Hello Gordon.

> I don't expect them to be fast.

  Just as well.  I have looked at the website specified
( http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~kronjaeg/hv/index.html ) and he
refers to exposures in the order of some hours.  He notes the limits of
heating of the valves he uses.  I think this validates my reference to
"orders of magnitude".  It is probably much safer for me to use a
commercially purpose-built X-ray machine for a minute or two (at low
power) whilst standing behind a wall or two than to have a
poorly-designed one run for hours or days.

  In comparing film exposure to chip erasure, consider the exposure time
for chip erasure (minutes) to UV against how long (fraction of second)
it would take to blacken a film.  More orders of magnitude!

> Last I looked free style had X-ray film.  All film is to some degree
> sensitive to soft X-rays.

  The secret is: Film "badges" and X-ray plates contain fluorescent
screens which intercept the X-rays, converting them to light which
exposes the film.  This increases film sensitivity by another order of
magnitude, and is difficult to home-build.

> I have been playing with high voltage supplys for 40 years and I am
> still here to tell the tale.  Safety is a learned skill not a set of
> incoprehemsible rules.

  I wouldn't put too much emphasis on "learned", at least not in the
practical sense!

> It is not societys job to protect me from my self.  It is societys job
> to protect my neighbors from me.

  You are not "politically correct"!  In my profession, the courts are
telling us now it is *our* responsibility to protect people from
themselves!

> We have come to the point that any risk is percieved as unacceptable.
> If the same standards of risk were applied to automobiles as
> pesticides there would not be a car on the road today.

  Ahh, but cars are "big business"; the rules are different.

  It is funny, isn't it?

> I would use the vet med college.

  It's a dog of an idea!

  Cheers,
        Paul B.