Cost of X-Ray machine?

[craigten]

Buy a plate beveller?

Got one, but that's not my main point, is it.

 

[Munkul]

Are the students not allowed to bevel their own plates?
3 runs would be a lot easier on 8mm+. And the best reason for doing butt weld is because it's harder to get right than fillet, and also easier to inspect. I'd have thought a butt weld would be par for the course, so to speak.
A beefy mill would fast bevel a load of plates...

 

[craigten]

Are the students not allowed to bevel their own plates?
3 runs would be a lot easier on 8mm+. And the best reason for doing butt weld is because it's harder to get right than fillet, and also easier to inspect. I'd have thought a butt weld would be par for the course, so to speak.
A beefy mill would fast bevel a load of plates...

Well they do butt welds on 3mm the previous academic year but, of course, anything like 6mm to 8mm is a different kettle of fish due to the multiple run issue. It would be so much easier if root and cap were allowed....but they are not. As I mentioned, the issue with 6mm is once the root run is on, there's hardly any room to do a second and third.

 

[Rrunnach]

Root run plus two stringer runs would be my preference, which is do-able on 6mm after root is in.

 

[craigten]

Fancy doing it and posting pics?

 

[Rrunnach]

Not right now, I'm not wearing my flame proof jammies

 

[Rrunnach]

In this afternoon, had a faff with some scrap. Looks better in the flesh than via phone image. Prepped as per EAL **** WPS @ 6mm LCS plate. My first positional weld since last year!!! Edit, images are titled.

 

[craigten]

Thanks for that. Really appreciate it!! I found that issue with the pics I took of my attempts too.

 

[Parm]

Prices of vetinary systems...
If it's only for occasional use and you have the space for a dark room then old film systems are usually under a grand. A lot less if you buy the parts separately and don't mind a bit of messing about to set them up.

Move onto something usable on a regular basis and you are at the £5-8k mark for a CR system,

The current 'standard' DR system is completely cordless, 30second warm up time, sub 5 second cycle time, £50-80k new,
Maybe £20k for used.

Limitations:
Thickness: 6mm in alloy is about your max thickness for a clean shot.
You can do something like a 1/2" thick steel boat keel plate and pick up any serious cracks but you won't see a weld defect on that kind of thickness.

Image size: my detector plate is 14" x 17" and that's about as big as they get for mobile use. Fine for a horses leg but not so handy on a 40' boat hull.

Radiation danger: old film types need long exposure times. Modern pulse generators and digital detector plates need fractions of a second. You still need to crank up the power to see through metal though so there is a lot of you-no-longer-make-babies stuff flying around.

If this is something you are setting up in a workplace then the paperwork could probably cost as much as a useable xray system. You don't 'need' a dedicated room for doing it, (horses regularly get done in a wooden stable in somebody's back garden)
but it's probably a cost effective option to have a room rather than have to develop a wps for doing it around the workshop..
Generally, spending more on the kit will save you money on the protection required

I don't know what sort of prices ex industrial kit goes for but it's probably a bit like old 3-phase transformer mig welders, ie. Not a lot if you can move it, install it, fiddle around with it, run it, etc.
There is a lot of legislation covering the use of xrays in a workplace so read through some of that to get a rough idea of what it's going to cost to comply with it.
There is a bit more leniency for 'mobile' systems but I have only ever used them as intended (ie, mobile)
A fixed system will have a lot more costs to set up the appropriate protection systems and the staff to run it.

I didn’t know farriers carried mobile horse X-ray stuff?

are you an RPA / RPS?, and how do you keep your sources secure?

 

[hotponyshoes]

I didn’t know farriers carried mobile horse X-ray stuff?

are you an RPA / RPS?, and how do you keep your sources secure?

I have a detector in the van as it's a nice modern one so saves me a fair bit of time when a vet with old kit turns up.
The alignment blocks etc are nice to use your own as then the positioning is consistent over time.
I don't carry a source around in the van as that's the part that needs all the paperwork and my plate will work fine with any of the vets ones.
A source in a locked box in a car is considered ok for mobile use but should be taken back into the practice at night etc.
Farriers can't take xrays of horses as that's a vetinary procedure (and vets can't take xrays of humans as that's a medical procedure)

I have an lso ticket for work done at the vetinary clinic, the vet is the rps and the rpa is an external guy.
The lso let's me position for the views I want and there is no point me going any further than that with a live animal as you need to be a vet to press the button to take the shot.

Obviously exposing live animals to xray has more paperwork involved than inanimate objects but when doing it in a workplace there is a large amount of cost involved that can easily exceed the cost of buying the kit in the first place!

 

[Mid Wales welder]

Hi all.
What’s the going rate of an x-Ray machine to x-Ray welds?

UT would be far better, less H&S and cheaper

 

[Rrunnach]

I think it fair to say, interpretation and use of both X/Gamma & UT inspection, a good degree of skill is required.

 

[Mid Wales welder]

I think it fair to say, interpretation and use of both X/Gamma & UT inspection, a good degree of skill is required.

There is indeed. Probably way overkill for college stuff

 

[Rrunnach]

There is indeed. Probably way overkill for college stuff

I agree, plus I know if I had the skill to interpret, for example, UT testing equipment, I would not be working at a college!!!

That said though, I did get a taster with UT years ago, calibrating the shoe gave me a migraine, so that was the end of that

 

[Mid Wales welder]

I agree, plus I know if I had the skill to interpret, for example, UT testing equipment, I would not be working at a college!!!

That said though, I did get a taster with UT years ago, calibrating the shoe gave me a migraine, so that was the end of that

Haha you would probably be surprised at how little some UT techs get paid and how much some college tutors get paid.
I find that even though I have a UT cert and some good experience, it still takes a bit of head scratching if I haven’t done it for a while, same with a lot of things I guess.

 

[craigten]

Wow! Didn’t realise there was so much to UT. Got to be worth some investigation.
Funnily enough I think the college has some UT equipment....

 

[craigten]

Haha you would probably be surprised at how little some UT techs get paid and how much some college tutors get paid.
I find that even though I have a UT cert and some good experience, it still takes a bit of head scratching if I haven’t done it for a while, same with a lot of things I guess.

Not me (deservedly so)

 

[Mid Wales welder]

Wow! Didn’t realise there was so much to UT. Got to be worth some investigation.
Funnily enough I think the college has some UT equipment....

It can be quite a lot to get your head around. Certainly an interesting subject though if you like that kind of thing.
The older CRT sets are pretty cheap now, so wouldn’t surprise me if they did. You should get in touch with somewhere like Sonatest as they give free demos on machines.

 

[Mid Wales welder]

Not me (deservedly so)

Haha they all say that

 

[craigten]

It can be quite a lot to get your head around. Certainly an interesting subject though if you like that kind of thing.
The older CRT sets are pretty cheap now, so wouldn’t surprise me if they did. You should get in touch with somewhere like Sonatest as they give free demos on machines.

Thanks for this, again, really interesting. This is something that I’m interested in.
I must say at this point that some of the answers here just go to prove how wonderful forums can be - there’s no way that I would have learned so much, say, in a conversation with a colleague, for example.