Copper blocks... where are they?
 

hello all. i've been meaning to start making custom waterblocks for a while now. i'm not nearly as advanced as most anyone here, but i think i could get the hang of it eventually. i also have some ideas i want to try in the design. anyway, i was wondering where you get your copper for the blocks. i looked at onlinemetals.com, but all i could find was a bar that was 12" long. it was a little more expensive than i was expecting. isn't it possible to just get a few small unmachined blocks for less than the price of a regular waterblock? maybe i was looking in the wrong place or something. i'd like to help out procooling w/ the affiliation thing, so if someone could straighten me out here, i'd appreciate it. thanks.

jungle

http://www.dangerden.com/images/misc...m3cp_thumb.jpg

"maze 3 cold plate"

maybe the correct shape :shrug:

other wize

link to dangerdens metal stocks page

maybe

Check out McMaster-Carr as well.

If you don't mind a less than ideal grade of copper, then find it locally. I'm in Vancouver, Canada, which isn't exactly a manufacturing powerhouse, yet dozens of metalshops around here will give me odd bits at cost or nothing. There are scrapyards too, which seperate out the metal types of course, but they gouge. Just look around, or open your local business directory to "metals" etc.

If you must have the purest, cleanest copper plate, then follow the above links.

check out the onlinemetals link in the sticky at the top of this section.

Jon

"i looked at onlinemetals.com"

Hes already looked there, however im not sure what stock he was looking at

6.52mm x 50.8mm at 12" length - $12.80

Thats what id be looking at getting. Seeing as they're only accurate to 1/8th of an inch (man,thats bad tolerance) then id look at getting it cut locally, or doing it yourself. If you want to go thicker, go for the 9.52mm type.

imperial - 0.25" x 2" for the 6.25 x 50.8
0.375 for the 9.53mm thickness

After making a few blocks at 9.52mm, I'm of the belief that 6.52 is possibly the way forward. Doesnt leave much room for machining, though.

I have ordered a lot of metal from there, its all saw cut, by no means machined ends, that would be pretty stupid, 90% of the time its dead on or as close as you can measure with a tape measure.
Are you gonna use every bit of metal you purchase from there?

If you mean by having the custom cut peices, in your order, specify that you need it cut quite acurately and it will be cut, wrote "cut the 2x2 peice as acurate as possible" and I ended up with like 3 of them all extremely close. theres only so much acuracy you can get out of a bandsaw or a sheer.

This is why I mill all of my ends :D :D :D

Jon

I just bought $70 worth of copper and brass from online metals. Enough to make about 30 blocks. 30 x $50 is a little more than $70?

Now you got it spinnin jaydee:p your gonna love brass! Its like milling non sticky aluminum:)

Jon

like i said, i was just looking in the wrong place on onlinemetals.com. thats what my question was really about. thanks.

jungle

That's the reason I bought it. Have something spacific to use it for. :) Looking forward to trying it out. :)