Go Back   Pro/Forums > ProCooling Technical Discussions > General Liquid/Water Cooling Discussion > Water Block Design / Construction
Password
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Chat

Water Block Design / Construction Building your own block? Need info on designing one? Heres where to do it

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 04-09-2004, 02:20 PM   #176
opus13
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: colorado
Posts: 9
Default

considering the weight of such a waterblock, do you plan to have more support (a kickstand?) than what the slot and mounting bracket will supply?

it seems like the block would put an undue amount of stress on the card. the pcb itself would survive.. but i would all of the traces?
opus13 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-10-2004, 03:18 AM   #177
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433
Default

opus13,

BladeRunner has already talked on this subject and has had no problems with a similar solution.

The card should NOT need a "kickstand" as I will not be lugging it around to LAN parties.
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-10-2004, 09:49 PM   #178
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Well, here we are again with another update ...

I finished the main milling on the front block and have pictures of the two assembled. Really looks like a unit now.

Front 3/4 view...



Rear 3/4 view...



Edge view...



Then I milled the inlet and outlet and cut and machined the copper tube to go into them. Then I fired up the "Blow Lamp" Here are the results...

Front 3/4 view...



Rear 3/4 view...



Unit disassembled to show the O-Ring seal and the relief for the outlet tube as well as it's custom solder joint.



That's it... now it's just solder trimming and final leak testing... then it's off to polishing and laquering.
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-11-2004, 03:51 AM   #179
iakovl
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: israel
Posts: 57
Default


sweeeet block
iakovl is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-11-2004, 05:50 AM   #180
Pears0
Cooling Neophyte
 
Pears0's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Birmingham, england
Posts: 61
Default

DREWL! Now thats looking the part. Only needs some spit n polish and its somthin een blade runner would b proud of!
__________________
England rule @ rugby. Lookin to build custom water coolin rig in next few months with compleat new hardware!
Pears0 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-12-2004, 11:42 PM   #181
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Well, I got the base polishing job done ... here are the results...

Front 3/4 view...



Rear 3/4 view...



Look... I can see my pliers in the reflection!!!



I'll finish up polishing after I leak test it tomorrow... Cheers!!!
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 03:14 AM   #182
iakovl
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: israel
Posts: 57
Default

I want that block
So sexy so fine looking, dame MMZ .
U know how to make Blocks
iakovl is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 10:03 AM   #183
nicozeg
Cooling Savant
 
nicozeg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Santiago, Chile
Posts: 403
Default

This is soooooo nicely done!

I have enjoyed every new update in this thread, the only sad thing is that it's almost at the end.

Don't you have any more blocks to do to keep us entretained?
nicozeg is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 11:00 AM   #184
pHaestus
Big Player
Making Big Money
 
pHaestus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: irc.lostgeek.com #procooling.com
Posts: 4,782
Default

MMZ_Timelord:

Would it be possible to get you to write this massive project up for the main site? Since I have the ability to post articles now I can actually get it up there for wider viewing. Great work!
__________________
Getting paid like a biker with the best crank...
-MF DOOM
pHaestus is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 11:53 AM   #185
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433
Default

pHaestus,

Sure, I suppose I could... hmm... I still have all the pictures in their original higher resolution too.

When the system is done I'll put something together and trim it down a hair. Just let me know where to send it... to you I presume? :shrug:
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 12:11 PM   #186
TerraMex
Cooling Savant
 
TerraMex's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Portugal, Europe
Posts: 870
Default

Great work there.
Blade has some serious competition now.

Althou you're not planning to build a kickstand, can you give us (me) a resonable weight number, with water in the block? just curious.
__________________
"we need more cowbell."
TerraMex is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-13-2004, 12:25 PM   #187
pHaestus
Big Player
Making Big Money
 
pHaestus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: irc.lostgeek.com #procooling.com
Posts: 4,782
Default

yup to me. phaestus@procooling.com
__________________
Getting paid like a biker with the best crank...
-MF DOOM
pHaestus is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-14-2004, 02:01 AM   #188
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433
Default

Not much of an update today... no pictures. I found one pinhole leak on one of the screw holes on the front block. I will heat, flow a small amount of solder and re-finish that spot tomorrow.

The rest of the time today was spent wet sanding the faces of the front and back blocks. Some scratches and other "boo-boos" needed to be cleaned up.

Hopefully I will finish the polishing job tomorrow and get the clear coat shot on it.

I plan on polishing up the main block in the power supply too... and the Hard Drive cage.

I will try and get pictures of the case with the components test fitted tomorrow.

Cheers!
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-14-2004, 10:18 AM   #189
starbuck3733t
Cooling Savant
 
starbuck3733t's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: State College, PA
Posts: 338
Default

I'm not sure how I missed this thread before, but WOW. MMZ_Timelord, you da man. I wish i could take the time out and fly down there and pay you for a week of your time to educate me in the practices of milling!
__________________
Goliath: 3.4E@3.91/Abit IC7, Maze4 (temporarily) + custom splitter to crazy 4-way watercooling parallel loop: X800XT @ 520/1280 + AC Twinplex, AC Twinplex Northbridge, Silenstar Dual HDD Cooler, Eheim1250, '85 econoline van HC + 2x120, 1x120 exhaust - polished aluminum frame panaflo L1As, 2x18GB 10K RPM U160 SCSI, 4GB PC4000.

I wanna be BladeRunner when I grow up!

Project Goliath - nearing completion.
starbuck3733t is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-14-2004, 10:50 AM   #190
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

starbuck3733t,

I'll let you in on a little secret... 90% of my work is designing it ahead of time.
(Even HOW I'm going to machine it) If I didn't lay it out first... I'd bugger it up for sure.

As to my milling practices... I've been working with power tools since I was 6 years old. (Nearly 29 years now) So, I've gotten a lot of this down by feel.

After a certain amount of experience, you begin to learn when the machine is taking too much material, or not enough. I am still learning on the mill... once in a while, even with proper application of oil, I get a bit that starts to "chatter" on me... and I have to back off.

If all you have is a hand tools and/or drill press, you can still do some amazing things. Plan it out, figure out what you can and can't do and work around it.

In theory I could have made the video block solution out of multiple sheets of copper clamped together in the oven (with metal C-clamps and steel plate pieces) and a simple drill press. It would have been more work, but could have been done.

End mills can be used in a drill press, just don't expect the same accuracy. And you have to use different techniques (Plunge Roughing instead of milling a channel normally for instance).

Never underestimate what you can do. If it seems impossible... ask here. There is a wealth of information at your fingertips and people willing to share their knowledge with you. AND ... there are always multiple ways to achive the same resulting design. (Just look at what BladeRunner did with hand tools for that hard drive cooler on his site )
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"

Last edited by MMZ_TimeLord; 04-14-2004 at 11:00 AM.
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-15-2004, 02:19 AM   #191
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Alrighty then!!!

I've gotten the Video Card solution and the Power Supply solution completed... aside from installation in the case.

Here is the assembly of the finished Video Card solution...

Mica shim for the back side of the GPU area...



Then we apply a small blob of Arctic Silver II to the RAM (I don't have newer stuff... ) ...



Then we set the card on the rear block half and apply small blobs of Arctic Silver II to the RAM and GPU...



Then make sure our O-Ring is in place, set the front block half in place and snug down all the cap screws...



That's it for tonight... I did complete one more leak test of all three Solutions together and the Hard Drive cage appears to have a small leak around one of the screw holes. I'll heat up that spot tomorrow and fix it. Then I'll polish the Hard Drive cage and it will be completed. YAY!

Cheers!
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-16-2004, 04:30 AM   #192
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Well, not so much done today... Got most of the components in the box for test fitting and hose routing...

Laying out the hose... measureing and cutting a little long...



Then we start trimming hose back... and putting it on each copper tube... (DAMN hard to do too!!! as each tube is 1/2" Outer Diameter and so is the vinyl tubing! )



Then it was off to the water lab ( Kitchen ) for some flow testing and triple check for leaks. (one REALLY slow pinhole in the drive cage... gotta torch that tomorrow)



The flow through the Power Supply/Video Card/Hard Drive Cage is just over a trickle as the CPU block is not very restrictive. I may put a small valve in the line to adjust the balance of the system... we will see.

Also need a LOT easier way to fill, drain and bleed the system. I'll think more on that tomorrow... I need sleep. G'night all...
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-16-2004, 05:54 AM   #193
Fillip
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: in a house?! :-s
Posts: 1
Default

First of all, excellent work there. It's of great interest to me as i'll be attempting some custom made blocks in the summer hopefully.

Couple of questions.

1) the mica shim you used on the back of the GPU - where did you get it? did it come as a larger sheet? i've never been able to find any myself.

2) you mentioned using an end mill drill piece for a pillar drill, while i obviously appreciate a pillar drill is not designed for side cutting, have you ever tried this method yourself, i.e. using a pillar drill with milling piece? i dont have access to any milling equipment so all my blocks wil have to be made by hand, dremel and pillar drill.

cheers.
Fillip is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-16-2004, 07:23 AM   #194
#Rotor
Cooling Savant
 
#Rotor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Dione, sector 4s1256
Posts: 852
Default

Hey Bladerunner...... strong, running the force.... from within this one ...I sense
__________________
There is no Spoon....
#Rotor is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-16-2004, 12:56 PM   #195
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Fillip,

I have not tried side cutting lately... did a long time ago on a fairly stout "pillar drill" (Drill Press for those in the states ). I found that "Plunge Roughing" as I was told it was called works a lot better on a "pillar drill".

You may get "chatter" from an endmill if you are trying to plunge too far. Also, I've found that even on my mill if you are plunging an endmill, it's best to pre drill it most of the way so there is no stress on the endmill's center cutting area. (Not to mention that some endmills are non-center cutting and I have a few )

#Rotor,

Thanks mate!!!

I have to blame you for the high restriction in the video card block...

Anyhoo... I've taken the day off and the wife and I are going out soon... hopefully I will get more cable routing and that Drive Cage leak fixed today. (It's really small and slow, but I want it fixed just the same )

Cheers!

Edit: Fillip, I forgot to answer your question about the mica shim... I got it off a larger sheet. It was one of two shims that were 1.5 x 2 inches in size and were part of a Celeron, Slot 1 processor heat sink sandwich.

i.e. - Fans - Heat Sink - Shim - Slot 1 CPU - Shim - Heat Sink - Fans

This was one of my first attempts to cool a Celeron 300 that was overclocked to 450Mhz.
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"

Last edited by MMZ_TimeLord; 04-16-2004 at 01:06 PM.
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-17-2004, 02:52 AM   #196
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

I spent most of the day with my sweetheart (wife ) and so didn't get a whole lot done...

I DID however get my data cables for the drives shortened and custom shaped...



That's it for now... tomorrow I'm going to start shortening the power supply cables and put nice covers on them.

L8R!
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-17-2004, 03:26 AM   #197
buzzby
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: at home
Posts: 35
Default

Hi

How have you shortened the IDE cables? and can you tell us your going to shorten the PSU cables as well.

Also is that a 5 disk RAID array + why do you need 5 drives i thought i was pushing it with the 4 i have?

Buzz
buzzby is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-17-2004, 11:14 AM   #198
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

buzzby,

I shortened the drive cables by CAREFULLY taking the connectors off and moving them closer to the motherboard side connector. I left the motherboard side connector in place. If you do this you will need a small vise or "grip type clamp" to compress the connector pieces over the data cable properly.

Only one of the cables have "holes" still in it from the original middle connector, and that is on the DVD-ROM and DVD+RW drives. If it does not work, I will go buy some 80 conductor data cable and remake it.

The RAID array is now in a 0+1 arrangement. Only four drives on the yellow cables on the green connectors of the motherboard. The fifth drive at the top is spare storage and is in the second regular EIDE channel (white connector port on the motherboard)

I will be measuring, shortening/customizing the power supply connectors as well. I have the ATX power supply that got blown and so I can use the wires from it and the wires from this one for drive cables. The motherboard main and 12V connector cables are WAY too long and will simply be shortened.
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-18-2004, 04:58 AM   #199
MMZ_TimeLord
Cooling Savant
 
MMZ_TimeLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth
Posts: 433

Another update...

Power Supply Cable customizing 101...

First... MEASURE... Second... MEASURE AGAIN!

On the power supply itself, I marked and desoldered all the power cable connections...



I found that my new (new for me, purchased from a friend) video card has a floppy drive power hookup on it (Ati All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro). So I figure to give it the most stable output, I'm would make a dedicated cable just for that. So that was the first project on the agenda.

First I disassembled a regular molex connector and a floppy drive power connector...



Next I snipped off the ends of each of the cables as I'm going to use the wires from the single long molex cable for the FDD connector...



Here it is with the FDD pins soldered to the regular molex wires and assembled...



Here is the "Expandable Sleeving" (I picked up at Fry's Electronics) added to the cable and melted closed at the tip...



On the ATX power connector cable, which already had some "Expandable Sleeving" installed along with a band of heat shrink tubing to hold it...



I cut off the heat shrink tubing...



Then I used the tip of my soldering iron and some needle nose pliers to create a rounded end...



Next I put "Expandable Sleeving" on the 12V cable...



And here are all the cables including the cable for my DVD-ROM, DVD+RW and Floppy Drive...



Hope to get the RAID drive and secondary storage hard drive power cables done tomorrow... then I can solder them to the circuit board.

Cheers!
__________________
MMZ>TimeLord

"Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"
MMZ_TimeLord is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04-18-2004, 10:28 PM   #200
Gooserider
Cooling Savant
 
Gooserider's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: North Billerica, MA, USA
Posts: 451
Default

Looks wonderful, but I *DON'T* like the technique you used for the floppy pins! IMNSHO as a test engineer (and almost NASA sattelite certified solder tech) that is a very problematic approach best defined as a 'failure waiting to happen...' I would never let something like that be done on a box that I owned.

The best technique would have been to get the right pins and crimp them on with the right tool, which probably wouldn't have been very practical. The next best thing. and what I would have done, is to cut the pins off with the wire and done a splice in the wire back away from the connector using solder & shrink tube. If you staggered the splices a bit, it would be about the same thickness as the original wire and would be nicely hidden under the braided sleeve. Remember the key dictate of solder connections, that a good mechanical connection is a prerequesite to a good electrical connection. Your approach doesn't give the good electrical connection.

Sorry to be so critical, but this looks like one of the few flaws in an otherwise wonderfully planned and executed project. Otherwise it's a really nice example of 'How to' that many here can benefit from.

Gooserider
__________________
Designing system, will have Tyan S2468UGN Dual Athlon MOBO, SCSI HDDS, other goodies. Will run LINUX only. Want to have silent running, minimal fans, and water cooled. Probably not OC'c
Gooserider is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:17 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
(C) 2005 ProCooling.com
If we in some way offend you, insult you or your people, screw your mom, beat up your dad, or poop on your porch... we're sorry... we were probably really drunk...
Oh and dont steal our content bitches! Don't give us a reason to pee in your open car window this summer...