radiator construction?

[ssjwizard]

hey has anyone here ever build ther own radiator?? if so how did it turn out and what kind of results did you get? im thinking of doing one for myself just for kicks but not sure what im gona do yet

 

[Diggrr]

This is what I'd do. Awesome surface area, little backpressure, and unmatched airflow. All you need is a quiet housefan (which I do), If it weren't for running a bong right now, I'd probaly do it!

 

[ssjwizard]

well what im planing on doing is taking some sheets of aluminm at 0.065" thick cutting htem into fins 4" wide and 1" deep and drilling holes into them and solder 3/8" coper tubing to it to use in my refridgeration system.

 

[JFettig]

yea i did kinda... what i did is modded a heatercore, i took one, took off the fittings and all that jibberish so its just the metal tubes and fins, then i cut it(because it was enormous!) into 2 peices one to fit 2 80s on it and one to fit 2 60s on it, and made plexiglass ends and copper tube fititngs, if i had a camera id send a pic, they look really cool!

 

[ssjwizard]

well this radiator isnt for water im going to be passing freon through it. since its going to be in the return loop on the far side of the res

 

[KingB]

This is what I'd do. Awesome surface area, little backpressure, and unmatched airflow. All you need is a quiet housefan (which I do), If it weren't for running a bong right now, I'd probaly do it!

The pictures places this radiator on the floor. Hopefully you could have your rig near the same elevation or you will have a ton of headloss do to the large elevation difference (ie: need a really good/expensive pump). I'm not sure about frictional losses in these systems either, thats a lot of tubing to have to flow your fluid through. If frictional losses in these systems are negligable and you could have a reasonable elevation defference throughout the system, it seems like a good solution to me. Having that copper coil run through chilled water would even be better.

 

[Diggrr]

I know that frictional losses would play a part in it, as it would in any radiator. The great surface area in a heater core would also have the same effect, just in a smaller area, though it would have less surface area than the tubing/fan setup.

As for pump head losses, that only seams to be a big problem in open systems like a bong. An enclosed system is given a boost against head loss by the syphon effect, and the weight of the water flowing down the opposite side of the system, so there's less head loss than one might think.

I had my heatercore in the basement under my desk, and the headloss was less than with the 5' bong sitting next to my desk. The pump's only inches from the same spot. That's also the same place I'd put the above posted system, because it is always 10-15C down there...year round.

'Sides, I'm looking at the BIG Eheim for my next pump, or maybe even dual Maxi-jet 1200's....haven't quite decided yet.

 

[RoadWarrior]

That link Diggr posted is almost exactly like what I'm going to try. I've got a 1/8 Hp motor with a 3 blade fan that fits on the shaft, I'm enclosing that in a bucket or part of a bucket, for safeties sake and mounting, and on the blow end I'm winding a coil of copper tubing. I was just going to have an open coil, but recently picked up some aluminum solder on sale, so, I'm going to try adding a few spacer/support fins to it to make the coil solid and to add some extra cooling area. Those will be aluminum. Going to have them about an inch and a half apart, linking adjacent loops of the coil. I think I'm going to cut them out square and cutout halfrounds on opposite corners and fit them diamondwise. I might have enough tubing that I make a loose coil on the suck side of the fan also, That will save rigging some kind of grille.

So a coil of copper, some ally strip or plate and aluminum solder is a good start.

regards,

Road Warrior