Need some ideas

[Juicy629]

I just got my 5150 ac unit today off ebay($20 ;) ) I took it apart and pulled the fan of the evap and turned it on...nice and frosty...waiting for the therm to come in the mail to get temps. Now im going for a waterchiller so im wondering what material do i use for my res to house the evap? I have alot of acrylic at disposal? I just have no clue how materials will react at those temps.. If i used acrylic what will i wanna use to make the joints? silicon? And then i have some questions about pumps. Ive read all the threads in this section and i got some ideas but why do you insulate the pump? To hold the coldest temps? Is their any pump that wont handle negative temps? Im going to go for the airtight MB cuz im using a clear acrylic case and i figure it would look cool if i just use some more acrylic to make it airtight. Im thinking since im going to have two hdd with water blocks in the loop the temps inside the airlock should be ok..lots of aluminum exposed to the air? But that raises the issue about my memory..now im going to be ocing(obviously) so the memory will get really hot at 2.9 volts so im just trying to think of the best option of keeping them cool. Thanks for the answers, those are all the questions i could think of at the moment.

[saaya]

first of: WELOCME TO XTREMESYSTEMS!!!! :D :YIPPIE:

hmmm to build a reservoir out of acryllic is ok i think... use epoxy to connect the parts, liquid acryllic, dont know how its called in english, sorry :P

and all magnetic pumps should have no problem with negative temps, just dont throw them into -20C liquid all the sudden or some plastic parts might crack ^^

[Juicy629]

Thanks for the greeting :D . Ya i went and did a little research and it says acrylic can handle -35C, ill just pray thats good enuf. Ya and i was wondering whether to use silicone or epoxy but it looks like you called that one for me. Thanks for the answers

[saaya]

well metal is always best... if you can find a metal box you can use go for it, just needs some insulation, thats all...

[Juicy629]

So this is pretty much what i got with my res so far

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/7182/DSC00972.jpg

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/31/DSC975.jpg

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/1682/DSC971.jpg

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/7691/DSC976.jpg

I bought a quater inch sheet of acrylic and cut it down, then i took a propane torch and heated up the spots i measured and used my g/fs table to get the 90 Degree angles. The silicone is curing right now.... i decided to go with silicone for the bottom because it can handle the temps really well, i epoxied the joint together...when i get home from work or prolly tommorow after my interview ima fill it up with anti freeze and give the acrylic a run for its money...I have a feeling im going to get really low temps cuz i checked my evap exposed after bout a hour of running and i was at -28.9C so i dunno..hope for the best?

[DocGolem]

Can you get some pictures/words to describe how you sealed around the pipes going to the evap? I'm in a similar dilemmia and can't get anything to seal around those pipes to save my life.

Great job!

[Juicy629]

Well since their isnt going to be any pressure i just made bare minimum space and guked on the silicone..and to with stand the pressure their might be im just using the silicone as a sorta base and ima put epoxy over it to make it an actual piece of the res...ill get a pic so you can see my gob job

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/4875/DSC978.jpg

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/6878/DSC00976.jpg

[jakesford]

not trying to be pesimistic but with the changes in temp, and the vibration from the compressor tranferred to the suction line you might have some trouble with that seal...you mentioned epoxy, I might be wrong about this so someone correct me if I am, but cant you take chunks of acrylic and desolve them in acetate or acetone and make liquid acrylic...? Tha might work better but I still have my doubts

[Juicy629]

silicone is a flexable base so im not to worried about it but the pressure might be to much so im going to go ahead and in a more understandable answer coat the silicone in acrylic..i also had a good idea from a friend, ima go ahead and coat the inside of the acrylic with a thin lining of neoprene.

[saaya]

hmmm

clean the cut parts of the acryllic to make sure theres no dust, fat from your hands or small acryllic dust on it!

i think using epoxy to seal it, possibly with small acryllic chunks if the hole is big, then add a layer of silicone over that from both sides, will make it absolutely watertight.

[saratoga]

How well does fairly fragile plastics like acrylic hold up under low temps? I'd be worried it would crack.

[DocGolem]

I cut a slit down one of those small 12 can coolers with the same unit as you, tried many ways of sealing it, but none of them worked out.

I tried: minimal expanding foam, silicone, silicone based caulk, fiberglass and a combination of almost all of them and none of them worked.

The closest to work was the silicone- it would hold for about 48 hours then it would become saturated and leak. I had the liquid chilled during that period too.

I wouldn't count on your silicone holding up under the temperatures and the vibrations of the compressor.

One last thing, the silicone that I used is the things that you use to seal the bottoms of bathtubs to the floor, so they may not be made for repelling water for long durations.

[Juicy629]

Well if that ends up happening ill use small peices of acrylic and epoxy it on...i dunno but ill let you know tommorow..i had to many leaks the original way i sealed it so i did what saaya said..figured it would work the best

[Juicy629]

This is where im at after some revisions..i should have the real thing goin by tommorow is testing and seals hold hold out. enjoi

i did a layer of epoxy to get the solid base then i went again with another thing of epoxy to reinforce it..then i followed up with silicone calking type stuff..i spent 8 bucks to get the highest grade..i pretty much gobed it on then let it dry overnight...filled with a little water...found leaks, sealed them, filled with lil more...found leaks...and now im about half full and i only got one leak that i dont even think was a leak just some water dripping but i gobed some more on just in case. After about 2 hours im going to fill it all the way and let it sit for a couple hours and see if thiers any leaks..after that im going to let it sit overnight to get a full cure. Heres the half way pics, nothing special.

http://img80.exs.cx/img80/4713/DSC00977.jpg

http://img80.exs.cx/img80/7/DSC00978.jpg

http://img80.exs.cx/img80/5976/DSC00979.jpg

http://img80.exs.cx/img80/584/DSC00980.jpg

[saaya]

docgolem, i think you used that whiteish silicone, right? that stuff is bad for sealing moving parts, heck, even bad for sealing not moving parts, its not very consitant! i used that stuff before and it just keeps peeling off after some weeks or months.

that clear stuff juicy used is a different type of silicone, much stronger and harder when its dried out. i think it will work well, but you should leak test that res for a week imo! just to be sure! and move the tubes a bit to make sure its not going to leak if you touch them accidently.

if you find some leaks its best to apply the silicon from inside the tank, not outside! looks better as well ;) :D

[Juicy629]

Well after trying to gobe it on with my bare hands, interesting? i just grabbed a plastic rod and sealed it from the inside... happy? and i was readin my bottle of antifreeze..is it best to go 100%..now i have no problem doing that but is it to thick pure?

[DocGolem]

Saaya you're right, it's kind of a whitish silicone. Thought silicone was silicon.

Juicy it depends on what your pump can handle. Put some of the antifreeze into a different container and have your pump pump it back into the container. If it doesn't have a tough time- you should be set. Just make sure to note that when it gets colder it will congeal a little bit if it isn't being moved around. So just make sure it's moving whenever you're doing your testing.

[Juicy629]

Ya im planning on going for total overkill...somthign round 700 Gph or so...ill just have to clamp everything =P Oh and i dunno if i said this or not but this will be cooling just about everything in my system cept my optical. Because the fact im cooling two hdd, nb, gpu, cpu im going to go ahead and airtight all those things using clear acrylic..this not only appeals to me cosmetically but also more practical then insulating my hdds.

[saaya]

NEVER CHILL YOUR HDDS! :eek:


dont! afaik they die from it!
and golem, there are many different silicon types :) the one juicy uses is the best imo, very strong and tough, but still fills all tiny holes and gaps when its fresh.

and 700gps is REALLY overkill, lol :D i think the pump adds more heat into the loop as it helps to keep the system cool because the flow is so high! lol

an iwaki 1000-1200L pump should be enough!

[i_jester]

Not all silicones are the same. Many use acetic acid to help cure (smells like vinegar) and acetic acid is very, very corrosive to many metals.

Also, silicone is not waterproof until it has cured all the way through, and that can take days if it is really thick.

Epoxies can tend to get quite brittle at very cold temps. I would suggest you contact a plastics shop and get some of the glue they use to bond acrylic, as it basically melts and welds the plastic together.

[Juicy629]

why do hdds die from cooling? Oh and i was using the acetic kind before...stuff stinks and give you a head ache if you dont have the window open =P...i moved onto the stuff im using now...smells better and seems to have better hold/flexibility...and it says its completely waterproof.

[Juicy629]

oh and epoxy can handle temps of around -60C...oh and to keep your res from having any vibrations dont attach it to the compressors base.

[Juicy629]

After leaks and such i decided to ax my previous idea and bend the tubs up so i can get a flatter seal on the bottom..i dont know what im going to use yet but this 2 ton epoxy is sounding nice..and im thinking of getting some actual acrylic cement...i figured its worth the extra time it takes to find the stuff so i dont have probs later..