homebrew heatpipe anyone?

uncleshark · Post by **uncleshark** » Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:57 pm

Has anyone managed to make a homebrew heat pipe?

I think this is the way to go for a totally silent pc. just transfer all the heat from the various systems to the case which with the correct profile should act as a big enough heat sink.

i have looked at heatpipe construction and it seems just out off my reach for making at home. Anyone had any luck????

Bean · Post by **Bean** » Sat Jun 07, 2003 5:25 pm

this one is homemade

http://www.benchtest.com/heat_pipe2_2.html

Yomat · Post by **Yomat** » Sat Jun 07, 2003 10:38 pm

Hmm.. this guy made his own 'gravity'-pipes. Is there no way to buy already made heatpipes with fluid and wick in it? I saw somewhere that there existed elastic bendable (joint locations) ones even. In that case one can, with some metal working, make some blocks to connect to heatspots and Alu case.

uncleshark · Post by **uncleshark** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 6:09 am

This homebrew heat pipe is superb. This has really fired my imagination.

Just need to find some of the refridgerant that was used in the above link. Might try the negative pressure water route instead.

Anyone else done anything like this??

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 7:04 pm

R134a is a standard automotive product.....you can buy the stuff at any auto parts store. In the USA anyway....

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 7:10 pm

you can even buy it at meijer.

uncleshark · Post by **uncleshark** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:04 pm

Looks like it isnt available in the uk. Has anyone got any info on similar refridgerants.

Failing that i cant find any data on acetone at a negative pressure....Anyone?

tm · Post by tm » Mon Jun 09, 2003 2:22 pm

Yomat wrote:Hmm.. this guy made his own 'gravity'-pipes. Is there no way to buy already made heatpipes with fluid and wick in it?

I asked the same question months ago and looked online quite a bit. I wasn't able to find a retailer that sold heatpipes.

Yomat · Post by **Yomat** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:32 am

Well.. probably no retailers that have it, yet anyway. You have to go at companies that manufacture heatsinks and such stuff. Here is one: http://www.ptcheaters.com/. Problem is ofcourse that they dont sell a few items to private customers, they sell to other companies that use it for apps such as laptops and Zalman heatsinks

.

One probably need to act as a company and ask for "samples for experimental purposes" or something like that to get your hands on some.
Possibly one could act as a University also. University experimental facilites use technical items in small quantities.

If one can get some.. then one have to find someone that can do metalworkings to create the appropriate Aluminum or Copper blocks to go with the pipe. Them blocks are simple enough but I think its hard to do without some kind of heavy machinery.

Snipped from another recent thread that also is on the subject: http://www.deltatronic.info/index.html

This seems to be amazingly simple and efficient. Hopefully we will se more of solutions like that in the near future.

ccorayer · Post by **ccorayer** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:32 pm

You can try these guys. I'm not sure how expensive they'd be, but you might always try and get a sample from them.

http://www.avc.com.tw/Heat%20Pipe/index.html#

fmah · Post by **fmah** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 4:09 pm

ccorayer wrote:You can try these guys. I'm not sure how expensive they'd be, but you might always try and get a sample from them.

http://www.avc.com.tw/Heat%20Pipe/index.html#

I'm going to be meeting with their area rep, but I haven't determined the exact configuration I want to use. Probably a block mounting to the CPU which has holes for 4-6 of these heatpipes which goes to a larger block above the processor that is mounted to the chassis panel/large side heatsink.

ccorayer · Post by **ccorayer** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 5:09 pm

I'm going to be meeting with their area rep, but I haven't determined the exact configuration I want to use. Probably a block mounting to the CPU which has holes for 4-6 of these heatpipes which goes to a larger block above the processor that is mounted to the chassis panel/large side heatsink.

Please let us know how this goes and what your prices were. If you do this, please post pictures.

Depending on how your project works, I may try doing this with my Shuttle box and the video card in it. It also seems as though you would end up needing very little airflow, which should also cut noise down, as well as dust accumulation. I'd love to see a someone with a sealed box with all external heatsinks/passive cooling. It'd probably not look very pretty, but should be dead silent if done correctly.

George · Post by **George** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 6:19 pm

I believe Butane (cigarette lighter fluid) can be used as fluid in a heatpipe. It should be readily available. Not sure where one could get the right fittings except from an empty lighter of course

uncleshark · Post by **uncleshark** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 11:12 am

I have seen some comercial designs using butane and am gonna give it a try in the next week or so.

As for the fitting i have two options. The first is to remove a metal filling port from a lighter and use that. The other is to use a refridgerant fitting. Then i could modify a blow torch lamp to fill the pipes with.

I am gonna try 10mm tubes to try and limit the amount of gas in any of the tubes.

Thinking a small test rig first just to see if it will work and if it does maybe three or four tubes connecting a cpu block to a HUGE heat sink on top of the case.....

George · Post by **George** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 1:21 am

I've thought about using the filling port from a lighter i just dont know what the kind of metal they are made out of and if it can be soldered to copper easily. Other ideas Ive had are fitting some sort of glass sight hole so you could see the level of butane in the pipe. Anyone know of any glass "endcaps " that have a threaded end? Or of some type of glue or epoxy that could join copper to glass but yet be resistant to butane.
Another idea: would inserting a fiberglass wick improve the performance I ve seen these wicks used in oil candles before. Would such a wick "burn" inside a heatpipe or would it wick the condensed gas back to the bottom?
plan c: how about a dual layer heatpipe ? : Take 1 copper tube. Then find a second tube with a smaller diameter that would fit sort of snug inside of the first tube. Wrap the outside of the smaller tube with either thin fibre glass (or maybe carbon fibre) mesh. Then insert the tube/mesh into the larger tube. The mesh may act as a wick. It would probably be a good idea to make the inner tube /mesh shorter than the outside tube to leave space for condensation and evaporation. Anyways I have no idea if any of the above ideas are sound or based on any science -just thoughts

homebrew heatpipe anyone?

homebrew heatpipe anyone?

Home brew heat pipe....fantastic

Commercial heat pipes

Re: Commercial heat pipes

Re: Commercial heat pipes

Butane in a heat pipe