Araldite 2022

[Marci]

Just a quickie for anyone who's come across Araldite 2022 and used it for bonding any acrylic to any metal... how did you find it? Was your seal watertight? Any adverse affects to the bond caused by additives?

We're looking to use for bonding anodised aluminium to acrylic at the moment and just wondering if anyone has any tips... (tis for a reservoir)

[BillA]

be very prudent, lots going on there
(I used to work for Ciba Geigy btw)

[Marci]

Hmmm.... out of a batch of 10 reservoirs, where 2022 has been used to bond acrylic to anodised aluminium, one leaked but only when pressure applied via pump (Dual CSP750 - they were to hand) in a closed loop scenario. Assuming bad application of 2022 on that res.

Rigidty etc... can throw these as hard as you like against the nearest brick wall and the endcaps will NOT detach from the acrylic. Just dents the endcaps.

Currently knocking up a pressure-testing setup... any recommendations on a PSI to test up to? Have various old vacpumps and compressors here...

[BillA]

temperature cycling is the only 'problem', and it is long term; difficult to test

[Marci]

Much testing later and we're convinced these are leak proof when used under regular PC Watercooling Conditions. Will be looking into getting next batch's endcaps fab'd from Delrin instead of Black Anodised Aluminium, but the endcaps were made several years ago and the project never completed til now, so we already had em in fairly large quantities, too many to simply abandon and go with Delrin...






Interlocking mounting brackets, allows 2 or more to be locked together side by side...



and optional wide cell foam insert if you end up with air bubbles getting sucked straight thru during bleeding....

[bigben2k]

I'd like to see cycling pressure tests from 0 to 25 psi.

A simple burst test would let you know if you even need to bother doing the above.

No advice on longevity, follow Bill.

[BillA]

ridiculous pressure
use 3x for QC, 5x for destructive proof-of-design

[bigben2k]

I was going with 6x, but thanks for the tip.

[BillA]

only because the operating pressure is so low,
3x is generally sufficient for proof-of-design

[Delirious]

Are you planning on selling the ones with the delrin caps anytime soon? I would be interested in buying one.

[BillA]

Marci is gonna love you

[dsptech]

I want one with the delrin caps too.
I bought a coolplex with the alu caps for my first water cooling experience.
Within days I had stalactites growing.
I prefer to use a res but dislike the looks of almost everything else out there.
These look sweat!
Currently using a leaky bay res from VoyeurMods.

[Marci]

Delrin caps won't be available for quite sometime until we exhaust the current stocks of anodised aluminium endcaps, of which we have several hundred, possibly 1000+ (haven't counted, but there are several dusty boxes lurking!)... anticipate 6 to 10 months before production would be considered using Delrin, and we'd have to outsource the cap production (probably to DangerDen) to get them made...

Regards proof-of-design, a selection of the res's have been hurled at brick walls, attacked with large spanners and much more (hammers etc) to try and break the endcaps off the acrylic tube. No attempts were succesful. The only time we managed to break one was by hitting the acrylic tube itself directly onto the corner of the brickwork. After all attempts, all reservoirs still remained leak-proof. We had 2 from the very first batch we made which leaked under pressure so reviewed the adhesive and application, made a few changes and problem resolved... Filled with boiling water and airtight sealed, no issues. Immediately empty and fill with cold water, no issues. Rinse and repeat over and over... still no issues... testing & QC will be ongoing thruout the products' lifespan either way to assess any other required changes to design in the future...

[BillA]

seems like its a bit overbuilt, no ?
j/k
but an interesting question is how much material could be removed and still retain the required functionality ?
- this question is not how I prefer to 'think' (stronger, etc. is better), but reflects economic reality
(consumers - generally - talk quality, but buy on price)

[Marci]

Indeed... something to be investigated on the move over to Delrin in time... the aluminium caps are what they are... we have stocks so can't change something that already exists, but definitely look to reducing bulk (?) of em when the time comes... as to what effect that would have on cost, without further research into the Delrin option I wouldn't care to guess.

At the mo you've simply got tube, 2 endcaps, bond together... so there's only so much slimming down one could do. Thinner walled acrylic tube is certainly do-able... but again, when we've run out of current stock... and that would bring with it the marginal advantage of a larger volume of water as OD of tube would remain constant whilst ID would increase preferably... In meantime simple approach is to offer them in increasingly smaller sizes... less acrylic, less cost.... altho the differences between a 6" length of tube and a 2" length of tube are ridiculously small. Bulk of the cost is in the endcaps.

There are cheaper mounting clamps we could use, bog standard sprung metal jobs rather than the plastic ones, but they have a tendency to scratch the acrylic unless stickybacked neoprene applied. And tbh I prefer the chunky visuals of the plastic ones along with the interlocking functionality and the fact that they have a clip to hold the tube in, whereas the sprung metal ones rely on the sprung metal alone... so if taking to a LAN fairly easy to knock on the car etc and off comes your res...

Rigidity and durability were initial prime concerns due to obvious mounting preference being external... and also so that this res would appeal to the LANners that we work with frequently thru TFF (thefragfactory.co.uk) who are still of the beleif that water and a LAN rig simply don't co-exist... and this res appealing more to those who want looks than functionality, altho I believe we covered both scenarios reasonably well. Other key improvement I'd like to see on the next revision would be to move away from 3/8" BSP fittings, and up to something larger to support the use of fittings with a larger ID...

[Delirious]

Do you have a price in mind for the aluminum capped ones?

[Marci]

See http://www.thermochill.com/thermotube.php

Priced to fall alongside (slightly cheaper than) the main stylistic rival, the Innovatek Tank-O-Matic... as the Tank-O-Matic uses 1/4" BSP inlet and outlet forced thru 90 degree angles to enter and exit the res we felt one designed more for 1/2" users was required with straight inlet and outlet and larger bore insert.

Export prices to outside of Europe won't be particularly great... economy isn't designed for UK to sell to US... so would work out stupidly expensive same as the ThermoChill rads... nothing we can do about the exchange rates I'm afraid other than contract a US Factory to fabricate for us to handle US Sales... however sales rates aren't high enough to justify I feel... but that's due to the price.... round n round we go dancing the dance down the double edged sword... Basically, if it's manufactured in UK, it works out unrealistically expensive to sell it stateside or outside EU.