Is this any way to treat a whitewater?
 

spotted this earlier - basically he's used wet&dry to strip off the anodising and then polished it up. looks way better than the black anodised finish i think.
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/d-tek/dt_5.jpg

my question is, can one safely do this to an anodised block without causing potential corrosion problems down the line?

it's quite a tempting idea, particularly if as i've seen suggested the aluminium topped whitewater is marginaly superior to the poly topped one...

gotta admit, if they sold them looking that good i would of bought one. corrosion should not be a problem to the exterior of any waterblock if you know what you are doing. Ie, go out and buy a anti-corrosion polish from a car paint store, the kind you can get for chrome work etc. and give the block a wipe over every 6 months or so. as for me, i have never needed to use any kind of anti-corosion compound on any of my waterblocks, and they are all just as shiney as the day i brasso'd them.

God damn it yes!... that looks sweet.

Yeah guandi is right... a bit of lacor(sp?) polish and the like you won't have any problems... remeber that this is to the OUTSIDE and the place corrosion will happen (if any) will be on the inside.

That is still a nice piece of work though.

~ Boli

Al doesn't tarnish much anyway.

As long as the inside of the finish is left alone, it shouldn't affect it.

I like Boli's idea of using a clear lacquer.

i just wondered whether you would risk the anodising decaying/detaching by exposing an edge (like you would if it was paint)... don't know much about anodising

You are thinking that the corrosion will occur because of the AIR.... this is not true. Admittedly an untreated (raw) piece of ALU will corrode in the air but the resulting Aluminium oxide that will coat the metal actually protects further corrosion... this is why ALU can appear dull.... you are not really seeing the ALU but the thin (VERY thin coat of Aluminium Oxide).

What the anodising does is protect the metal from the galvanic "battery effect" cause by dissimilar metals connected by a ion rich solution (Your water coolant)... the ALU - if bare will gradually disintegrate unless precautions are taken... thus the practice of adding additives to the water (or use of deionised water) also anodising any ALU block fittings.

The reason the WHOLE of the ALU block is anodised is most likely ease of production more than anything else where as realistically only the part of the ALU block in contact with the coolant need be anodised. (naturally with a "buffer-zone" ). Removing the anodised coating from one side of the block will not have an adverse effect on the block at all. So the thing is entirely safe... the clear lacquer is only to prevent the aforementioned ALU "rust" effect taking place and keeping the metal nice and shiny.

Of course if the anodising coating is scratched on the INSIDE (were it has contact with the coolant) your "paint effect" is true... there WILL be corrosion which will spread so you have to be careful NOT to scratch the inside.


~ Boli

*Boli thinks about investing in a spell checker... or at least a secretary with nice legs :D*

I'd hit that.

Just don't eat a packet of crisps before touching it.

Dunno about you, but I tend not to eat while fitting water cooling gear, though thought of some of the chemicals in use straying into my food is rather unsettling. :p

Obviously I have been a backseat viewer here for some time so firstly can I just say Hi to everyone on ProCooling and also say what a privilege it is to be amongst some of you guys!

I have just had a thread pointed out to me from Tyler Durden over here so thought a response was not so much in order but more of a "just to let you know" for anyone who plans or is thinking on doing something like this to there block.

I only polished the top and sides of the WW so the bottom - or should i say the part that comes in contact with water wasn't touches so nothing to say that the block shouldn't perform as was - only the aesthetics are changed [shiny]

Having said that i have reproduced and am running a few Lucite/poly tops using al and have to say haven't ran into any problems yet...................i'm sure you guys will say otherwise :)

Thats a Maze3 SHD al top, Z-Chip al top and Maze4 all polished and unprotected [bear metal]working well - with corrosion inhibitor Water Wetter here

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/alu_tops/all3.jpg

wow, they look sweet! i may have to do the same to my DD stuff :drool:

i have a lucite top z-chip atm, but i am going to modify it soon, and i think alu will be my material of choice. the blue anodising on my Maze4-GPU got scratched when it *FELL OFF!* my gfx card, i have since emailed DD about a possibled alternative method to mounting that particular block, especially on the nVidia GFFX cards with the 4 holes around the GPU. so when i get round to remounting it with my revised method i will strip and polish it.

again, they look really awesome. major props :D

Can i but in here hehe with some more of pauls handy work

http://images.lorquis.net/mdk/Setup_06.jpg

Polished SHD's :P

Also i like this little number too
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/d-tek/mdk_block.jpg

lol, nice!

And just for good measure.................


P4 flavour
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/..._SHD_shiny.jpg

Stop! Stop! This is just too much goodness! :D