I'm working on a block... (pic)

So far all I have used is a hand drill and a dremel. I'm now confident that if I had enough time and patience I could make a white water like block with just these tools. I must say that it has NOT been fun so far, though. The drilling takes a LONG time and I HATE soldering. That's why I'm not showing the top of the top plate (UGLY).

Anyway, to make the groves (which were really just an afterthought to increase flow through a very restrictive design) I used regular cut off disks. I think they're 3/4" or something. The ones that come in the little tubes. Anyway, that part is easy if you have a steady hand.

Keep in mind that these parts are not cleaned up. The finnished product will be ugly anyway, but I'll show it when I'm through. For this one I'm going to seal it with JB weld. The next I will try to solder together.

Here's the pic:

...It's not Hoot, Morphling, or Jfettig caliber work, but this is only my second try using the meathods that I use. I learned a lot from the last one which was unusable. I'm hoping that this one will end up WORKING at least.

well it looks pretty good so far better then i can do i am just hoping that i don't screw up the case i plan on building too bad cause i think the acrylic to build it alone will be a 100bucks

If you've never worked with acrylic before, I reccomend trying some scrap projects first. You should have a local plastics store that might sell their scrap for CHEAP. Get some practice on that first. I could never get the proper adhesive to work. Superglue works well for me but clouds the joints.

Good luck on your project.

thats actually looking pretty decent I would extend the little channels a little farther back over center... Just like 1/8-1/4"

Ill bet itll do pretty decent

Jon

The center of the barb is already 1/4" back from the center of the block. You think that should be enough?

FAILURE! I didn't use enough JB weld between the plates and it leaks air I think this one would have been a performer too. My middle plate was warped a little bit and I think that added to the problems. Well, I guess I'll keep plugging away. This is more fun than I admit to. I just wish I could solder better. THis time when I order copper, I'm gonna order a bunch so I can make some mistakes.

drill 6 holes in it along the sides and bolt it together with a very small bead of silicon sealer circling the center... just inside of the holes.

Soldering is easy if you don't get in a hurry.

Smear the flux on one part, just where you want the solder to go then press the pieces together and that will show you where to put the solder on the other part(s).

You can go ahead and tin (heat the parts seperately and apply thin layer of solder) the parts and then clamp them together and reheat (big "C" clamp works well) as the solder softens, tighten the clamp a little to make sure all surfaces are getting good contact (will flatten out that middle plate too, )

Forgot to mention, when you solder copper, don't plung it into water to cool it off, let it cool off in the air. If you quench the heat too fast, it makes the copper much harder and it takes a LOT longer to lap the bottom flat afterwards.

THANKS! I never thought of that reason. I really couldn't think of a reason why you'd want the copper to be softer.

Oh... And good tips on the soldering.