MODS PLEASE LOCK - MOVED TO NEW FORUM :D!!!

very nice!

 

Goodies ordered from McMaster-Carr

Can you spot the problem?

.

.

.

Yup. I ordered 1/16" wall 1/2 tubing. It could bite me in the ass, or maybe it's not so bad. We'll find out.

 

I follow the process of your case from Argentine

Dude your work is excelent!

(1st post!)

 

that's awesome - fans across the world. Thanks!

 

With all this new stuff going on, I need a (another!) reservior. My first one was custom, but I pretty much did not know what I was doing. Now that I am older and wiser... I will do the custom thing again. Most of this to be cut from 1/4" gloss black plexi (same stuff as the base plate of the bezel).

A few hours in SketchUp (yes, a few HOURS - I must get better at this silly program) and this is what we have. I then exported the perspectiveless drawings to DXF and pulled them into Qcad to remove the unneccessary parts and layers and to set the dimensions. I've got to load illustrator on to this machine so I can slap them all on the same sheet, then its off to ben to have them cut.

The res sits vertically despite what the images may have you thinking, the side with the 4 small holes faces inward towards the rest of teh chassis. the long hole is an inspection port and will be backed with 1/8" smoked gray plexi, and backlit from the inside with white LEDs. (ooooh..)

The 4 small holes are for the plug-and-cool G1/4s. The large hole is a 1/2" NPT (3/4") hole for the output to the pump.




Ahhh! an X-Ray!



I've still gotta knock together the mounting rails, but that'll be easy.

 

here's the whole thing, in the proper orientation (up is up, the fittings face the rear of the case, etc.)

 

Looks really good, cant wait to see it with some hardcore water action going on, loving the front btw

 

nice

 

After bouncing e-mails back and forth with Ben at Mountain Mods about getting my res laser cut, it's in progress... so that and the glue-up of it will likely be the next update.

The machinist, Chris, who I work with at the MRI was in a bad accident and will be out for quite a while, so no mill action for a bit. he's doing well, and I'll miss talking with him... I've got a lot to learn from him.

On to the show.

Part I: F is for Flow

It so happens that the eheim 1250's outlet is 3/8" NPT, so it seemed logical that the barbs I ordered from mcmaster would fit. Well... they went in about 2/3 of the way and stopped. The thing about NPT is that it's tapered so the threads near the top of the hole are the farthest apart. If it wasn't initally tapped for the proper depth of fitting, you get my problem. Luckily, I own a full assortment of NPT taps! Away we go!


No problem. Note the evil huge 3/4" ID barb on the inlet. the 1250 gains a lot more head when it's fed with a 3/4" ID inlet. (I learned this a long, long time ago on procooling - the pump shot water ~2 feet in the air with a 1/2" inlet, and ~6 feet in the air with a 3/4"!)


(Points at 6/8 tubing) "You call that tubing" (pulls out 3/4" ID tubing) "Now this is tubing". The 1/2" ID stuff may or may not get used, I accidentally bought thin wall. if it works, fine, but if it doesn't I'll trade somebody at the lab for some 1/2"ID with 1/8" walls.


Part II: Boiling Black Cauldron

Black Rit dye, meet pot, pot, black rit dye. Thanks to zittware and his project, I decided to try out dying my polypropelene fittings black to match the rest of my case. Word to the wise - this stuff smells like nasty feet when it boils, makes a huge mess, and will stain anything it comes in contact with. Don't do it with the wife's good pots. I pulled this old thing out from my bachelor pot collection...


Stainless steel tube (scrap from another project) bent to hold the fittings up from the (very hot) bottom of the pot.


In we go..


Black cauldron (peeee-uuuuuuuu this stinks!)


Before and after. The odd thing is that they came out a bit green. Which is wierd, considering the dye is black and even diluted the dye is dark purple. I'm not sure if I like it. What do you guys think?


Dark fittings...


...or light fittings?


Post your opinion, I'd appreciate it.

Until next time, kids.

 

dark, all though they do look noticable green, i guess if your not really going to be examining them up close it should be fine.

 

i prefer the looks of the dark fittings, matches better - looks less obvious

personally i would of got some brass barbs, bored them out slightly and painted them black!

 

I would try to order the same fittings in black from McMaster carr...I have bought black fittings from them before no problem. How colorfast will those be after several months exposed to the coolant loop? that would blow if the color leeched out into your blocks or tubes. Just my 2 cents

 

If there are better ones out there and affordable, go for them. If not, or you ain't interested... go for the dark ones, way better than the light ones.

 

prefer dark ones, though as stated have green colour to them.

 

Go for the dark ones. What if you put them in a second time? Or does it not work that way?

 

nice stuff. keep it up

 

Re: color leaching - hadn't thought of that... will consider diff barbs from mcmaster. (I should buy stock in them!) I'll test the theory out by letting them soak in a bucket until I replumb the loop, which might be a while since the res is just being cut today and I've still gotta order the acrylic cement, and refabricate the pump mount.

As far as putting the fittings in again, I boiled them for 15 minutes but checked them at 5 minute intervals... not much of a change from 10 minutes to 15, so I doubt longer would make difference.

I'll run with the black ones for the time being, once their in the case the black won't be as obvious.

*kicks self* that means I've gotta dye the fitting for the splitter...

Thanks for the feedback, I was really on the fence and now I know which way I'm going.

 

spraypaint the dark fittings instead

 

effing A! 3/4" on pump inlets is the only way to go!

As for the barbs, you know that in the end you will always come back to black, baby!

 

Try dying it a few more times... It might work out...

Anyway, re: the mod so far, I'm impressed... 19 pages dating from last year!!! KEep up the good work