Passive WC outta spare aluminum

[Osmo]

I built this about a year and a half ago, give or take a few months, out of bits of aluminum I snagged from college. Worked great, pain in the butt to fill and bleed it though! Sadly the pump died after about 2 weeks and got shelved. Working on a new design, lack of income is slowing me down though.



Anyways, is my first post! Nice to be here :) Pics up in a sec.

[Osmo]

Scavenged bits after machining
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...n/100_1000.jpg

Pic of it working - front
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...n/100_1060.jpg

Back
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...n/100_1064.jpg

Side
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...n/100_1065.jpg

Top close up
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...n/100_1066.jpg


Not much room for bleeding! Was kicking myself when I started filling, huge pain tipping it from side to side working out the bubbles, even worse when it came time to drain.... Next design I hope to make smaller and external, possibly wall mounted or something, need to work out a case design (or buy one that looks nice enough).

[3.0charlie]

Nice design! What were the rig specs? And which pump died?

Welcome to the Forums.

[Osmo]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

Nice design! What were the rig specs? And which pump died?

Welcome to the Forums.

Thanks :)

Sorry about forgetting the proper details. At the time it was an old sempron 3000 on an asus k7n (i think, been a while) with an x800 xt pe agp card (few resistors exploded for unknown reason).

As for the pump, it was a used (poor choice but I was cheaping out) Via Aqua, the ones you see for 30$ on ebay, I got it for free I think. Was a sad day when it kicked.

[MpG]

You built that out of scavenged aluminum? Nice! Innovatek and Zalman charge a ing mint for systems that look remarkably like that.

Be interesting to see a sequel, if it works out.

[Osmo]

Heh thanks :) I originally was looking at those huge passive towers from Zalman, always wanting but never being close to affording. Going through a local 'yard I found some aluminum barrier things you usually see in banks and whatnot, had the lightbulb moment and snatched them up for about 4$ (they're heavy!).

Still trying to save up for a sequal, in theory it could be up and running right now but it'd look like hell next to this 20$ case.

[sswilson]

Very nice indeed. Was there already a channel in the middle of the Aluminum bars or did you have to drill it out?

[Osmo]

Originally Posted by sswilson

Very nice indeed. Was there already a channel in the middle of the Aluminum bars or did you have to drill it out?

It's extruded, so no drilling aside from the drilling/reaming of each end for the pressed in 3/8" od pipe. I had looked into getting either more of the pipe but the 'yard doesn't have any more, and making them would be a pain (I'm not in college anymore).