Please help needed building water block

[azhari]

I'm in the process of building a water block from scratch. I have a big copper block that I'll be cutting and milling. But before I start the milling, I have a few questions :D

1. What size hose should I use? (Inner and outer diameter).

2. What is a good material for the hose?

3. Should the channels milled into the copper be the same thickness as the I/D of the hose?

That will do me for now.

[The Overclocker]

!) use 3/8 tubing,(9-10mm)

2. do not connect the hose directly into the waterblock, you can get nipples to that connect the hose to the waterblock, use brass nipples

3) i dont know, if the channels are thiner then water goes through it quicker, if they are bigger it will go slower

[azhari]

Thanks for the reply. Let me ask you this, when you say to use 3/8 tubing, is that 3/8" inner diameter or outer diameter (makes quite a bit of difference)?

Also, I'm planning to use swagelock connectors for the hose-block connection. These are easy to connect/disconnect, and are extremely leak tight (we use them for high vacuum). That's why I need to know inner/outer hose diameters, so I can match them to the correct connectors, and get the water chanells the right size in the block.

[Warlord2]

you can use 1/2" or 3/8" inner tubing


or whatever fits your brass nipples


most of the time 1/2" does better thin 3/8" but only by 2-3c

[azhari]

Cool. Pun intended :)

That is a pretty big hose though, which means huge channels to be milled in the copper. This in turn means that I can't have more than 3 rows of channels. I'm looking to imitate the design of the Maze2 by DangerDen. I don't see how they could get as many spirals as they did by milling 1/2" channels.

[Owenator]

You don't neccessarily need to match the block channels to the tubing inner diameter. The increase in the speed of the fluid in the block will cause more turbulence which is good for the heat transfer. You don't want to small of channels of course, I think most are on the order of 5/16" to 3/8" on the blocks I've seen. If you use a mill try 'digging' the channel in multiple passes of your flow path. I think that is how BE Cooling gets it's 'jagged edge' on their water blocks. I am planning on making another block this weekend the multipass way if my drill-press-cross-vise pseudo-mill will cooperate.

O