I actually read all 11 pages, lol so much excitement in the beginning , then it all dies down. I had a few things I wanted to put out,
The compressor they originally pictured isnt that great, as you can tell by the original posted specs, -40 idle, -12 load, thats horrible, but if as intended, $300 bucks, heck, thats do-able at that price. Regassing it to r404 and cutting the cap tube some (or adding) could give you a lower "hold under load" temp, but given the size of the compressor, it wouldnt be much more, possibly -20, at a high heat temp off the compressor, which in turn would need faster fans to cool it off, otherwise it overloads itself and (im sure others have seen this) the compressor just cannot dissapate the heat load and starts to just get hotter.
As for the block, while chilly does have a good rep for making nice blocks, Ive always prefered Baker blocks, which I have on two of my units. Ive played around with a few of Chillys units back when I was with XR. As I said, great work, nothing negative to say about him
Just a matter of preference on parts and design.
The shipping excuse, is just that, an excuse, Ive had four units shipped to me , and Ive shipped those out and recieved em back. I sent my mach I to Bowman in the east coast, and he sent it back regassed and retuned. I bought my mach II gt from Jinu, and shipped that to a buddy to mess with in New York, and he shipped it back (using freekin pillows on each side in a standard cardboard box lol). My Vapo LS has survived three trips to PC Ice's place (an hour and thirty minute drive) in my trunk with my 15" speakers pounding away. All in all, they can handle some stress, they wouldnt need a pallet, Bowman shipped my unit back from the east coast all he had to do is remove the side panels and insert peanuts in the box, and zip tie two small pieces of wood to the bottom of th unit to prevent it from rolling onto its side, but it all fit into a nice little box, and arrived via UPS 3 day.
As for homemade units, when youve worked on phase change units for a while, you start to get really really picky on who takes it apart, and who gets to freak with your unit. PC Ice, and Jin, are both located in Southern California, an I have there contact information, they both build outstanding units, and are affordable, usually around $400 will get you a nice custom units, in a nice looking aluminum case.
Ill contact them on Monday, and see how their current workload is, and see if they will allow me to post an contact email for em.
