Homemade Waterblock

[Overconfidence]

Okay, I though I'd post this somewhere since my waterblock design is almost done! Once I get some 1/16th endmills and a rounded-end 1/8th for the o-ring slot I can do the channels down the middle and finish it up, then hook it up with the rest of my ghetto watercooling and be done.

Not much else to say right now, except for that I've been making the block on a lathe and it's (pretty much) copying Cathar's Whitewater (I think). During the process I found out that copper is a biatch to machine (when adding fluid to the cut it wouldn't even cut). Next time I'd start it off with a boring bar then oversize it from there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/waterblock003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wb006.jpg

Hope to get it done within the next couple of weeks, when the mills come in. My dad made me a holder on the lathe so that we can grab a high speed (15k RPM) tool, then grab the tiny endmill within that, and cut the 7-8 channels (I forget exactly how many are in the design). Well, anyway, here's the design for reference.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wbb1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wbb2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/Overconfidence/wbb3.jpg


Thanks for reading, comments are welcome.

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

beautiful. Very nice. How does it perform?
congrats on building an awesome lookin block

[Disposibleteen]

Would you mind telling us what the total cost of production was for this block.

[n00b 0f l337]

And this is only the first, wait for our new block soon.

[Overconfidence]

I can't tell how it performs yet, 'cuz the channels and o-ring aren't done yet, which are, you know, kind of necessary =P.

The total cost for production would be approximately 5000$, if you include the lathe and all of the tooling XD.

Seriously though, it's probably... 60-70 bucks for the one block for the metal, fittings, screws/o-rings, tooling, etc.

However, that money bought me a foot of copper and a foot of brass (had leftover copper plate), so the 35-40 bucks of metal makes you three blocks. The tooling (endmills) were either borrowed from others, except for the 9-10 dollar 1/16th and 1/8th endmills which will last for quite a few blocks unless they break =).

I'm thinking about an average of 25 bucks for the first three, but that's a guesstimate. Not that cheap, but fun to do.

The rest of my watercooling setup is/was, however, free, except for the tubing and whatever pump/raddy box I plan on building. I posted a thread on that a while ago, but I'll wait 'til I have it all together before I talk about that again.

[Nubius]

that's so awesome....I'd love to be able to have the means to do something like that....buuuut then again even if I did have the tools I'm such an impatient bastard it'd probably turn out like crap in the end anyway :D

[idleuser]

dude are so awesome with the craftsmenship.. how about making a chipset for the nforce 4 for the dfi ;)

[Overconfidence]

I have to say though... my dad's helped me A LOT with the waterblock, since I'm only 14 years old (although I designed it all by myself =P). And I've still gotta put them channels in. *waits impatiently for endmills*

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

wow, you made that and you're only 14?! awesome. Your dad must rock to let you do these kinds of things, by the way. My parents thought I was nuts when I wanted to put water so close to my computer... they thought I'd get electricuted somehow ;)

[Overconfidence]

Like I said, less me and more him =P. He's a bit skeptical of it all, too, but since he used to work on cars he understands the whole cooling setup and whatnot. Plus he wants me doing something other than computers, and working on a lathe (although it's for a computer) isn't staring at a screen.

You should listen to your parents. I mean, come on, that box over there could jump out at you and ZAP you'd be dead. =)

[Tulatin]

[hmm last post seems to have become vapour on me]
block looks nice, but polish it up a bit more will you?

[Overconfidence]

Aye, if I can find some time I'll sand it down (don't want to take too much material off though) and then get those oxides off with flitz or whatever that polishing compound is.

[Tulatin]

Don't forget to clearcoat it or airbrush it after to keep it shining for ages to come.

[Nouseforaname]

That really is a beautiful block! It's made me really ashamed of the crappy, nocircular, off-centre holes i cut in my homemade radiator shroud. Doing stuff like that yourself is really cool. Be sure to let us all know how it does when you put it into use.

[teko]

It looks a little like the DD RBX?? But beautifull block, and nice finish ;)

[the_chad]

nice LRWW clone, can't wait to see the finished product.

[chinkgai]

what 3d program is that?

[FireDragon]

looks like an older Inventer to me but not sure...looks damn good for making most of it with a lath what mill did you use for the block itself was it CNC? as i made a block sorta like that by (had a lot more chanels of diff sizes and so on but loosly based on the ww
)

Dragon

[Overconfidence]

3D prog = AutoCAD.

I haven't done the channels in the bottom of the block yet; I plan to do them on the lathe with a high speed milling attachment, but I might borrow one of my dad's friend's CNC machine.

[chinkgai]

instead of long channels like that...wouldnt a buncha spikes work better? like in impingement blocks....

or does ur equipment not capable of doing that?