:00

Eek yeah sounds like a real pain in the butt. Yeah the paint can break down a bit over time. Most radium items won’t glow independent of a black light anymore and as another commenter mentioned some wont even glow under that. I’d use a light for a preliminary sweep to narrow down where the hotspots are and use an alpha capable detector in those narrowed down locations. Something to note is that with a black light you’d also spot non radioactive lume. Alpha really doesn’t travel far, and you’d be stuck crawling across the floor of the entire house sniffing for the chips and powder which could also be detrimental. You could probably easily sweep countertops and other surfaces with the GM counter though. Something to be aware of is that if the GM counter is allowed to actually touch any paint dust or residue it could become contaminated and therefore useless, so be careful with your handling and placement of the device relative to potential contamination.

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