Autocascade Build Thread (2006 Competition: Team Eshbach)

[eshbach]

well, here it is.

it turned out a little better than i thought it would with just cap tube.

i ended up using CO2 for this. I was going to use ethane, but it just didn't work out. the pressures are pretty high as it is.

i hacked off some cap tube after last night (first stage). pulled a vac and charged it up.

after the first charge i was only getting -59, and i was a little dissappointed. so, i just started playing around with it, and eventually i just saw the low side pressure drop like a brick and the temperature go with it. i was really trying for -85, but no matter how much i tuned it i couldn't get there. oh well.

here's the pics:

[eshbach]

load temps are in.

i'm using the 200W cartridge heater from McMaster. The load tester I made is kind of... ghetto. i thought i had a block of copper laying around, but i couldn't find it. all i could find was a copper rod and a bunch of pipe... so i improvised.

here's what i ended up with:





what i did was cut a piece of pipe about the length of the heating element, then cut a piece of rod about the same size. i flattened the pipe as best i could around the heater and then brazed it shut. then i brazed the rod onto the flat part of the tube.

i turned on the heater and let it get up to about 200 C (which happened very quickly) before i turned on the autocascade.



it took a little while, and i had to add some R22, but eventually the autocascade pulled it down below -50.



then i checked the temperature of the of the back side of the heating element. i figure this is a decent approximation of what the CPU die temperature would be:




So, I'd have to say I'm fairly satisified with how this came out. I definately think it would have been better if i could have used the TXV and the CPEV, but for something i had to throw together at the last minute, it honestly did better than i had expected.