Weekend Flea Market Trip (Pic Heavy)

[jcranmer]

I think I am officially hooked on all things that glow or lase. I went to the local flea market last week specifically to see if I could find some 1" uranium glass marbles so I would have some to use with my 405 pen. The only problem? Marbles were about the only thing I didn't come home with. I ended up finding a bunch of other pieces of uranium glass that I couldn't pass up for the prices. Interestingly enough I also found someone selling NEW uranium glass beads for making jewelry. I wasn't aware anyone was still making this stuff. Enjoy.

Beads:

More Beads:

What's in Canton, NY? And why would I want a radioactive small cup from there?

A piece of old(?) ugly costume jewelry:

Boot:

Small Plate (Marble also pictured, not bought at flea market):

Black light time: (Easier then taking photos with a 405 pointer)

And finally a video showing me running a Geiger counter over them to verify they really are uranium glass and not just something else that glows under black light.



I had another video showing a 405 being used to light them up, but I held the Iphone wrong and the video is rotated the wrong way. I'm too lazy to fix it now, so the black light photos will have to do.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Cool! How did you identify the objects at the flea market? Did you bring your Geiger clicker with you, or did you use a pointer?

Nice score! =)

 

[jcranmer]

I just took the laser pen with me. Although most of it my wife and I are getting pretty good at picking out. It has a bit of a glow to it, even under normal light. I just used the pen to confirm. I really thought the beads had to be something else, since they were marked as new. Sure enough they seem to be real though, since they are giving off small amounts of radiation.

I am only borrowing the Geiger counter from a friend. Plus I think pulling out a clicking Geiger counter at a flaa market might cause a panic. Although that in itself might be fun.

Of course now a Geiger counter has to be added to my long "wish list".

 

[DrSid]

Well good luck. Because of Fukushima the prices are insane. On ebay you can find prices 10 times bigger then before the earthquake.

Anyway I ordered GeigerActive 2 from this page:

Geiger Counters & Dosimeters

Simple (counts per minute only), stylish, still affordable (compared to full fledged dosimeters). Will tell you how it next week when I get it.

 

[jcranmer]

I hadn't even connected the price to the quake in Japan until you mentioned it. My friend says he only paid around $100.00 for this one a couple of years ago. Now the cheapest I could find this model anywhere was around $250.00.

Hopefully prices will start coming back to a normal level before too much longer. It's not a must have for me, I'd much rather spend money on lasers, but I'm a sucker for any kind of gadget.

Yeah, I'd be interested to see what you think about that model.

 

[DrSid]

I got the Geiger today. Here is the link again:

http://www.anythingradioactive.com/geiger.htm#GeigerActiv pro2

Some first impressions:

- Gee it's small ! Pack of cigarettes, more or less.
- it's just a counter, no dosimeter. Good for inspecting flea market, bad for inspecting nuclear power plant.
- the scale is logarithmic from 0 to 1000 counts per minute.
- it has really nice click sound.
- it has nice belt clip, and it's told to run 300 hours on single AAA battery.
- the build quality is just ok. Nothing impressive, but not really bad. It looks (and smells) like home built, with universal plain plastic box adapted to host it. Well we here do like home builds, don't we ?
- it can be connected to computer. It's pretty simple and actually smart. It is connected to sound card input, as a microphone .. and the software which goes with it just counts the ticks.
The software is simple, but has features like web server. While it's not advertised anywhere, it can by downloaded by anyone from here:
http://www.anythingradioactive.com/downloads, go for cdvcounter.zip
- the counter comes with simple jack-jack cable, in case you don't have one.
- as for sensitivity, I can't really tell at the moment, as I don't have any source at hand, much less calibrated dosimeter for comparison.
- I totally like it. It looks like souvenir to go with STALKER game .. which is big plus for me.
- And btw. I got it for 250 pounds. Yes, expansive .. but considering these days prices and the style, acceptable. They get one or two each week. They also now have solar powered version ! I would not go for it anyway, as counter alone is not much useful for doomsday, and the solar cell is in place of belt clip.

Anyone knows any site or forum which is about radioactivity ? I guess they would be interested in this baby.

 

[jcranmer]

Thanks for the mini review. That one actually looks nice, but it's a little pricey for me at the moment. (More so since I am in the US) Although I guess they are all pretty much too expensive for me right now. Once things calm down in Japan and the prices and stock come back to normal, I'll look into getting one again.

For now I will just borrow my coworker's when I need one.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I bring my UV flashlight to all flea markets, junk stores, and antique shops.

They still make uranium glass, just not in the US.

 

[DrSid]

Second impressions of the Geiger. It's not as good for flea market. It has very poor sensitivity. You won't be able to tell uranium glass from normal glass. Maybe if you counted clicks for 5 minutes .. with small marbles it goes from 3 per minute to 5 ? 6 ? Really hard to tell. Also I opened it, and the tube is really tiny.
The insides are generally same as this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Micro-Geiger-Co..._Security_Fire_Protection&hash=item19c4b5b96b

Edit: after 10 minutes of integrating I got up to 9 cpm average .. so it DOES detect the uranium marbles .. but you really can't tell.

 

[jcranmer]

The one I was using was pretty bad with the marbles too. They are just so small that's nearly impossable to pick them up from background radation. However it works really well if you have a bunch of them together, like the beads in the photos above, or something larger like a cup or plate.

Maybe the one you have will work better on larger items too.

 

[DrSid]

Which is actually good question .. where to get them ? I got few as a bonus to UV lamp from anythingradioactive.com .. but they don't really sell them. Except for ebay I could not find them anywhere.
Ebay has a lot of radioactive stuff .. some are so hot I would not but it.

Btw. that ebay page with the circuit has a video on it where the circuit reacts pretty well on radio watch hands. Its basically the same tube and the same circuit, just a different layout because of the meter. So maybe the marbles I got are just too cold.

 

[jcranmer]

If you won't want to deal with Ebay, you could try someone like United Nuclear. They have both the small ones and the larger 1" back in stock. From the images though, the one inch models are not the nice translucent ones that I've seen around here.

I just noticed what part of the world you are in. Those beads that I posted above were labeled as "New Czech Glass", so you might be able to find someone more local to you that at least sells the beads. They are 14mm and about the same size as the small marbles. If you could track down where they are being made you might be able to track down larger pieces of glass.

Of course for all I know these things were made elsewhere, but it's worth a shot.

 

[DrSid]

I know it used to be traditional Czech product .. we also have lots of uranium. But I did not know they make them even today .. good call !

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I know it used to be traditional Czech product .. we also have lots of uranium. But I did not know they make them even today .. good call !

Czech and China are some of the very few places to still make uranium glass.

I have over 100 5/8 marbles, around 10 9/16 marbles, 2 1" clear marbles, and a large block of uranium glass on it way in the mail.

Its getting harder, and harder to find.

If you dont mind colored uranium glass, this guy did me a favor and posted this huge chunk of uranium cullet.

Cullet custard UraniumGlowing glass cullet 13 1/2 pound | eBay

He lives next to an abandon glass factory. I found out to late about him, and he has no clear uranium glass left anymore.

For the price its a steal. I only collect clear type.

 

[jakeGT]

Wow that thing is really reall cool that you posted TJ.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Its over 13lbs, so its not small.