[Gooserider]

kbn|:
what do you mean by flare out?

Sort of an extension of what MMZ was talking about with putting a taper on the inside of the tube. I use a tapered reamer or a tapered punch driven into the end of the tube so that the end is stretched a little, and the OD of the end is slightly greater than the OD of the rest of the tube. I am not talking about a huge amount, just a few thousandths, or enough that you can just feel the difference. It acts like a mini-barb of sorts to hold the tube on, and if you use a clamp, any effort by the tube to slide off will jam the plastic tube in between the clamp and the flare locking it in place.

Any thoughts of how I could make a splitter so I could use 6.3mm OD copper tube with 1/2" the rest of the system? I was thinking a 6.3mm hole in a 1/2" copper ppipe witht the 6.3 soldered in, tellme if its a good idea...

That would work but would be a bit fragile. I would be more inclined to get a "T" or "Y" fitting and the appropriate reducers if needed. If you go to an actual plumbing supply house (instead of the local hardware store) you would probably be able to get an appropriate fitting ready made.

Also need to find somewhere selling 6.3mm flexable tubing like tygon...

In the US try McMaster-Carr, or MSC Industrial supply (mscdirect.com) for Tygon in retail quantities, look for formulation R-3603 (there are several types, that number is the one you want)

Any one know if 6.3mm = 1/4" exactly? my vernier says yes, nm

My conversion chart says it is the same for measurments, I'm not sure on the tube sizes since the actual and nominal sizes might differ. I suspect they'd be close enough to interchange in any case.

the 1/4" tube might be usefull for ram cooling...?

It might be if one wanted to spend the effort on doing it. IMHO cooling RAM is something that should be WAY down on the list of priorities for things to cool.

Back to hdd cooling, Would it be better to flatten one side of the pipe for better contact witht he flat peice and a stronger solder joint? My dad suggested annealing the pipe first, then filling it up with either sand or something square and squasing it in a vice... I wont do it yet incase someone can think of an easyer/better way (I dont have any sand...)

In theory it might help, but in practice a hard drive puts out very little heat, and is very effectively cooled by almost any sort of cooler. Keep in mind that a very important part of engineering design is the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle, or don't make things more complicated than they need to be in order to do the job. Your father's proposed approach might work, but would add a bunch of extra work for a temp improvement I doubt you'd be able to measure and that certainly wouldn't help your system any. It would add the extra headache of trying to keep the flat uniform across the entire plate (to avoid gaps which would cause problems as noted in an earlier post) and impose an added flow restriction. IMNSHO it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

What about brass channel. Solder a sheet of copper for the side touching the hdd. Using 1" channel is 0.28p/cm (www.metalsontheweb.co.uk). Only problem is attaching fittings to it, youd need a 1" square of copper to seal the end and put the barb anywere and solder.. makes it ahrder to solder though

See comments above, same logic applies! Keep it simple, avoid the hassles. As an added downside, I'm not sure you would have enough room in a 5.25" cage for such a build, it might be to wide.

Gooserider