Scratch Build – In Progress ECI 33+ (3 Stage Cascade) - Stage 1 Completed

Started on the steel frame. Simple spot welds, then a nice line on the insides. Have to get a piece of MDF tomorrow, slot the corners, weld up the sides and the "carriage" for the heat exchangers". Then she might get some paint

 

1" steel square beam (2.54cm square).
Not sure if it's going to get any paint actually. But here is the base finished. 1.25 inch squares were cut in the corners, so that the vertical framing can be welded in later.

Heavy duty here, those wheels are rated at 80kg a piece, and I hope they won't have a problem

Only parts missing now are the evaporator and flexible line, flexible line is ordered, and I'm waiting on a quote for the evaporator I want made for this. That and the 115V/60HZ motor which is on it's way.

(Oh and had the flexline, but decided I wanted 6 feet instead of 4 feet)

 

That looks very strong

 

How big will this thing be? Can't wait to see this finished.

 

The base is 38" x 19". I expect it to be 24" tall.

 

That's gonna be one massive cascade when it's done.

 

Obviously I haven't touched this in a while. Had shoulder surgery and medical school keeps you low on time. So back to work on it.
Today I finished the base, swapped first and second stage to new QK191CAB compressors (1hp), and made mounting brackets for every part.

Also got some brazing done.

 

Beyond me, but looking epic. Keep it coming.

 

Glad to hear you are back working on this .

 

I almost forgot about this
This is going to be epic when it is finished!

 

She's almost totally piped up. Just waiting on the condenser fan. Big 1/3hp 3 speed that will probably get turned way the hell down but was the only thing I could find that fit the bolt pattern of the old fan.

 

This thing is going to be MASSIVE!

 

Holy flying pink nimbus cloud of heat exchanger goodness! Points to anyone who can say that five times fast.
So, my welding has been getting rather good. I quickly slashed up and put together a frame around the HX box base. Angle on the long side, square on the short side. Sit's in there rather nicely. So then, how to add it to the beast? Clearly it's going on top. But how? Well, some plate steel, some more square, and some horrible guess and check and guess and check and guess and check. Ta da, it works. One supports really good, the first one is a bit leaning but again, easily supporting 10 pounds of copper and foam and valves. Plenty of clearance too for future pipe work inside the platform. This might really end up being amazing. It also puts the CPEV's right in easy access range to the front. Well. Sorta.

On to the pictures.

 

About time!
Okay so this had a 1/3hp 230vac motor on here. Sadly this meant that, to get a 110vac motor and keep the same fan grill and fan blades, I had to find specific mounting holes. A big thank you goes out to Copeland for there wonderful sourcing department, who actually found me the matching 110vac motor to their 230vac motor in bolt size and everything... and then showed me where to buy it at the cheapest price FROM A COMPETITOR. I must say; that is not necessarily "customer service" but it is certainly "customer assistance" at it's maximum.

A pondering of new bolts later, finding this wasn't mounted on 8-32's but 10'-24's, a redrilling of a few holes in the mounting bracket, and kabam the condenser was ready. So what happens when you finally turn on a 1/3hp motor attached to a very large 16" fan that still hasn't actually been bolted down? Oh nothing; except the entire cascade started rolling in the opposite direction.

Did I mention it's a tight fit?

Compressor 1 and 2 aren't going to have "cooling" issues.

 

That is some great customer service, they didn't need to go out of their way for you but they did, that's what I like to see. I can't wait for more of this mod.

 

Everything but the connections to the box are done; box is now being slightly remade to have a bit more support and insulation for the inner chamber HX.

 

Hey a little update; she's all brazed up except the flex and evaporator (still need to decide who's Evap is going on this!). So I began to pressure test the first stage.
I hooked up my N2 to the high side schrader and slowly increase the pressure.

Then something odd happened.

I'm checking my gauges on the front of this thing, and the high side one rises, but the low doesnt. So I figured I had a bad CPEV. Then I realized what it was.
The CPEV was set at 0psi.
So it was locking out the N2 flow.
With a laugh I opened up the CPEV and ta-da pressure on the low side. Fun to be able to adjust it all over. Can pop out the schrader on the low side and make N2 do whatever pressure I'd like. Like a miny regulator!

Pictures! (Sorry camera on phone)

 

I know I have said it before but that thing is HUGE! Excellent work though, I can't wait to see what temps you can achieve.

 

I'm a bit too confused to really appreciate what you are doing here, but i'm quire sure it's pretty damn epic!

 

Do yuo think you could fit GPU blocks into the cooling loop? As a cascade that could cool a whole system... well epic doesn't even describe it...