Homebrew Waterblocks (pics)

[MeltMan]

I'm new to watercooling, inspired by BladeRunner. I decided that it would be best to make my own block (for $$ purposes). Heres some pics, from start to end.

This was the silvered copper block drug home by my dad prior to cutting.

After rough cutting.

After tediously grinding the edges flat with a bench grinder.

The rough outline of what i wanted milled, the machineist wanted to charge me $30 to do the 2 "mickey mouse" ears at the top.

After milling, no mickey mouse ears, too much money.

heres the block next to its new top plate.

Heres where it is now, tonight, sunday. Waiting to be polished.

Tell me what you think.

[MeltMan]

Oh yeah, the silver at on the machined block is solder, i originally intended to bolt down a plexiglass plate to the top, but it wouldnt fly, so... i patched the holes. heh

peace out

[Amy]

Meltman
Nice work, and great photo's
Keep Joe and the Forum posted on your results.

Cheers Amy -

[BladeRunner]

Super! and it looks as good as bought one, but with the satisfaction you made it What did you use to mill it out with? must have got seriously hot

[Darkhorse]

Nice job!!!

I wish I had the skills for that sort of work.

[vfrjim]

Real nice, have you tested the flow through it? I assume that you used 1/2"(or larger) fittings?

Jim

[MeltMan]

Bladerunner, i had a machineist do the circle, it cost $10 total so far, well, add in $100 for a drill press, but I've been needing that for more creations. The fittings are 3/8. Maybe i should drill them to 1/2. I have no way to test flow as i still need to buy a pump, hose, and a radiator. Also mounting will be similar to BladeRunner's GF3 GPU, except the holes will be to the sides for an athlon. I hope this darn thing gets my temps below 48c. Im tired of that crap. Future ideas, I have tons of the thickness of the top plate, i was thinking of making a 3 layer design consisting of 2 solid plates and one with the room for waterflow. What do you think? or will the solder between layers affect temps too much... I wouldnt think it would hurt it too bad since the ThermalRight SK-6's fins are soldered and it is one of the top performing copper HSF's around.. Tell me what you think. My drill press is calling...

Peace In

[vfrjim]

If I had the skill like yours, definitely 1/2" or bigger(personally for me 3/4 ) My whole rad system and pump are 3/4" you could build it higher to add more water, couldn't hurt, probably increase water flow rate.

Jim

[Highvoltagepc]

Great job man!keep us posted on the temp's too!

[BladeRunner]

Yeah I just wondered if you watched it being done, that's a big area of copper to remove in one go, probably had cooling fluid running over it all the time. Must be so nice to have the right equipment

I suppose it depends on your complete system but as my coolant is cooled to the same temp all the time 14°C I have tried slowing the flow to a trickle, and only then does it make a difference to max temps. I just don't think huge flow rates will make a difference. what you need to do is test it out as it would be pointless to fit bigger barbs for no reason.

If you intend to use a air cooled rad and a smallish coolant content then having to greater flow rate could allow the coolant to pass through the rad without time for losing it's heat and then you could get a heat cycle.

Best to do a simple test. Get it up and running and take some accurate max temps cross referenced with case temp and ambient, then just crush the inlet tube a bit to reduce the flow. If you get no change in max temps your flow rate is adequate and increasing could make it cool worse.

Not sure what you mean by your soldered plates. My personal opinion is you want the water or coolant touching the core for best cooling, this is not really a viable option, so the next best thing, (other than silver), is the thinnest possible copper separating the water form the core, which is why I milled the base of my waterblock so it was less than 1mm thick. that gave 5°C to 6°C lower max temps, (it was 4.6mm thick). I have an old CPU here, (gig T-Bird), and I'll be trying out running the water actually on the core soon to see if it helps.

[MeltMan]

AH, that was something i totally understood wrong. Thinner is better? that changes my new design plans a lot. Im headed towards napa right now, its heatercore time. After that it will be off to pestmart.com to get a pump

Heres some crappy text trying to describe my other plan...

--- top plate
~~~ solder
=== middle milled passageway plate
~~~ solder
--- bottom plate

so the top and bottom are identical and the middle plate is milled, or drilled or whatever to allow the water to pass through

sorry, its hard to be descriptive.. ill try a better pic later

[BladeRunner]

No... NOT necessarily... Thinner might be all that's required, and larger COULD be worse. All I'm saying is prove you need larger barbs rather than going with this bigger must be better idiom just for the sake of it.

I can't see you improving on your current block with what your showing (If I understand it correctly). Like I said the thickness of the base matters from my findings, which is why I'm not happy with the swiftech block in particular. How thick was your base?

[MeltMan]

The base was ~2mm thick, i guess its not bad at all. I was working on the feet tonight, it should look sweet. After im done with the feet it will be polished to hell and then engraved with the word "DOOMSDAY" on the side. Afterall, it is doomsday, the homebrew waterblock. So, let me get this straight, thinner is better to a point, and bigger barbs may not make a difference. I think I've got it. As far as the other design, it was to play with basically. I dont want to pay our local Elmer Fudd (honestly, he looks like him and talks like him too) machineist to cut circles for $10 a pop. I think i can do swirl patterns similar to dangerden's very carefully with a drill press if you understand my idea. I dont know, if i take on a new project ill be sure to document and post pics.

Peace In

[BladeRunner]

2mm is pretty good, Mine is a bit too thin and I was concerend it might crack and leak so I checked it a few times, Seems fine atm.

Not sure you are totally with me on the barbs so I'll try to explain it different. I'm only talking about the block here and as you already have some barbs in it you might as well test it as it is.

Thinner won't definately be better, thicker won't definately be worse. It could depend on many factors of a given system, but my advice is to put together as it is and see what your max CPU temp is for a week or so, (log the results). Then test it with a restriction in the flow, (only slight), If the temps remain exactly the same then your flow is sufficient and fitting bigger barbs will either be a waste of time, or COULD make it perform worse.

[Kevin]

It looks really nice!

[Dix Dogfight]

Real nice MeltMan
I wish i had those tools/skills