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Holy crap!! Copper water block wonky

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Rickster

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Location
Malaysia






I just soaked it in vinegar for a night and in the morning I woke up, the vinegar turned blue, the copper parts were rough, when I wiped them it gave off a yellowish-brown colour and now its stuck with this greyish copper colour. And I was so stupid that after giving them a wash I forgot to dry them it started looking like the statue of liberty.

Any suggestions how to clean this up and remove the roughness? Why did this happen?
 
Oxidation.

I think he knows that :rolleyes: And to answer the question:
Sand paper ( 400 grit - 800 grit )

And why did it happen? When copper gets wet it corrodes. This is why the statue of liberty is green, because it is outdoors and gets wet.
 
I think he knows that :rolleyes: And to answer the question:
Sand paper ( 400 grit - 800 grit )
There is the problem though, it would take an extremely long time to sand the inside of the apogee block.
 
There is the problem though, it would take an extremely long time to sand the inside of the apogee block.
Maybe using a dremel? If you have the wire brush (the disk shaped thing that you can attach to a dremel to do polishing/sanding) At first glance that didn't look like an apogee... but now I see those are diamond shaped pins. hell even the standard cutoff wheel. if anything it would only rough up the block and might even make it better :p
 
Maybe using a dremel? If you have the wire brush (the disk shaped thing that you can attach to a dremel to do polishing/sanding) At first glance that didn't look like an apogee... but now I see those are diamond shaped pins. hell even the standard cutoff wheel. if anything it would only rough up the block and might even make it better :p

That might harm the pins.

copper is pretty maleable.

I would go for a soft head tooth brush, and some mild acid. Lemon juice even.

EDIT: scratch the acid, it might clean off the oxidization, but it might end up oxidizing it again.
 
Yeah I knew it was oxidization. It's just so bad I didn't know whether it was oxidization anymore.

I'm just worried to lap the bugger. I feel lapping achieves a less flat surface than what Swiftec has given me.

Wait a minute, wire brush will be able to get into them little metal things (you know the thing to create turbulence when water passes through so better cooling efficiency; it's real late)
 
yeah the wire brush should get between the pins. and in my experience with copper its not as fragile as to be damaged by a wire brush.
 
Oh reason why I soaked the blocks was because when I took apart my water blocks, where the water makes contact, it was completely black, like this is my 4th time doing this and it was my first seeing this.

So even a light touch vinegar and brushing with a toothbrush wouldn't help. Then it got the soak.

Hmmm.. Ok I'll try with the lemon juice tomorrow. Will this work for the surface where it's totally flat? Last resort is definately lapping.
 
I think you can use coke also. If the dremel makes you uneasy then you can always use a hand held wire brush.
 
Coke is prett yhigh in citric acid, and is actually quite the cleaner. You'll need to rinse it off well with distilled water afterwards to remove and sugar residue.
 
Can I ask why you want to clean it? Everything that I have read says that oxidation doesn't degrade performance so there is really no reason that you NEED to clean it. Unless it is somehow very visible in your computer. I have an old TDX that is really oxidized but you can't even tell when it is in the system. I have tried cleaning a few times and whatever I do is only a temporary fix and feels like a waste of time because every time I use it the same thing happens.
 
I just opened my apogee and found grass... like from outside lol
 
for a while but only about a year with a real block, etc lol. The grass was probably in a bucket I used to store something in... idk right now the block was on my shelf and not to be used for about a month but I decided to clean it anyway.
 
Instead of using a wire brush, I'd use comet cleanser and an old toothbrush. Works fabulous at cleaning off the tarnish and even the heavier oxidation.
Rinse very well with the hottest water your tap can provide, then give it a splash of distilled water for good measure.
Nice and tidy.

And yes, you can use the comet/brush on the flat cpu side too. It may change how fine the surface had been lapped, but it will not change the flatness of it (IMHO the most important aspect).

Grass is one I hadn't heard before, and I thought I'd heard it all....:beer:
 
My only worry is the rough surface. I would try the cleaning methods people have listed here first on a small section very carefully.


If its not working very well there is always citranox (http://www.alconox.com/static/section_top/gen_catalog.asp#Anchor-7465)
Its kick *** stuff. No kidding, returned my WW to near perfect condition(had corroded). Also, no need to buy a whole gallon of the stuff. Just get a sample from them.


PS: how blue? baby blue, or sharpish green blue. The color density just tells us how _much_ of the copper you just disolved off your block... if its darkblue(almost green) chances are you are going to need to lap the block with some high grit sand paper- to remove the uneven surface left by the pitting.
 
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