DOH!

[Starbuck3733T]

:rant: :rant: :rant:

Boy am I feckin dumb! I was heating the HDD waterblock I'm building on the stove to put the FINAL piece on (the one that has the fittings sweated to it) and proceeded (due to the fact I was impatient and flipped it on its biggest side so it would heat faster) to break it back apart!

DOH!

Anyway, With quick thinking I got the one drive mating surface I had seperated back on, reheated it, and put my trusty 5LB weight on top.

Let it stand for about 20 minutes then quenced it. Leaked like a SIV, which it hadn't done before. No leaks. At all.

So I just heated it back up after wirebrushing the parts that were leaking with my dremel & fluxing them, and resolder it. Its cooling off again now, lets hope that fixed the problem.

now how the hell am I going to get this thing hot enough... torch is enough, oven isn't enough, stovetop is the only thing close.

Fortuneatly, the surface i am trying to solder to got partially tinned already, so once I wirebrush it and reflux, reheat, it should be cake to get things flowing again.

I hope. I just have to be more patient and find a way to keep it upright.

I suppose I could put a scrap piece of copper down and let my clamp rest on that...

Hrm. this has been helpful. got my brain working again after working out some of my PISSED OFF.

That is all.

[Starbuck3733T]

Har har! it did fix, one small leak left though, and I cleaned and refluxed it.. its directly on the burner to heat the top, along with some clamps to a.) hold it together and b.) add stabilization so i don't knock it over.

i suspect with all that heat it will reflow with the existing solder rather easily.

Now I can only hope the top will get hot enough so I can braze it and be done with it.

[Starbuck3733T]

OH PISS ON IT

I GIVE UP!

Trying to fix the last leak ever and the whole thing came apart.

fSck() this, the design sucks, and I can't make it work for the life of me. GOD DAMN $60 mistake in COPPER.

fScK()!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dutchcedar]

I feel your pain...

Been there, done that (not soldering, but you get the idea...). :rolleyes:

Take a break... find a bottle of beer... look at it again tomorrow. :rant:

[Knipex]

Send me some pics. specs on the solder flux etc and I will see what I can do for ya.

I have a family full of old fashioned trades men and i know at least 1 who is a dab hand at soldering copper.

[Starbuck3733T]

oh its not bad technique, its just a bad design for the tools I have. If I had possessed a giant C clamp last night it'd have been fine. That and a belt grinder, surfaces didn't mate as they should have so i attempted to fill the gaps with buttloads of solder.

Bah! Humbug! The silentstar will be better anyway, it has the soundproofing and I dont have a problem paying for it.

Thanks for the offer though. I <3 you guys.

[fillip]

V. useful thread from my point of view since i'm making my own in the summer.

at least from your bad fortune Star i know where i need to pay attention and not try to cut corners.

[Starbuck3733T]

Im looking forward to seeing it fillip.

I suppose i'll detail the failure at somepoint with the various pics from my digicam.

What kinda tubing is the block going to be used with in your system fillip?

In complete hindsight, had I used a half-inch thick HDD sized solid copper core to begin with, and drilled/hacksawed my channel into it, this would have worked fine. I was trying to be clever and save materials, but it did not work out. I also run a 1/2ID system, so I was trying to keep things as free-flowing as possible - thats why the gigantic sizes.

Oh well.

On another note, I just did an advanced-replacement RMA with Maxtor (who ate Quantum) for one of my Atlas 10K III 18.2GB u160s... When I fired up the system to transcode from ReplayTV MPG2 to DivX (friends missed 24) without the 2nd drive (My server 2003 drive), I noticed how much quieter it was. Like WAAAAAAAAYYYY quiter. Plugged the 2nd u160 back in and sure enough, it was much much louder than the primary HDD (which is the exact same model). All spindle noise.

Went to the MAxtor RMA site and put in the serial #, Its in warranty until 10/1/2006!!! Woot! (gotta love 3 year SCSI warranties). Gave them my info and:

Ship To
MATTHEW SPRINSKY
XXXXXXXXXXX
BELLEFONTE , PA 16823
USA
5707693265
RMA Type &nbsp;Advanced

Serial Number &nbsp;Status &nbsp;Tracking Number
342123050662 &nbsp;[b]Your replacement drive will ship within the next 2 business days.[/b]

PS: Anything thicker than 2mm mating plates (my block was to be sandwhiched between 2 drives) is waaaaaaaay overkill. I was using 4mm.

PPS: A solid center, rather than the break-bent 1/2" x 1/4" thick bar I Was using would make life much easier, for both construction and assembly.

PPPS: No-Spin shanks on drill bits used on copper are a GOOD thing.

PPPPS: Heating things on the electric stove works remarkably well.

PPPPPS: Make your top and bottom plates slightly bigger (2 or 3mm perhaps) than the core, makes them much easier to just drop in place when the solder is molten on the center bit.

[Pug]

Damn Star. Unlucky break.
It's all good learning though, thanks for sharing. :)
It's a bit different to electronics soldering, ain't it? Despite the fact that it's a similar principle the scale makes a hell of a difference.

I'm not sure now that I've seen your design for this, y'know. Is there any way of reducing the number of joints you have to solder?
Otherwise, if it would take less heat to sweat the fittings on than what you're doing at this point, would it be easy enough to sweat the fittings on after this stage is complete instead?

PPPPS: Heating things on the electric stove works remarkably well.
Fairly off-topic but I'd been giving thought as to how well that would work for wblock/rad testing recently but can't think of a good clamping system...

[Starbuck3733T]

Once I soldred things together I placed a 5LB flat weight (the kind you use on a curl bar) on top of it to hold it down.

*shivers* must post pics of it I suppose.... *I SUMMON THEE, WINVNC!*

Ack, der linux boxen ist off!