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Best Waterblock Design for 2x2x1/2 copper

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iNSiGMA

Member
Joined
May 22, 2003
Location
Ohio, USA
I got 1 piece of Copper (2 x 2 x 1/2) and 1 piece of Aluminum (2 x 2 x 1/2) from Dangerden today. Originally I planned to do a block similar to "Owen's Multi-Hole Drilled Waterblock" which can be forund here:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles690/

but with a plastic top since I didn't have access to the appropriate metal to make one with(don't ask), but now I am having 2nd thoughts and was thinking what other designs I could do that where simple yet worked, simple because all I have is a hand drill and dremel. No drill press here. Anyway, I messed up my last block which was suppose to be a cross drilled block, I have a link to that particular thread but it was on anther board so I won't post that link here...

Anyway, what can I do ? I don't have any money to buy more things so plz advice me what to do, and I do not want to sit around and save up more money because I don't have any income; I am a student with no job atm.

Thanks
 
For starts, see if someone with a 2x3x.25 piece of copper will trade you even up for both of those 2x2x.5 pieces. With your tool compliment, you will have many options with the 2x3x.25.

Hoot
 
Where would I do that? In this forum? + What options open up to me with a bigger piece of copper than the one I have now?
 
well with some thicker copper stock, you could make a Tidal Pool Type block, here is a link to an article and some pictures. I made one similar to this with a1\4" thick peice of aluminum and a 1 3/4" By 1 3/4" i put the inlet in the center of the peice of pipe and the outlet on the side. Kinda big though but not too big, lots of volume and good flow I hope.


http://www.overclockers.com/articles169/
 
I wouldn't mind doing anything like that.... hmmm... but As I said, I don't any money left. All I have is this copper and aluminum....

Could I do a copper bottom, aluminum middle (cut out) and plastic top?
 
well then you run into the same problem I have corrosion we will both have to make sure and use some type of anti corrosion additive in our system, to combat the battery effect. this happens when you mix different types of metals, mainly copper and aluminum.

Do you know of a metal shop around your area or a welding shop, maybe you could go there and get some scraps of aluminum or copper for free, that is what I did.
 
:-( My city absolutely sucks, I couldn't even find anyone who sold the stuff for cash... dammit!
 
iNSiGMA said:
Where would I do that? In this forum? + What options open up to me with a bigger piece of copper than the one I have now?

I assumed you woulkd be using the block with an AMD CPU. If you want to utilize the four mounting holes in your motherboard, it helps if the copper plate is long enough to reach them. This may help illustrate what I'm saying...
2x3cupr.jpg


Hoot
 
http://www.cox-internet.com/junkyman/images/baseplate.jpg

This is my cpu block. I wish I had taken pictures before soldering on the 1/8" copper top plate. It's 3x2 but a 2x2 would work. 1" long slots, 1/2" wide channels on both ends. If you want to get fancy, you could make it a 3 barb block, center inlet and outlets on each end. You will need to make the top plate big enough to reach the holes on either side of the cpu block to hold it down.

The ends are just hollowed out with an end-mill (can be done with a drill and dremel) and the slots were cut with a dremel (those flimsy cutoff disks, broke several of them). It's like a copper air cooled heatsink built into a waterblock. The slots are 3/8" high so the baseplate is 1/8" thick.

Performance is very good as you can see by my sig. :D
 
Hoot said:


I assumed you woulkd be using the block with an AMD CPU. If you want to utilize the four mounting holes in your motherboard, it helps if the copper plate is long enough to reach them. This may help illustrate what I'm saying...
2x3cupr.jpg


Hoot
That sounds dandy and all but I don't have any metal that big.. sorry. I'll go chop up what I have now...:(
 
Go to a junk yard and see if they have any copper plate. I got some great copper (flat buss bars, 3" wide, 1/4" thick and several feet long, hehe) that I used to top all my blocks.
 
beehive? ANyway I came up with a design, I thought I would be able to attach the image to my reply but... attachments are disabled...

ANYWAY, here it is on downthisforumis.org

simplitity2.gif


Those white dots are drill spots, then, like the "Multi-Hole Drilled Water Block" I'll take a dremel to it and connect the empty spots to come up with something SIMILAR to this:

st27.jpg

... with a Lucite top... if the copper machining is successful, I may look to get some thicker plastic than the stuff I have from Homedepo, but I don't know that there is anything wrong with what I have now...

Any objections? Comments? Rudremarks
 
Looks good to me. You don't NEED the base to extend to the holes, just the top. Be sure your top is strong enough. There will be some force at work trying to warp the top and make it leak. I would use some colored plastic and JB Weld the top on. You'd have to rough up the plastic where it joins, but it should do okay as long as there is enough surface area and it's clean. You can JB Weld the barbs in the top too if you want.

Good luck.
 
yeah, I knew that all I needed was the top to meet the holes, not the base. Thanks for the information. Right now I'm going to mark my holes using a ghetto puncher (hammer and nails) and then drill them.
 
Well 72% into the drilling, almost done, I slipped up. Made a mistake and too one of my holes all the way thru the block of copper. So everything is ok, but I have this 1 hole in the bottom of the block. Its not near the center where the die would be touching it though....

So shoudl I just toss this piece or can I try to seal it with some JBWeld?

To be on the safe side, I believe most of you guys will tell me to scrap it and come back when I have atleast $300 to spend on cooling supplies, I would understand if this was so...

I still have my aluminum piece left, I don't know what I'm going to do with it though...
 
You could try the JB weld to get by and just not connect that hole to the rest. I think you'd be safe. Just remember to take it SLOW. The second you start to rush even a little is when you're most likely to make a mistake. EVERY mistake I've made on blocks was due to rushing, and I've made A LOT of mistakes :rolleyes:
 
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