Cheap loadtester materials

[teyber]

here is mine so far:

still awaiting variac, need to add grounding plug and thermal fuse. Also might buff the finish(its flat already though...) and re-do insulation.

Thanks so much jin! great guide!
p.s. rockdude:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant...253&top_cat=87
go to bottum and type in 2" for length... should be 13/14$


Regards

[[XC] 2long4u]

If anyone has any problem getting copper there is a local place that has it. I could send some out for you. (not trying to sell anything or make money, just offering).

[rockdude14]

just ordered from teyber's link

thanks for the offer and thanks for the link

[Duzter]

Does anyone know where I can buy that cartridge heater other than from mcmaster.com? The problem is that they won't ship to Denmark..

Cartridge Heater 3/8" - 1½" - 250W

[[XC] 2long4u]

Grainger sells them but they don't carry as big of a selection.

[Duzter]

Grainger sells them but they don't carry as big of a selection.

What is Grainger?

[[XC] 2long4u]

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml
They have everything from water pumps to industrial heaters to explosion proof fans.

[wdrzal]

Don't know about Denmark but this company has distributers through out Europe. Look on their home page where it says "locate a rep" on top. Chomalox is a manufacturer of these heaters so you may bypass a few middle men mark-ups.

http://www.chromalox.com/productcata...ls.aspx?m=3253

http://www.chromalox.com/

[Duzter]

Don't know about Denmark but this company has distributers through out Europe. Look on their home page where it says "locate a rep" on top. Chomalox is a manufacturer of these heaters so you may bypass a few middle men mark-ups.

http://www.chromalox.com/productcata...ls.aspx?m=3253

http://www.chromalox.com/

Thanks alot m8, just the right link. I have now ordered a cartridge heater from chromalox, so let's see if they are willing to ship to Denmark.

[runmc]

I decided it was time to make myself a new load tester I made my buddy Buckeye one too. This is Bill's. He got the pretty one.

1. 2X 200 watt heater cartridges
2. thermostat to keep me from toasting my load tester for the 1000 time

[Buckeye]

Nice Ron, you da man !!

Thats coming attached to a Cascade right ?

[Planet]

Nice Ron, you da man !!

Thats coming attached to a Cascade right ?

Cascade is for me Bill!

[Buckeye]

Cascade is for me Bill!

You will shoot your eye out kid !

[teyber]

that must have taken you like a long hour to mount that thermal fuse so nice!

[runmc]

that must have taken you like a long hour to mount that thermal fuse so nice!

I went very slowly and used alot of oil as I drilled. I did not want to break any bits. I made mine first and did break a bit. I went very slow with the screws too.
BTW Reed - I like the "sniffer" I found a problem spot I bet no one ever looks.

[Buckeye]

I started this project sometime ago, but as things go life got in the way and delayed things a bit.

Finially I had a need to get this working for a up and coming project so I decided I would finish this today and see how the Jinu SS Phase held up.

This is the tester I decided to build.
Scroll down to post #32 when Jinu starts his project
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=99979&page=2

I used two 200watt heaters for mine so its a little different than what Jinu made there.
Also I have added overload protection to keep it from burning up incase I ever forget that its on and shut off the Phase unit.

Ron and I built ours at the same time. He drilled the copper blocks for me and provided much needed extra expert knowledge
So mine also looks just like this one.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...5&postcount=85

Now I was a little surprised at the results I saw. I believe I was told back then it was tuned for 280watts at some temp I can't remember at this time. All the time I ran this unit for 24/7 use all I could say was it held a QX9770 @ 4.8ghz. I never had a tester to actually test the load.
This unit was not built to be a benching unit, but rather a 24/7 cooler so its design is rather small for a benching unit, but designed to fit inside a TJ07 case which limits it some what. Thats ok tho as it works very well for 24/7 use.

Clearly 270watts is putting a little strain on the unit. I am going to have to see what I can do to beef this puppy up a little.



This will get insulated after I am sure its all running right.

[sdumper]

Nice work!!

[Buckeye]

Thanks Scott

Nothing major here for you guys but was a nice project for me.

So going to have to pull out my gauges and equipment and see what the tune is like for this. I am sure it could be better.

This what he said he built back then in his build logs, or what he did post of it. This is clealy not what he made, or modded it after wards as mine has a nice accumulator in there, but his pic here do not show it.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=472

He states in there that its tuned for 230watts which seems a tad low as I remember him saying 280watts. I will have to recheck to see what its running temp wise at 230watts.

This is what he posted

0-20w -50c evap
200w -41c evap
230w -38c evap

Compressor is a Aspera NEK2134GK, says R404A but I think he used R507. No way to be sure really so prolly not a good idea to try and re-tune it with R507 which I have here, at least adding some that is.

Oh well might just leave it as it is. Prolly worth starting a new theard if I do so not to get off track in this one.

Found the pic of when I first recieved the unit and fired it up with no load

[LittleDevil]

Unbraided suction line is really weak, I repair alot of Mach units with the same problem ---> leak on suction line.

If I remember, he was using R507 gas ann 0.031 captube.

Kind Regards

[Buckeye]

Prolly right LD, this unit has seen lots and lots of use.
Thats what I thought, R507 wihich is good as I have a tank on that here.

Here it is now after 15 minutes running unloaded

And actually it drops to -46c after a longer period

[sdumper]

I doubt its a leak...where is the temp probe mounted on your load tester and where was it mounted when he was load testing.
If your taking a reading off the load tester and he was taking the reading off the evap or the suction neck then that would be a big delta.

I relly like your load tester setup and you Variac control in particular.

[LittleDevil]

Is suction line frozen near compressor when unit is idle and -46c on evap?

[Buckeye]

Temp probe is mounted on the Evap in both readings. I prefer Evap readings vs what the block says. So its att the same spot on all readings.

That Harbor Freight thingy was cheap to get, but when you try and go past 280watts it becomes very tricky, very slight adjustment wil make the watt load jump past 300watts very easy. It was just a temp perchase and wil prolly need to get a real one before to long.

Trying to remember here... maybe last year or so when I put it back on my 24/7 rig for a short period I noticed I had water leaking under the case when I got up the next day. Pulling the side covers off of the case I saw it was freezing right up to the compresor on the suction line. A small length of suction line did not have any insulation on it so it would ice up there. When shutting the machine down all that would melt off and case the water pool under the case.

I cover that area with insulation and that problem went away.

I would have to pull all that off and check again... but I belive the answer would be yes to being frozen right up to the comp

[sdumper]

In general less pressure will lead to lower temp readings until you reach a point where the pressure is too low thats why I was suspect of a leak considering this was working fine in daily use and the temps were slightly warmer than you remembered.

If your really bored trying cleaning out the condenser because if its covered with lint and the summer room temps are up that will impact you as well.

[Buckeye]

Yeah I did clean out the condensor and it hard almost no effect.

Its all good, don't think I will mess with it unless load temps start dropping more.

First I need to get building one myself that will work as a bencher so I am not Phase less here. Then might try beefing that one up after I get a little experiance actually building something and tunning.

The load tester is a nice project tho., I had fun