Making own Cu block?

So, I don't have a milling machine, and I don't have access to one.

I do have a Dremel and a cordless dril (as well as a corded drill), and money to buy quality bits.

Is it possible to create a water block using these tools? I have infinate time, and I am willing to sit there for hours with my dremel if need be.

I have another question....is there anything I need to take into consideration when making the block? Do the channels need to be really smooth? Should I have a really long, thin channel, or a fairly large short channel? Or, looking at some of the WB pics, does it not matter?

I suppose the best question would be, how much distance from the processor contact point to the water?

Final question...probably most important...where do I get supplies to hold down the water block? And how do I know how much tension I want without crushing the core (amd)? Last thing I wanna do here is crush the core...heh....

please dont flame me for not doing a lot of looking around.... =0

yes, you could make a block with those tools. dont' expect perfection though


you want 1/16 of CU between the dia and water, and the more fins the better. you're going to have to look at a rotor style blok, srilling holes in the pattern you want, then connecting them with the drmel

you can put aa max of 24 lbs on the proc, and 20 is ideal

I'de get 4 6 LB springs and tighten them (there's a guide)

you just need 4 long bolts, 6-32 is about the size you want

and some wingnuts.

Made a cross-drilled block for my tbird myself with a corded drill, generic clamping, cutting and measuring etc devices and some solder (used a small butane torch to solder it up). Might even have a pic of it...


It looks (and is) pretty damn ghetto, but it worked pretty well, the epoxied on (can't really solder Al to Cu) Al hold-down didn't fail me in a few months of service (in fact it's still holding now, tho I don't use the block). I used springs totally approximately 36lb force on the cpu, worked fine. As long as you're careful about not exterting force on one side over another you can exceed the 24lb in AMDs docs by a bit.

this waterblock can be transformed into nice northbridge/gpu block

It's a bit big in terms of the fittings for a gpu block (they're soldered in so I'm not going to be removing them ); it'd do nicely on a chipset with a bit of work on the mounting hardware though.

What will be the fate of it?

mmmm i guess you could try to make a Cathar's WW clone using the cutting wheels from the dremel.

-J- said:

mmmm i guess you could try to make a Cathar's WW clone using the cutting wheels from the dremel.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't try it unless you want to end up with lots of Cu paper weights. Cutting those tiny channels with a dremel is, dare i say, impossible?

eli said:

I wouldn't try it unless you want to end up with lots of Cu paper weights. Cutting those tiny channels with a dremel is, dare i say, impossible?

Click to expand...

not impossible..
i've seen someone do it on another forum site (can't remem).. and it looked amazing.. it look like neomoses microchannels.. but the guy used a regular rotary tool .............
probabblly took a hella long time tho

NickC over at Procooling did it. Took him over 5 hours with a dremel and a 3-axis vice.

Stoodoo over at OCAU also did it. It also took him about the same amount of time.

You can make the micro-channel blocks with a dremel, but it takes some time to do it.

I couldn't do it.. i have the shakes.

Homemade:



Cross drilled. Used a small drill press but a handheld will do as long as it's got speed control (use low speeds for copper). Soldered it over a stove. The channels were drilled from the right and the openings were capped with sheet copper.

After some makeup:



Z-bar holddown. Cut from aluminum bar:

cathar, your getting mixed up, nickc is over here too, he has a bridgeport, did it with 1/16inch bits, another guy made a radious like block with a dremel and a 3axis thingy, I have made microchanels with a dremel tool too, not impossible, take light passes and thats it

I actaully did that with my mill and dremel wheels.

go visit this folder, look at pics in order, thats how I made another block
http://www.wc101.com/JFettig/wbmake/

Hope this helps

nice, im thinkin' buy a cooljag 1u for 18buck, and do some thing like this theres actually alot more fins than that i just didnt feel like drawing them all, the fins are extremely thin and would be like a micro channel block

JFettig said:

cathar, your getting mixed up, nickc is over here too

Click to expand...

Yep, it was nicozeg and his implementation here:

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5270

I guess the leading "nic" had me confused while recalling from the top of my head without checking.