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Miny Cascade : Budget Dual 1/2hp

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NoL

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2006
Location
NJ, USA
So recently I had a few asks for a low budget cascade. Now normally those two terms can't be fit in the same sentence. Inherently, they are not low budget.
But sometimes exceptions can be made. And normally that requires a bit of sacrifice. But sometimes, just sometimes, you luck out :p

So, a miny cascade project. Dual 1/2hp 39R131F's from Rechi Precision.
Short toppers, and they run a bit hot, but they've never shown me less than there full 1/2hp :p
Condenser comes from a Copeland condensing unit (have about 20 of these things laying about, so time to use them).
Desuperheater is my new miny condensers, just under the dimensions of a 120mm fan, they're absolutely midgetish! Fitting a 120mm Panaflo 12G12L fan for good air flow with mid range noise.
Foam stack is the preinsulation first cuts for the 10 Plate HX. Which will be "bound" and insulated.

3ft flex line, Evaporator to be determined, and HPCO on the way.

The entire unit will most likely be cased in aluminum extrusion and acrylic/sheet metal to give it a solid indestructible approach. And of course I have a few other upgrades that can be fitted if the budget opens up a bit.

As for refrigerant,

R507a, R23 will be used.
Although not many builders can get their hands on R23 due to cost, I have a 10lb cylinder to be used, and it is much more ideal than trying to muscle R1150 to condense.
The goal will be about -70C, a solid dry ice range temperature, at the flick of a switch :) Of course unloaded will go lower for Spi etc giving that mid range bencher many are looking for to replace clumsy pots.

Hope you all enjoy this build as much as I do, I expect to be done with construction when the final parts arrive by next week (tuesdayish) and tune in the week after.

No owner on this one, so it might just go up for sale or just become a light weight show case.

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52xx btuh 1/2hp Rechi. The specs on these might as well not exist. Finding the right run cap will be hard since I've found 3 conflicting numbers, will try them all after tuning and see which produces lowest power draw.

Progressing well, made the HX "box" from my favorite pink substance, and slot fitted the brazed and pressure tested plate HX. Using the mill I traced the ports and backside ridge into the foam. Snaps together, 3" thick, 10" tall, 5" wide. What a format.

Enjoy. Evap ordered from Ron. And searching up the HPCO now. I have some valve mount ones, but I raelly have grown to dislike them. Getting a stable long term seal can be a pain or just a general fight. Tho I could rip one off the 3 stager...

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I'd recommend against R410a or R402a with these, they already run way to hot. I'm using r290 for oil, r507a primary, and already considering swapping to r134a if it'll do the r23.
As to some updates, first stage done, just need to tune when second stage is finished and ready for it. But we have frost! Amazingly she's quite quiet. Certainly can here it, but if you push down lightly on the HX box to muffle the vibration, there's not much but air flow noise. And speaking of that, this condenser setup's quite nice. I'm glad I went with the 13W motor on the fan.

I purchased a Supco vac gauge on ebay a while back, an old style one when my digital crapper out. It was sold as is, but at $25 it was hard to pass up. Even had a bidding war for it. But, I called Supco when I got it, told them I had purchased it second hand and wasn't sure if it was in Calibration.

They said send it over, so I did. They even paid return shipping. Recalibrated, all good now. Talk about great service, it's an old model, nothing close to there new stuff even.

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Who likes updates, I like updates!

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Most of the second stage brazed in, such a tight fit. And could barely braze it up without heat on the first stage, but wet paper towels work out great. Slight amount of heat got to the insulation of box, but it just deflected and melted away a quarter of an inch, now I can slot the pipe insulation in better! (Yay ;) )

We also have a date and trial time for this thing, Dumo over at XS would like a crack at it, but OCF is having there forum party and I think this will debut there.

So three weeks. Enough time? Damn right.

Enjoy the shot, I'll add in the HPCO later today when I finish pondering where I'll fit it, and then at this point we are just waiting on that evaporator to show up from Runmc.
 
NoL do you have an approximate price yet?

If I can afford it I might be interested in getting you to make one of these for me. Or something similar. I do love me some phasechange'age :D
 
Big thanks to Runmc. Purchased an evaporator/mount on Monday, hear on Wednesday in the afternoon.
Could not be better :) And if he was, he'd have to fend off the women more then I'm sure he has to.
 
Ordered up material for case.
Going with an aluminum structure with mounted aluminum plate for the base. Really sturdy, will let me put huge vibration dampeners on the base, and handles on the top with no worries. Might end up being a nearly 2 person carry job though.

Evaporator will be done shortly, then attached to flex line, and finish up piping before pressure testing. Should be a good day for this thing. Probably will pressure test it until next Tuesday as we await deliveries ;)

A member has expressed some interest in it as well, but doesn't seem to want the full electronic setup, so might install it for the bench event, then remove to help with the costs.
 
Just received the painted white aluminum sheet for case and cut the .1" thick base plate. Lovely material aluminum is. Will have some updates of this things case coming together soon.
 
Extrusion case in the making, baseplate is .09" white painted aluminum plate, and panels are .04" white painted. Bought a bunch of black oxide screw caps for the outside, should look purdy.
Tomorrow the last bits for the case should show up.

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Oh my GAWD!:escape: Gotta luv phase! Wish I could go back to phase cooling. I miss it immensely, but just don't have the room for it :cry:
 
They're will hopefully be more of these events as it all gets more main stream.

You'd be surprised how small a phase can be. Fit right under your computer. And I think I'll be mostly making units in cases from now on to solve the little issues. I want to set a new standard, but I just don't have the ability to produce cases like LittleDevil, and I don't feel my customers want to pay $400 a case.
 
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