So i found out my friend's dad has some CNC equipment.
 

He's got some router that is computer controled and can do really detailed work as well as cutting chanels (4 waterblocks!)
So I got to thinkin.

I wanna make the following:

HD water block:
2 sheets of copper that have identical chanels and a grove 4 an o-ring screw 2gether, add barbs
presto, a HD block.

Northbridge:
base of copper, cut chanel (should I use a mini spir@l or more like the maze1?) add acrylic top & o-ring.

GPU
I'll design a block for a GeForce4 TI and possibly ram sinks.
again, prob will be acrylic topped.


so here are a few Qs

1. where can I get copper (I want it to all be copper to prevent corosion, so no Alu!)?
2. how would I cut copper? (is this something that normally can be done at the shop?)
3. would there be an issue with the acrylic tops? DD and the other north bridge and GPU blocks I've seen are not acrylic topped, is there a specific reason 4 that?
4. where would I get o-rings?

any general advice about these sort of things?

when I gear from the guy's dad, I'll plst prices to see if they seem fair.

Thanks for any help. I'm 100% new to metal working.

hi

you can get the metal @ http://www.onlinemetals.com/
they will cut i think 2 cuts for free, or just use a hack saw. I think the reson why most wb companies don't use acrylic for tops, is one if it gets to hot it will melt and 2 extra cost? check out blade runners site his stuff looks real good (if you haven't seen it already.) http://zerofanzone.co.uk

um.... how hot b4 it melts?
the spir@l and maze3 have acrylic tops.

how would I join the 2 halvs of copper, or will an o-ring and screws do it?

still need an o-ring supplier...

you can get o-rings or gaskets at www.mcmastercarr.com . You can join a copper top to a copper bottom by using solder.

Yeah you can do it like fixxit did with the o-ring. I read a post though a while ago where someone's pump died and it melted the oring or the top of the Spir@l and leaked all over the place. They then made a solid alu top for it. I can't find it now, but peter the guy that makes the gemni posted what he used to glue the tops on his blocks. It was posted last week sometime. Sorry I would look more but I'm at work ;). He said though that with the glue application it was only good for 3psi. Hope that helps

forgot to say that person that had the spri@l leak was using pelts i think.

is there a special solder, or the lead based stuff used on everything else?

what do you use to apply the solder?
my littlle solder iron won't heat a hunk of copper ( i don't think)

here's the link from peter bout half way down on page 2
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...r&pagenumber=2

here's another about soldering
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...=how+to+solder

you will need a blow torch to heat the copper enough. I think that a full copper block is better not only due to the melting, but it's leak proof