Bubbles Bubbles Copper and Bubbles

[schmide]

I created this Rube Goldberg thing :bang head
http://www.schmide.com/newcopper/CopperFront.jpg
http://www.schmide.com/newcopper/CopperBack.jpg

I put a high fill and a low fill and it was not easy to fill.

For the life of me I can't get the bubbles out. I've rotated it in all directions, shaken it, yelled at it. Any Ideas?

For the longest time I couldnt get it to pump.

How long does it take to get the bubbles out? BTW this is the first time I've not used a reservior.

[Alacritan]

Looks absolutely wicked, but I've got nothing.

[ghettocomp]

Perhaps some sort of mini-reservoir made from a length of copper tube and a couple of copper caps about 1" dia. and the height of the rad.? an advantage would be it should help bleed out the air *and* ever so slightly help with the cooling?

(besides, I like the look of your setup). Hope you get it working right.

[rogerdugans]

My question:
how do you know that you have bubbles still in the system?

I see lots of nice, shiny copper but nothing that allows you to see INSIDE to get a visual indication of flow conditions.

I have messed with copper myself and had a few areas of concern- one is exactly as I stated above: I WANTED a visual indication of flow condition.
Another concern I had was vibration reduction- solid copper connection through out allowed pump vibration to travel into my case and increased noise level; it also concerned me having the vibrations transmitted to the cpu core (non IHS AMD chip).
For these reasons, and the added one of lower cost, I used small lengths of vinyl tubing to connect my tubing runs instead of compression fittings.
I think that your use of compression fittings looks better, but the advantages of my method were worth the loss of visual quality.

Two other concerns that may be contributors:
1) if the compression fittings are not perfectly seated they may allow air to get in, just like can occasionally happen in a more standard tubing setup. Its a "leak" that never has visible water, but creates a small stream of air bubbles in the system that never will go away.
2) The radiator is connected on the bottom- while this is not unheard of by any means, it typically makes it much harder to bleed all the air out of the rad. Two possible solutions- either flip it up so that the barbs are on top or mod it and add a bleed vent to the current top of the rad. One method means a good bit more tubing and the other requires modding your radiator.

If nothing else, I would suggest adding a small piece of tubing someplace in the system for testing purposes just while you are working the bugs out- the visual indication of problems is good. :)

[schmide]

Thanks for the replies.

I like what Ghetto said and was thinking of adding a reservoir. I was going to add a 2 inch piece of capped copper. I think an inch is better.

The reason I know I have bubbles is the noise. The pump never seems to get its full pump on, like it’s starved for water. This is why I believe that the reservoir will help by giving a buffer that prevents air from building up before the pump intake.

As for vibrations, when the pump does kick in for the few seconds of full rush before it starves its self there are surprisingly little vibrations. We’ll see when and if I get it to run properly.

Will keep you apprised.

[schmide]

After some contemplation, I soldered together a reservoir and put better fittings on the radiator. It’s now very silent and almost leak free. I’m going to add a lower drain off the radiator via a T joint and add an extra layer of Teflon tape to the pump exit as there is a small leak there. Vibration is very small not much more than a high speed fan.

Enjoy. Comments and Ideas always welcome.

http://www.schmide.com/newcopper/newres.jpg
http://www.schmide.com/newcopper/newfit.jpg

[hypertek]

how about submerging the whole unit in ur tub and assemblying it under water?? umm but then its not gonna be dl water or wathever.

[schmide]

I added the new valve and removed the upper valve. Put more Teflon tape on the pump output and it seem to be running very well. The ironic thing is even though there is an inch difference in height from the entrance to the reservoir to the exit to the pump; bubbles still get to the pump from the radiator through that S.

http://www.schmide.com/newcopper/newvalve.jpg

[Maximus Faticus]

Better hope that thing doesn't leak. It'll be some highly conductive water.

[ghettocomp]

That very close to what I had been thinking of in my origional post! Hope you get the leak problems solved.