Guides How To Make Custom-Length O-Rings for Distro Plates

Weird. Wardogz's comment isn't showing up in the forum space. Anyway, I agree with Alex that 90 cuts are good enough for the low-end sealing we do. Trying to glue a tiny cord at an angle is an *sspain.
You are doing great. I'll continue to be the lone person not posting youtube comments.

 

It's possible Wardogz comment is being moderated for the forum.

If Wardogz had actually read the article he/she would have noted that a cut at 45º is recommended but not necessarily done for reasons.

 

Yeah not sure about the reply says removed for me but everybody can see it, peculiar.

Yeah the o-ring cutting thing was one of those classic cases of ideal vs practical. I think for larger o-rings it would be 100% better to go with the diagonal cut as suggested by all the official materials, but for the smaller diameter ones I found it just made the seal less effective in fact.

I’ve never had any leaks using the flat cut for a waterblock, whereas I did for the diagonal one as getting the length exactly right was much harder. Obviously it can be done but it just seems more error prone for the smaller sizes. Also we’re working with low pressures and compression ratios here so it’s not very stressful on the join. A bigger issue really is the o-ring denaturing over time and needing replacing, which is worth considering for daily use rigs.

 

I love how you whipped out the QuantuMikes to measure some rubber . I'm a bit of a MItutoyo fanboy myself:

 

Very noice! I'm glad it was noticed haha, feel like the odd tool here and there are Easter eggs in the vids now

 

It's a good touch, it got a genuine laugh out of me. I was going to make a joke about needing to measure rubber to the nearest micron but then I had flashbacks to grinding rubber to +/- 0.001".

edit: Just to add to actual topic I have to agree with Maki that it's difficult to cut short lengths at an angle and get it perfect. A flexible superglue and lining up the ends perfectly are just as important to get a good seal.

 

Have you tested this approach over an extended period? As far as I'm aware, Loctite Flex is only water-resistant, not water-proof. With graphics cards costing £1000+ I would want to know the bond was going to last.

 

Well I've had rigs running daily since 2014 that are still watertight. By daily I also mean used every day with coolant, carted to LANs in a suitcase, shipped abroad with coolant inside etc.

 

I've used the same method when making an O ring for a very old water block I had. It held up for a year before I stopped using it, but never leaked.

You only get one shot at the gluing bit though. I found that out the hard way. Once the glue dries on the tips they won't bond so you have to start again. Not so good on crappy old eyes like mine, so I used a small clamp to hold at least one end of it steady.