Making new chiller from water cooler, need some advice

[wr0x2]

I picked up a supposedly broken water cooler (free!) and dismantled it. It has a nice tecumsa compressor charged with r134a. Unfortunatly, the evap is a series of copper pipe would around an aluminum container at the top. The water inside gets very cold and eventually freezes (I took out thermostat and left it running) but I'm sure my chiller would have MUCH improved cooling capacity if I were to serverate the evap from this container and submerge it. Trouble is, it looks like it's been brazed to the container in a couple spots. Would I be able to melt the brazing material off with my torch while the system is charged, or would this make it explode or something? I also need to braze on a new condensor because the stock one is about a meter tall and runs down what was the back of the cooler, so I'll probably end up having to get the system regassed anyway. I'll put some pictures of the system up in a little while.

[wr0x2]

All right, here are some pictures:

http://www.schiebl.com/images/frost1.jpg
Some frost building up on the evap!
http://www.schiebl.com/images/insides.jpg
Refrigeration equipment inside the cooler
http://www.schiebl.com/images/compressor.jpg
A closeup of the compressor.

Can anyone tell me how much HP that compressor is? In case the last pic was too blurry it says 115v @ 6A.

Also, I still don't know if its ok to melt the brazing stuff holding the evap on while the system is charged. If I can take off the evap, then I can submerge it in my own tank.

[wr0x2]

*bump* come on, can someone here please answer my questions?

[saratoga]

15 seconds on google reveals that its a 1/9th or 1/4th HP compressor. Since that looks pretty small, I'm guessing you have the 1/9HP model.