First test with eBay x-ray tube

 I found an X-ray tube on eBay and fired it up with my Spellman high voltage supply. I ran the tube at about 35-40KV at 180uA. This required a filament current of about 1.5A at 2.5V DC.  With the room very dark, I could clearly see the phosphorescent screen glowing green. It wasn't bright enough for my eye to discern details in the X-ray images, but the camera with a 4 second exposure at f/5.6 and ISO400 was perfect. I took some pictures of various electronic components. I also X-rayed a dead, dried-up bumble bee, and it produced no image at all! The X-rays completely penetrated the insect without any visible absorption. I should have turned down the anode voltage, but I didn't think of this until after I threw away the bee.
The tube is a Nago GFH2-0.3-85-60

First test with 4.8KJ xenon flash lamp (Speedotron 4803 strobe light)

This video shows my entry into the world of high-intensity flash tubes. I was inspired by the work done by the famous Doc Edgerton who built a strobe system for nighttime aerial photography. I've heard the biggest system he built was somewhere between 50 and 75 KJ per flash -- the power needed to illuminate the ground from 1000 feet in the air!

The system in this video is a Speedotron 4803, which delivers up to 4800J per flash. Photographers use the units watt-seconds (Ws) to describe the energy in each flash, which are the same as Joules. I plan to add capacitance to the bank in order to increase the total discharge power, but the voltage may also need to be adjusted since the higher power flashes also tend to require higher voltages. I'm also planning to try different xenon flash tubes, which are capable of more intense flashes.

Decapping ICs (removing epoxy packaging from chips to expose the dies)

I thought it would be interesting to try decapping some chips. This involves using fuming nitric acid, which also seemed fun, so I thought I would give it a go. The process starts by milling a precise pocket into the IC using my CNC machine. I used carbide tooling to cut the glass fiber/epoxy material. I then put a drop or two of the acid into the pocket, and raised the temperature to about 100*C. The acid dissolves the epoxy packaging as it sort of "dries". I added more acid to the pocket every few minutes. After about 10 minutes, I washed the IC in acetone, then reapplied acid if there was still material left on the die. Eventually, it was all cleared away, and I had a nice decapped IC.

Tour of Ben's shop 2012

Some people were curious about what my shop looks like, so here is a video tour. It seems that I was really rambling, since this video turned out much longer than expected.

Molecular gastronomy (playing with food): "reverse" spherification maraschino cherries

I made a puree of maraschino cherries and added 2.5g of calcium lactate gluconate. I then dripped this mixture into a solution of 2.5g of sodium alginate in 500g of water. A gelatinous skin is formed at the interface between the two liquids, forming spheres of cherry puree. This process is known as reverse spherification. I bought the chemicals here: http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Kit-Artistre-600-grams/dp/B0045KOOXU