I've got an extra freezer.

[Krusty]

Ok, I have this small freezer unit that is about 2 feet on each side. My plan was to take out the whole refrigeration system in it and find a way to incorporate it with my computer and have run into my first problem.

The cooling coil appears to be wrapped throughout the inside of the unit under a thick layer of styrofoam. The only way to get to the coil is to peel back four sides of sheet metal and hack away at the foam and I am far too impatient to spend a day trynig to dig up a little copper tubing.

My question is this: Do I really need that copper tubing? It has one thick tube running from the compressor and one tube that looks almost too small for anything to go through it running to the radiator.

Would it be safe to simply cut these pipes and see if I could design a block to go on my cpu that will be cooled by the compressor?

[Krusty]

GrRrRr....Bump!

Come on! I wanna know if it's safe for me and for the freezer to slice open those copper tubes....

[Wa11y]

I don't think you should be cutting into a fridge unless you're HVAC certified. I think they have a fluid running through those lines (possibly Freon, or some CFCs...) that are bad to release into the atmosphere. And I believe they're pressureized fluids. and get really cold. So I'd avoid cutting the lines.

[Krusty]

D'oh, that's pretty much what I was expecting to hear. I guess I just have to spend a day hacking away at the freezer to get all the components out. Anyone know where I could go or how I might go about getting the freezer unit turned into a little cpu freezer?

[bigfoot]

well, I wish I had an Idea on how to do those kinds of things myself, but a word of warning, If thise are copper tubes that your hacking at, which I asume they are, I'l tell you that those are very easy to break/crack if you bend it to much. If it was a safe chemical in those tubes, I'd say go ahead and cut the tubing and use a water blobk on the proc. One thing I know though is that you will have to find some way to get your hands on some of that dense foam like stuff bucause the is used to prevent the condinsation, Sorry about the bad news but I think it would be to much trouble and forget it, I had that chance once but then I realized how much of a pain in the a** those chemicals ore so don't bother.:eh?:

[r0ckstarbob]

this might give you some ideas

http://languagehammer.net

go to the Core Project on the right.




yes, get rid of that styrofoam and expose the coils on the inside - just don't cut any of them no matter what you do. the evaporator coils are what make the thing cold (as i'm sure you know). styrofoam is a quick, cheap and easy way to turn a freezer into a refrigerator by reducing the efficiency of the coils - tones it down to "consumer level" refrigeration.

the coils on the outside of your refrigerator are your condenser coils. the coils inside of your refrigerator are the evaporator coils. yes liquid (freon) passes through these things, even the small ones. remember, the smaller the tube the more the surface area and the faster it cools, thats why condenser coils are so small - they're trying to shed the heat that the freon absorbed when it was in the evaporator coils. once it has removed that heat and the freon goes back to normal, it gets shot back into the evaporator coils inside yer box to absorb more heat once again. once it's absorbed all the heat inside your refrigerator, the freon is sucked into the compressor. the compressor basically squeezes the freon (like wringing out a dish rag) which makes the freon very hot. the hot freon is shot into the condenser coils to cool down and the cycle continues

compressor----> condenser coils ----> capillary ------> (refrigeration) evaporator coils ----> compressor ----> etc etc etc...

http://www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator.htm

you've got a great opportunity mr man, roll with it.

hope this is helpful.

[RoadWarrior]

Hmmm 2ftx2ftx2ft...... make a nice "borg cube" system case ;)

[r0ckstarbob]

welcome to the forums road warrior

[Critical Bill]

Krusty,how about making a water cooled system using the freezer as your reservior. That way you don't risk trashing the freezer.

[ol' man]

Not sure why this would be hard to do for you.

http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=358226

Here is another pic showing it submerged...

[ol' man]

Yet one more pic showing the notches taken out so in the future the fridge could be used again. Of course I would have to replace the rubber seal but big deal. It is better than killing the whole fridge!


I have fired this thing up before and used it too cool off a ghetto water block I made. Man the tubes the coolant went through were hard as a rock after the coolant got flowing.. The temps I think got to around -10~-20 deg. C. I put my hand in the H2O and it about froze when it was going full blast. The fridge when going is barely audible. Best of both worlds here, quietness and cryo temps. Should do well but one thing it wouldn't work good for is bringing it to a lan;)

[RoadWarrior]

Thanks r0ckstarbob, just noticed over at [H]ardOcp there's a RoadWarrior, ( I see you've posted there b4) I ain't him if that who you thought you were welcoming though :) used this name a few other places though.

[r0ckstarbob]

didn't even occur to me but you're right, there is one over there. no, just putting out the warm welcome - hi, howya doin, make yerself at home, welcome to our ouse - sort of thing.

[Maximus Nickus]

Why not use a normal waterblock/resevoir system and then fill it with that freon and instead on using a radiotor use the compressor and all that.

I personally think that this is the easiest way to encorporate it into a system.

Nick :cool:

[ol' man]

Originally posted by nick_cw
Why not use a normal waterblock/resevoir system and then fill it with that freon and instead on using a radiotor use the compressor and all that.

I personally think that this is the easiest way to encorporate it into a system.

Nick :cool:


Originally posted by nick_cw
Why not use a normal waterblock/resevoir system and then fill it with that freon and instead on using a radiotor use the compressor and all that.

I personally think that this is the easiest way to encorporate it into a system.

Nick :cool:

Not sure what you are trying to say here but it would not be easy to attach the freon tubes directly to the H2O block. Yoiuy would definatly need high PSI connections and make sure your block was good.

Not sure if any of you know #rotor.

You need to go here

http://3rotor.dns2go.com/index.html



to get some schooling man. He cools his coolant to cryo temps and then uses that to cool his blocks. I am doing a variation of that although he is a bit more extreme but I am going to assume ny little setup will do very nicely to hit temps below 0 deg. C.

Here is another good link to what he has.

http://3rotor.dns2go.com/store/Chillers/index.html

I am showing you a very poor mans method. Fridge should only cost $25~$75 depending on if you buy new or used.

What you are speaking of is the KryoCool setup. That would tkae a little bit more to get it going.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by nick_cw
Why not use a normal waterblock/resevoir system and then fill it with that freon and instead on using a radiotor use the compressor and all that.

I personally think that this is the easiest way to encorporate it into a system.

Nick :cool:

That is what I was thinking about doing, except that would require cutting those copper coils. Apparrantly doing that is a bad idea. Perhaps I'll take the thing to a refrigerator repair place and see if they could do that. I also need to make sure the condensor can handle a consistant 100 watt or so load. I was thinking about getting an evaporative block for the cpu and getting like a blackice extreme radiator for the heat dissipation. Alas, that is a bit far fetched.

I kinda like the core project idea. Seeing as I have already halfway destroyed the freezer unit to expose some of the copper tubing and the unit is too small to fit my entire cpu in, this seems like the best idea. Once I can get the whole cooling system out, I can mount the condensor on a small ice chest with the coils inside to act as a cooled reservoir. It may take a bit of work for that since the evaporator coils appear to be formed in a big looping rectangular shape.

I guess it's back to hacking away at the case. Perhaps taking a jig saw to it will help me out.

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Krusty


That is what I was thinking about doing, except that would require cutting those copper coils. Apparrantly doing that is a bad idea. Perhaps I'll take the thing to a refrigerator repair place and see if they could do that. I also need to make sure the condensor can handle a consistant 100 watt or so load. I was thinking about getting an evaporative block for the cpu and getting like a blackice extreme radiator for the heat dissipation. Alas, that is a bit far fetched.

I kinda like the core project idea. Seeing as I have already halfway destroyed the freezer unit to expose some of the copper tubing and the unit is too small to fit my entire cpu in, this seems like the best idea. Once I can get the whole cooling system out, I can mount the condensor on a small ice chest with the coils inside to act as a cooled reservoir. It may take a bit of work for that since the evaporator coils appear to be formed in a big looping rectangular shape.

I guess it's back to hacking away at the case. Perhaps taking a jig saw to it will help me out.

That will be interesting. WIth the above procedure all you would do is put your pump in the res and give a whirl to the block. Simple yet affective;) If you get that thing going of which you speak best show some pics. You must at least have a IDEA of how KryoKool (sp.) does it right?

[Krusty]

Originally posted by ol' man


That will be interesting. WIth the above procedure all you would do is put your pump in the res and give a whirl to the block. Simple yet affective;) If you get that thing going of which you speak best show some pics. You must at least have a IDEA of how KryoKool (sp.) does it right?

I've been doing a little research and looking around for ideas the past couple months. The only thing I'm lacking now is money:( . It'll be a little while before I can get anything going without that. I've been looking into getting a water cooling setup. A nice 500gph pump, blackice xtreme radiator (and a second in parallel when I can afford it), water block undecided. I also need a new case, hopefully not a full tower. I need room for a 120mm fan in the front, one in teh side by the pci cards, one in the back near the cpu, one in the top, and a 92mm fan over the memory. I may be able to find a mid tower with that, but I would also like room for dual psus in case I want to switch to peltier cooling.

Anyways, back to the kryocool thing...My main concern is that since the condensor from the freezer is not designed to handle an active load, I will burn it out. Not a big loss in itself since I didn't pay for it, but it may cost a bit in parts to test it. I'll hack away at the foam and get the evaporator coils out over christmas break and see what I can do. Wish me luck:D

[ol' man]

Nah it will be fine.

[ol' man]

Originally posted by ol' man


That will be interesting. WIth the above procedure all you would do is put your pump in the res and give a whirl to the block. Simple yet affective;)

I was talking about my setup above;)

[ol' man]

Krusty you check out this link.

http://holicho.lib.net/gas/gas.htm

Shows a guy making a freon cooler for the chip out of a dehumidifier I think.

[Krusty]

I can't really follow those images very well. I think that big black box may actually be his computer and he's putting in some kind of not-so-well planned out water cooling. Don't know where the copper tubing comes into play there.

Ok, so I have no idea what that thing is.

Anyways, over christmas break, I'm gonna get the cooling system out and try a very quick implementation of my idea.

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Krusty
I can't really follow those images very well. I think that big black box may actually be his computer and he's putting in some kind of not-so-well planned out water cooling. Don't know where the copper tubing comes into play there.

Ok, so I have no idea what that thing is.

Anyways, over christmas break, I'm gonna get the cooling system out and try a very quick implementation of my idea.

No dude this is what he is using it for:rolleyes: Do you notice in the url it says it is GAS or more specific a freon type setup?

Isn't this what you are talking about doing?

Sorry do you know what you want to do cause you have had me confused through this whole thread!

Here is a pic of it in action where he gets a PIV to 2555MHz

http://holicho.lib.net/othters/010831_03.jpg

You didn;t notice here he has it hit -65 deg. C

http://holicho.lib.net/gas/gas001.jpg

[ol' man]

Here is another link to it translated. He is using a free standing air conditioner;) The tranlation is hard to under stand nut I would think pics are worth a thousand words??????????????? Not much to explain here. This a good site and you should study this!


here (http://babelfish.altavista.com/urltrurl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fholicho.lib.net%2Fgas%2F gas.htm&lp=ja_en&tt=url&urltext=&doit=done)


Well I can't get that link to work but do you know how to use babelfish

Take this link

http://holicho.lib.net/gas/gas.htm...

and put it in the web address bar

here below...

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

and then select japanese to english inthe translate fromand hit translate.

You do know how to cut and paste right;)

[Krusty]

Hmm...I couldn't find that pic of the cooler in action on the site. Maybe my IE is messed up or something. I did, however, find this image from a link that looks a bit like something I am thinking of using the freezer to cool my water in a water cooling setup.

My origional idea was to get a block made that is the evaporator coil itself so I could have a freezing block to work with. The posts in this thread, however, basically told me that I shouldn't try this without a professional to work with since the freon stuff isn't a good thing and I may not be able to get the system working myself if I cut the copper tubing. I'll make a couple quick photoshop images to show the two ideas...

[Krusty]

Ok, here's the basic origional idea. I was going to get rid of the evaporator coils all together and have an evaporative cpu cooler made where the freon would freeze the entire block directly. The black cylinder thingie is the compressor. the radiator looking thingie is the condensor and the little copper colored square is my block that would replace the evaporator coils.

[Krusty]

Ok, my new, less dangerous idea. I use the same setup as in the last one, except I leave the evaporator coils in the form they come in, which is most likely a big rectangular shape. I place these coils into a reservoir, perhaps styrofoam or some other insulated medium. I have the used, hotter water come in one end and it moves through the channel with the evaporator coils in the middle. It exits the other end, hopefully at a below freezing temperature. This is a much simpler idea because I don't need to screw with any machining evaporator blocks and dealing with freon and all the other stuff I don't know about.

There are two problems with this: It takes up a lot more room, needing the channel and the water-cooling setup, and the continuous load on the condensor may kill it.

The killed condensor problem really exists with any use of this thing for cooling a cpu. I guess I'll find out how it deals with it within the month.

[Malpine Walis]

<hr>
I guess it's back to hacking away at the case. Perhaps taking a jig saw to it will help me out.
<hr>

Power tools would be even worse than hacking away at it with hand tools. What you might consider is the fact that styrofoam is an organic substance and a product of the petroleum industry.

Rather that trying to remove the styrofoam manually, have you considered a chemical solvent such as Rock Miracle (you can get this stuff at any decent paint store)?

Just do an "eyedropper test" to see if that chemical works and if it doesn't, try another chemical.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by Malpine Walis
Just do an "eyedropper test" to see if that chemical works and if it doesn't, try another chemical.

I already thought of that. I tried a little gasoline, but it's not really styrofoam. It's just some super dense foam insulation stuff. No dice there.

The jig saw idea was for the steel case it is housed in. So far I have 2 sides taken off by peeling away at the welds with pliers. Just slicing up the plate with a jig saw should do the trick around the edges. Then its on to the foam destruction...

[ol' man]

Acetone eats away most plastics and especially foam type plastics.

SO essentially what you are going to end up doing is something like I have above then here. It will work well but the temps may not get down to -60. Instead you will be really warm probably around like -20:D

[ol' man]

Sorry I meant here.

[Krusty]

yeah, something like that. Did your refrigerator have any problems dealing with the constant heat?

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Krusty
yeah, something like that. Did your refrigerator have any problems dealing with the constant heat?


I have not had it running yet for extended amounts of time.

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Krusty
yeah, something like that. Did your refrigerator have any problems dealing with the constant heat?


Well so far I have been running the above setup with the stove top copper block I made and it is working just fine for the last 1.5 days. No leaks. I used a 120w heatlamp lightbulb to somewhat test it and after 5 hours my coolant temps went to -12 deg. C from -15 deg.C. With the light bulb I applied asII to to the flat part of the bulb and applied that to the block dead center as the core of a chip would be. Granted I know that probably only half or less of the amount of watts the light bulb uses got to the block but I believe a large amount did as the compressor and condensor were way hotter than normal as also about 80%~90% of the area of the bulb hit the block in the from of Infared waves. the bulbs diameter is about 2.75" and the block is about 2.5" so most(80~90%) of the infared waves hit the block and kept ice from forming on the surface of the block. In about 30 secs ice will form on the block if that if there was no heat source up front. I felt the block where there was no ice and it was still very cold I would assume below freezing but the infared waves evaporate and H2O vapor that would get near it so no ice formed on it. I would say this works pretty good and I am hopefully going to have some pics for you guys tonight. It was really easy to do and with a tip from some of the refrigerator people at [H] I found out if you do something like this you need a fan on your condensor. I did this and the condesor got alot cooler as also the compresor which I guess is importent for proper compressor longevity.