In preparation for my upcoming mod + WC I made a SketchUp model of a custom res I'd like to do. I'm pretty horrible at SketchUp and this was made in a bit of a hurry, so I'm not really asking for a critique on the appearance. What I need to know is whether a res can work like this. I've seen some pictures of them in action and basic science suggests that this should work but I'd rather make sure. Just in case the images are unclear, the little black nubs are meant to be screws, the fittings are 2 Koolance compression fittings from the SCC (thanks Dark En3rgy!) and a DangerDen Fillport, again from the SCC (SirIronDuke, thanks!). The tube is going to be acrylic (3mm thick) and the grey stuff is aluminum (end-caps and rods). Kerkythea Render (again, excuse the quality, I have no idea what I'm doing) SU screenshot: SU screenshot: SU screenshot: And a sketchup file for those who have the time and would be willing to look it over: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M3T75G53 Thanks in advance
That design should be okay as long as you have a way to mount it, I wouldn't leave it just hanging in-line with your tubing. With the inlet and outlet on top-and-bottom it could be awkward to mount it well. If you do get around to making it, make sure you pressure-test it a bit before using it, just to make sure it's leakproof. You'd get more use out of it if you tap G1/4" threaded holes for fittings rather than building fittings permanently into it, but building the fittings into it permanently will make it less prone to leaking, depending on your skills at tapping.
It looks like the res from Stievius link: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1575897&postcount=41 Maybe u could do the same?
You're really helpful mate, thanks a lot! Like I said, it's a (very) rough approximation of what I have in my head I'll definitely do a proper leak/pressure test and will be using G1/4" holes for the fittings (and a one-inch hole for the fill-port). I might even mount the fill-port in the intended location in my HAF932 and run some tubing down to a barb/compression fitting. The thing is, in many reservoirs I see that both the inlet and outlet are submerged. So should I move both my compression fittings to the bottom? Yeah, that is very similar! Thanks for pointing that out, I'll have a look at his project log and see what I can figure out
Most reservoirs like this have a tube running down over the top inlet so you have a place to catch air. The tube stops splashing that recirculates air bubbles. Another way to fix it would be to put both inlet and outlet on the bottom. Then you might need to put a plate between them to stop vortexes. For mounting, you could flatten the end caps into D shapes, and tap holes for screws in the flat bit.
Will try a redesign with the inlet+outlet on the bottom. What sort of 'plate' do you mean exactly? And what do you mean by 'flatten the end caps'? Either way, I have a (sort of) plan for the mounting already. If I was better at SU, I'd have been more elaborate
Speed SU... Flat end for mounting to a panel. the gray bit is a baffle you would put between the ports. For the fillport... you can do that. most people run a line from the res to the port and mount the port on the outside of the case. Your way would work if you plan to pull the res for filling/draining. (It would be easier that way too. Otherwise you have to tilt the whole case to drain.)
Wow. The words 'speed' and 'sketchup' don't go in the same sentence for me Have to learn that someday. Ok, so a baffle about a third the height of the tube? Can do. The 'D'-shaped extension seems like a sound idea, but machining aluminum like that would be insanely hard (I'm a manual lathe guy, not a CNC cutting guy). I have something in mind for the mounting anyway. Just need to get it from pencil + paper to SketchUp. The fillport I think will go on the res, for ease of drain/fill, like you said. Gives me an excuse to cover that ugly fillport hole on the HAF 932 too Thanks a lot for the input Cheapskate!
You do need a way for water to change direction and for the air to settle to the top, otherwise it will just keep recirculating. If both barbs are in the bottom, then a divider plate that goes most of the way to the top is needed. You can keep the inlet and outlet at different ends of the res, but make a divider between the two. Here is a design for a res that I am going to use in my new build in the very near future. I will be made out of 1/4" cast acrylic. I have made my own reservoirs for years now as the commercial ones just don't cut it to me. The divider plate goes all the way to the top with about a 1/2"wx1/2"h slot in the middle. If you are going to use aluminum for the ends, you have the problems with corrosion to deal with, plus you need a way to cut channels for 0-rings. It is a lot easier to just solvent weld acrylic. If done via capillary method using cast acrylic, it will last forever.
Thanks for the help voigts. Yeah, the corrosion problem occured to me yesterday. Already started on a redesign wherein the aluminum will end up being cosmetic. No contact with the water at all. What is solvent welding? A way to attach the fittings, or piecing the acrylic together? I'll have some new sketchups in a day or so. We'll see what I can come up with. EDIT: Got it. using solvent to glue the acrylic together. I've done it before, just never knew what it was called.
For that design, wouldn't you have to make sure that you don't lose too much water over time. Your only outlet to the other side of the res. is through the top, and if the water lvl were to drop too low, wouldn't it break the loop?
Good question. I won't use solvent on the middle piece where it meets the bottom so that water can leak under it to the other side. I did this with my current res and it works like a charm-water goes through, but air bubbles don't. IPS Weld-On #3 or Tap Plastics solvent (same thing) is my weapon of choice. It is a great solvent for doing capillary method joining of acrylic. I test my reservoirs hooked up to the kitchen sink at roughly 30 psi to make sure they hold pressure. If they hold at that pressure, they won't leak. Of course I make sure not to have any type of alcohol in the loop as alcohol+acrylic=trouble.
Confirmed: Tennessee has alcohol running through the tap. Your design doesn't leave much space for air. I would think it would be better to have some open area for slowing of flow/separation of bubbles. Getting the seal on the side of a curved surface isn't something I'd recommend to a first time builder, either. For pressure testing I prefer a garden hose. When something fails, it can be a real soaker. @Stonedsurd - You don't have a way to mount an oblong part in the lathe? All you need the lathe for would be the O-ring channels.
I thought we were going to keep the Aluminum clear of the loop (corrosion worries)? The lathe will only be used for machining the aluminum caps and the support rods. Sort of like aluminum cosmetics on an acrylic res similar to voigts'. I think I'll make my separator like this: _________ |.... ___.....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |.....|__|....| |................| |................| |________| With the rectangle in the middle being the channel to allow the water through. Not too high, not too low. With the fittings in the acrylic, all that's left to do is cut holes (or rectangles) in the aluminum to let them poke through.
The point of the separator is to keep two bottom inlets away from each other. If the base is open, it doesn't work. If you are doing a top and bottom inlet, you want the separator attached to the top, so there's a spot to trap air away from the flow. If you have access to machine tools like a lathe, you can fuse layers of plexi together to make big chunks, and cut them to make O-ring seal-able base caps. The aluminum could be cut in rings that seat over and cover the end caps. (The top-mounted separator would need a glued on lid to work.) The plus side of doing all that extra work would be that you could change the tube out if it doesn't suit your needs.
I knew there was something funky with the water here, but I couldn't put my finger on it... I haven't found that having area for air to settle helps bleeding particularly. If you change the direction that the water is flowing and make it travel as far as you can through the res, the air will rise and not get sucked back in. With the side inlet, the water will slam into the divider and have to travel up first which should keep the bubbles at the top. As far as the seal on the curved surface goes, his design doesn't call for it. I was just giving an image of the one I am going to build. It actually isn't hard to do as all you have to do is use a wood spade bit to just drill enough to make a flat bottomed hole big enough for the barb and o-ring to fit and seal, then drill out the rest of the thread hole with the smaller sized bit needed for the threads. Mind you I'm using 1/4" acrylic to do it. Actually I used to use a kitchen sink because I have an old waterbed fill adapter which allows me to screw straight into the sink when using NPT threads. Now that I'm using G1/4" threads, I use my air compressor to pressurize the reservoir to about 25psi (as well as my whole loop for leak testing at about 7psi). I just cap off the fillport and one barb, and attach the airhose via adapters to the other barb. I have an inline gauge so I can read the pressure I'm putting into the res (we're talking cheap gauge from Harbor Freight Tools).
