N00B in need of help!
 

Hello,
I'm in the process of attempting to make some sort of water cooling device from a slew of misc. parts for a currently non existent computer, soudns liek fun eh? Only problem is I have next to no clue what I'm doing.

What I have:
Water Pump (I figured this would be necessary)
Heater Core (Ripped out of a camper van that is in a state of disrepair :P )
Misc. Tubing
Lucite(Clear Acrylic Sheet- Which I plan to build some sort of resevoir out of)
Copper (I figure this is required also):
3ft long, 4in wide and 1/2in thick (thickest stuff I could find locally in quantities less than like 100lbs or something)
A thinner sheet of copper a bit longer and wider than the previous piece, but also a lot thinner, maybe about 1/16" (The metric system I know tells me 1-1.5 mm)

I kinda started (tried) to make a HD cooling device, by taking a 6in long by 4 in wide piece of the plate copper and measuring out a pattern and ummm kinda drilling into it. The plan was to cut out a pattern all the way through and then affix two peices of the thinner copper on either side. The big problem comes in two flavours. Flavour number one: I don't have a clue how to solder two pieces of metal together, let alone three!(Please give me some tips). Flavour number two: the water path will end up being oval(rectangular) as it is 1/4" thick(copper plate) and is cut 1/2" wide path, how would I go about making a round pipe fitting flow with maximum volume:sec ratio?

I'm really a newbie in need of ideas/experience, any suggestions are welcome. If you have any ideas as to how to make a CPU waterblock from the supplies I have, I would be quite appreciative, thank-you!

*shrugs* could work and work well i should have all my shit together and inside my case by next week

I'd ignore the thin copper, just use the thick copper and drill holes into it to make the blocks, soldering copper is a pain in the arse. And you have 3 feet of it to use anyway

To solder copper you need a blow torch. And a good one... Plumbers have those.
You can browse this forum, there are many topics about waterblock construction.
You can also visit Bladerunner's site at http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/ .
Good luck and keep us informed of how it's going...

Thanks for all the tips!

re: the blow torch
Does a propane canister with a torch nosil fit the profile?

I don't know the burning temp of propane. :(
All i know is you have to make sure your flame is small and blue - deep blue, nearly transparent. That means hot. Then as always you must heat your copper before soldering, and before heating it don't forget to put flux to prevent oxydation. You'll need a can of flux and a good deal of solder. You should try with 2 pieces of copper you can throw away first, just to get used to it.
You can finish the job in your oven, and remove excess solder with a dremel or a file.

I don't think a propane torch is hot enough. Those are for pretty light duty jobs. The copper would absorb most of the heat from it I think since it isn't a very high velocity form of heating. But I guess it depends on how big a torch you are talking about. If its one of those little palm sized torches I doubt it would do much of anything.