Watercooling Adventure.

[Holst]

Ive been building my watercooling for ages...and im still not done.

Tomorrow im going to try and get the block finished.

To try to motivate myself I thought id start this thread and maybee renew some of my enthusiasm.

Heres my radiator.

[kplonk]

Interesting

[Random Nonsense]

WOW! thanks i have been wondering how to make a radiator...... i got one idea off OC.com, thats another i think winding the wire around it like that will work really well!

whats the block gonna be like? ive got a custom one being made for me by BE cooling. VERY VERY fancy, and unfortunately costs a lot too. oh well i just hope the thing works as well as it should! gonna be a pain trying to fit a peltier to it because the material its made out of is not too fond of machining.

I will be writing an article at spodes abode for this thing, it really is something special.

[Holst]

The radiator was the first thing I made.
My system is designed to be as cheap as possible...so the rad was made from bits I found in the garade.

Ive spent £40 on an eheim 1250 pump and the copper for the block was £8 and my giant resevoire with wheels another £5.

Im plumming it all up wiht 1/2" air hoze...free

Hoze barbs where another £5

So the complete system will be about £65-£75 (incl broken drills)

The blobk is similar to a dangerden job but with two channels for a higher flow rate.

Ive now cut out the channel using a pillar drill and an end mill (not a pleasant experience..took bloody ages)

Unfortunately I broke a drill off in a hole for a pin to make the soldering easyer....now I know not to drill small holes in copper.

Drilling the bugger out is gaing to tale bloody ages.

The blocks in the garage so I cant take a recent pic. This is before any machining. The holes around the edge will be for a coldplate should I want to use a peltier.

[Random Nonsense]

interesting design on the waterblock, keep us posted in a couple months my custom one will be done..... similar idea on the two channels, but has two outlets and some VERY funky material

i wanna see this thing running! when its all put togeather be sure to post pics and its performance!

[Daniel ~]

Cool coolin project Holst!

[Random Nonsense]

why daniel~ thats puntastic!

[Daniel ~]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Random Nonsense [ .i]
[B]why daniel~ thats puntastic! [ .B][ .QUOTE]errr. maybe its just unimaginative" :O}

[kplonk]

what grade copper you got there then.

[Holst]

Originally posted by kplonk
what grade copper you got there then.

Ive no idea

I got it from www.metalsuperstores.com
EDIT - Ive forgotten where I got it. that URL is wrong..if I remember ill edit the post again.

They only had one type of copper.

Its just ordinary bar stock.

Is there one particular grade that would be better.
I assume the purer more expensive stuff would be better for a waterblock.

[kplonk]

Well the reason I ask is that the pure stuff is really soft and the way you describe what you have done seems to indicate that you have a hard alloy, doubt it makes that much difference, I know the place you are trying to like to its where I get my copper thats why I was so interested!!

[dimmreaper]

Holst, I'm sorry to tell you this, but your design is not the most effective way to use the big chunk of copper. The coolant will have a tendancy to take the shorter path with less bends. I've built a few waterblocks, and made similar mistakes with some of my earliest tries. It's a bit of an art really . . .

[Holst]

Originally posted by dimmreaper
Holst, I'm sorry to tell you this, but your design is not the most effective way to use the big chunk of copper. The coolant will have a tendancy to take the shorter path with less bends. I've built a few waterblocks, and made similar mistakes with some of my earliest tries. It's a bit of an art really . . .

I did think that that would be a problem.

And it probably isnt the best design...

But ive learnt allot about working with copper making this block especially what is and isnt possible with my tooling.

Once ive got this block done and working ill be starting work on a new MK2 Peltier block.

this first block is just a stepping stone.

Im looking forward to seeing your design..hopefully ill get some ideas for my next project.

Ive also got some ideas about making the radiator more effective.
If I can find some cheap heatercores ill put them in paralell and use them instead.
I might try running two pumps one for the rads flowing slowly and the bigger eheim for the waterblock.

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by Holst
Im looking forward to seeing your design..hopefully ill get some ideas for my next project.

Hope you don't mind waiting a few months. I intend to market my blocks, so there design is very hush hush. But I'm confident that you probably would not be able to replicate the design, as it takes several multi-thousand dollar machines along the manufacturing process. I have limited access to the neccessary machinery, and am waiting until I can get exclusive access to the machinery before I market anything.

Originally posted by Holst
Ive also got some ideas about making the radiator more effective.
If I can find some cheap heatercores ill put them in paralell and use them instead.
I might try running two pumps one for the rads flowing slowly and the bigger eheim for the waterblock.

Heatercores are very effecient, and overkill in most cases. One should be plenty.

Also remember that heatercores have multiple tubes and yet only make two passes, this slows the fluid velocity down tremedously, even with pumps upwards of 500GPH. No seperate pump is needed. It would be a waste of money, and a waste of electricity.

[e_storm]

Thats a very interesting radiator design Holst. I'd be very interested to know how it performs. I assume all the copper wires are to conduct heat and take it away from the piping?

After seeing your design, if it performs decently, I might try that myself. I've had trouble finding a cheap radiator that fits in the bottom of my case, perhaps building might be the way to go?

Anyway, good luck with your project.

[Holst]

Time for an update.

Ive given up on making my own waterblock for a bit.
There are loads of reasons.
1- Id like to make it all over again with another design.
2-I dont have much time to finish it
3-My grandfather has gone on holiday (so im on my own)

A friend had a maze-2 waterblock for sale with 1/2" fittings so ive bought that from him.

Once ive got some more experience under my belt im going to design a block for TEC use the maze2 will be great as a stop gap.

As its a lovely sunny day Itook a pic of my radiator, pump and reseviore. I love the little wheels on the res.

[The Spyder]

Kewl- thought about soildering that 12g copperwire to the rad? i made a very very simmilar one- and i got a 5c temp drop after i soildered the wire to the pipes-
Spyder

[Holst]

Originally posted by Spyder462
Kewl- thought about soildering that 12g copperwire to the rad? i made a very very simmilar one- and i got a 5c temp drop after i soildered the wire to the pipes-
Spyder

Thought about it.

I thought id give it a try first, if the water temperature is too high ill try soldering it.

I didnt solder to begin with as it would make it look more ugly.

You dont have a Pic do you spyder ?
Ive not seen a rad quite like mine before.

[The Spyder]

If my POS intel pocket pc Digital camera worked......... then i would....... mine is 1/2 the size- and i used copper soilder and ten polished it- looks sweet-
Spyder

[Holst]

Originally posted by Spyder462
If my POS intel pocket pc Digital camera worked......... then i would....... mine is 1/2 the size- and i used copper soilder and ten polished it- looks sweet-
Spyder

Sounds cool.

I did think about making a bong but as I run 24/7 i didnt think my room has enough ventilation to stop it getting tropical in here :P

This was a good idea, if i had my own house (live with my parents ) then id definately give this a go.

http://www.coolhardware.co.uk/module...wcontent&id=15