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Copper Cap Water Block

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PAYDIRT!

today, i went to ace's...didnt have them....went to this little store across the street...run by russians, where you cant even like see anything, they hafta check in back for your part...THEY HAD IT!..so i got 2..only cost me 8.50$ so far for the 2 ...im going out an a matter of minutes to solder my rad and dremel my caps.
 
I'm pretty sure they have 2" caps where I work - plumbing dept at Home Depot (how odd, right?) I can tell you 2" copper is rediculously hard to sell, since its only typical use by customers of a 'home improvement' store is capping off a oddball drainpipe in a 100 year old house. Usually old drains are iron, new drains are PVC, and drains put in by (IMO) morons are copper. In the 7 months I've worked there, only one person has asked for a 2" fitting. The largest copper tubing we sell is 1", although sometimes a 2" stick magicly appears...I'm not even sure if there was a SKU for it when the last one was sold.

Regardless, the best thing to use if you can find copper would be PVC. :D Seriously, I'd recommend getting a 12" long bar of 1/8" x 3" brass. Chop it up, solder it together, and your good. Not as easy of course. As for the top, any peice of thicker brass would work, just use a polyurethane caulk around the edges (acetic acid in normal two-part silicone tends to corrode the mating surface in aluminum and copper).

One last thing, you should make the cap block very shallow to help increase water velocity. Being so thin at 1/16" means that heat won't be traveling very far.


One last thing, I'll admit there are some idiots that HD employs, but I work my butt off. Plumbing mistakes can really suck...
 
ok..so i jsut shot a good hour anda half working....most i got was cutting a hole in my second case for the rad..my problem is, my damn solder sticks to nothing....what exactly do i need? flux or soemthing? anyone have a guide or something? also apparently the pipes on my rad are brass...go figure

also what i think im gonna do is keep the caps the size they are, rather cut them...and use copper stock, staples, wire, and other various copper to get more surface area covered and make like a twist shape (like in the beehive block)
 
MadSkillzMan said:
my problem is, my damn solder sticks to nothing....what exactly do i need? flux or soemthing? anyone have a guide or something? also apparently the pipes on my rad are brass...go figure
Click to expand...

you do need flux and a good deal of heat, brass is made from copper and I found that a good acid core flux with a torch will allow it to be soldered. but if not careful, you could unsolder the whole top of your rad just like I did before I learned that! :bang head
 
I really would not try to get to fancy with the copper cap when ther is a really good top available, the 2" brass door pull!
inserted and glued with marine JBWeld into the copper cap like so:

004.jpg


then there is no reason to work so hard making the waterblock! but solder the barbs onto the brass pull first and test fit the thing so the cap will not block off any flow from the barbs.
I tossed together a really quick idea of how it fits. The Pic above gives a live demo of how much work not to do :D :

CCWB.jpg
 
The best way to prep copper and brass is to scuff it up heavily with a scotchbrite pad, clean it with alcohol & cotton balls, flux it, put it together, then indirectly heat the joint. The key is to keep the flame from the mating surfaces, since it can oxidize & contaminate the surfaces.
 
hah i never knew dirt could be such a pain in such a simple task.

i didnt know you had 3 barbs on yours...the 3/8 one is for removeal i assume? my whole setup so far is 1/2" ID..i was thinking of using barbs similar to what i put on the heatercore (those ones that dont allow the hose to slip off easily) alongside with clamps, since i dont want to take ANY chances in hurting puter.
 
The first one I made had 2 3/8 coppertubes as barbs the next 2 have to have the barbs that I show in the Paint drawing above somewhere. I found from a small test model that it gives better performance doing it that way. I will in the next few hours post another M$paint thing why.
 
ghetto comp, after much tinkering, i have a revision to your design.

i got this idea from my dad, after having a hard time soldering brass to brass....it would stick, but i just didnt trust it. So what to do....well i needa go find a pipe threader.

I also read, that someone was toying with the idea of soldering copper plates to a heatsink, they did a test where they encased the HS in silicone, (which i dont trust) but they got LOW temps. something like 28C easily...so...i pondered..we all have old heatsinks laying around, why not recycle them?

waterblock.jpg

im going to use a pair of p3 heatsinks, chop it up with the dremel so it fits nicelyinside the cap, then solder it to the bottom. i was figuring on leaving the flat bottom part on, unless u guys think itd be better to take it off?

Also, i dnk bout you guys, i dont trust my solder work just yet. not with all the cash i put into my dually. So what i am going to do, is thread the pipe on my rad, then find fittings for it to put those nice air barbs on. Im filling the threads with silicone and teflon tape, just to be extra sure.

As for the cap, i cant avoid soldering all together...The heatsink will be soldered into the cup,, as will the brass, but for the barbs, again i will thread some 1/2" pipe, and twist it thru the 1/2" holes on the brass pull. I will then place nuts on each side, again with the teflon and silicone.

I am one of those whod worry about it spilling open. ANd i see it was mentioned testing it with 80PSI. id be alittle more enclined to doing that test if i get the pipe threading to work, i just hafta find a threader now.

EDIT: Ghetto comp, send me ur pics for the tutorial, i can make em in 3Dsmax for better illustration
 
There is a flaw in that, but it should beable to be fixed, the extra thickness would kill performance. I would do something like flatten the top of the HS and solder the top of the pins to the bottem of the WB, then have the top fun water in. Pretty much flip the HS upsidedown.
 
ill probably do it taht way then, unless i can find a copper HS laying around....i think i have some copper ones from garbage picked P1's, the low profiles ones
 
MadSkillzMan said:
ghetto comp, after much tinkering, i have a revision to your design.

i got this idea from my dad, after having a hard time soldering brass to brass....it would stick, but i just didnt trust it. So what to do....well i needa go find a pipe threader.

I also read, that someone was toying with the idea of soldering copper plates to a heatsink, they did a test where they encased the HS in silicone, (which i dont trust) but they got LOW temps. something like 28C easily...so...i pondered..we all have old heatsinks laying around, why not recycle them?


im going to use a pair of p3 heatsinks, chop it up with the dremel so it fits nicelyinside the cap, then solder it to the bottom. i was figuring on leaving the flat bottom part on, unless u guys think itd be better to take it off?

Also, i dnk bout you guys, i dont trust my solder work just yet. not with all the cash i put into my dually. So what i am going to do, is thread the pipe on my rad, then find fittings for it to put those nice air barbs on. Im filling the threads with silicone and teflon tape, just to be extra sure.

As for the cap, i cant avoid soldering all together...The heatsink will be soldered into the cup,, as will the brass, but for the barbs, again i will thread some 1/2" pipe, and twist it thru the 1/2" holes on the brass pull. I will then place nuts on each side, again with the teflon and silicone.

I am one of those whod worry about it spilling open. ANd i see it was mentioned testing it with 80PSI. id be alittle more enclined to doing that test if i get the pipe threading to work, i just hafta find a threader now.

EDIT: Ghetto comp, send me ur pics for the tutorial, i can make em in 3Dsmax for better illustration
Click to expand...

teflon tape is evil - stick with silicone or rtv
 
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