Copper Themed Mod

[toxent]

Greeting TBCS,

I've been lurking these forums for a little while now. Admiring some of the excellent mods here.

I have neither the talent, nor the attention to detail that some of you guys have, but i've had an idea for a mod in my head since before i ever found this site. I'm going to have a decent oportunity to make it happen soon. So i thought i would post about my idea here and get some opinions and tips before i get started.

My idea is for a Copper themed Mod. I will use actual copper for as much of the materials as possible. Also this will be a water cooled computer. My original idea was to have a water cooling setup, that used copper tubing for the water lines. It has since evolved to an entirely copper built, custom chassis.

I want to use actual copper plate, for the tray's and cages, mounting, and everything. I know you can also get copper rivets (although i haven't found anyplace that sells them yet), and other copper based products that that would go well with this theme.

The look i'm going for is a somewhat open chassis, with all of the tubing visible, and maybe some copper plates covering the basic parts.

One of my biggest questions is about the radiator. I know that most radiators for water cooling are made of aluminum. Are there any (reasonable priced) water cooling rads that are made of copper?

I intend to use water cooling for most of the components, including, CPU, GPU, Northbridge, and maybe hard drives.

I want to know what you guys think of my idea. Any tips, or links, or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

[Eclecticos]

Welcome to TBCS!
The only problem i see with having a copper watercooling rad is . .it's likely to turn green like the statue of liberty.
Sounds like a great Idea with the case all copper though.

[toxent]

Welcome to TBCS!
The only problem i see with having a copper watercooling rad is . .it's likely to turn green like the statue of liberty.


I thought that was only when exposed to salt water?

[Eclecticos]

I found this (http://www.koolance.com/technical/cooling101/003.html#mixingmetals) there is a explanation on copper corrosion at the bottom of the page.

[toxent]

Thank you, that was helpful.

I'm not really worried about the material, so much as the look with this mod, so if there's a way to get a product that looks copper (without my having to spray paint it) i could live with that.

[DonT-FeaR]

But then you have the advantage of not only having a copper-water-cooled-computer but you also have a copper sulphate creator. :)


:banana:

[Mach]

Oh man, I'm so hoping this goes to a worklog. :) As I've got an all mods brass / copper disease currently, I got a few ideas.

Rivets - you can get hammer down rivets that are copper. Check any hardware store or Tandy leather. But if you're looking for pop rivets, I've found brass and copper but no complete copper. (copper's too soft maybe)

Radiator - Heater cores from an '89 Camaro are supposed to be brass or copper but I haven't confirmed this myself. You'd need to strip it to get the copper to show through.

If you're looking for an interesting reservoir, try searching on copper brass fire extinguisher on ebay.

There have been a couple copper/brass mods that I have seen. One was Coppertop which I believe made an appearance on TBCS. It was an open frame of copper tubing.

I also remember a couple years ago, a girl, possibly in romania, made an entire computer out of brass or copper. It was very well done. I can't find the link but will look some more.

Regarding copper look without being solid copper, you can get something "chromed" to the copper layer only. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_plating Eastwood sells kits but they're nasty and expensive. I've got some stuff that I'm going to have done in brass. I'll check on the copper too.

Oh yeah from Bash.org:

* ion has joined #sp
<ion> today's my birthday
<deMoN> yo happy bday man ;)
<ion> thanks, my dad brought me a new case home from his work today
<ion> ok, it's not a new case, it's my old one...i didnt like the gray metal frame so i wanted to change the color
<plague> What color?
<ion> gold. i was going to spray paint it, but it would have ended up melting. so my dad said he'd take it to work
<ion> he works at this metal coating place
<ion> just brought it home today. looks awesome
<plague> So you have a gold plated tower?
<ion> no it's not gold...something else...let me go ask
<ion> copper. it's copper
<plague> Copper plated?? Is it running right now?
<ion> no dude...on my other pc..i just finished hooking up the mobo and stuff, i'm about to start it
<ion> stand back
<plague> Before you turn it on...I think you should know something...
* ion has quit IRC (No Route to Host)
<plague> Copper is a conductor of electricity.
<deMoN> think we should have told him?
<zeff> nah, it's funnier this way.
<plague> of course...<>
Note: the fuse box in his house was fried. knocked the power out.

[Mach]

Still not the one I'm thinking of but this should give you some inspiration. :)

These are from someone called Cold Dog from bit-tech.net but most of the links are dead to the projects.

http://lh6.google.com/MachModAlbum/RtSwva8In-I/AAAAAAAAAj0/KcXQHmxcyjw/s800/aol2sm.JPG"

http://lh5.google.com/MachModAlbum/RtSwtK8InxI/AAAAAAAAAiM/_rixqKz9sPg/s800/copper4.JPG

http://lh6.google.com/MachModAlbum/RtSwua8In3I/AAAAAAAAAi8/bhqne-Qe7XE/s800/angleshot1.JPG

Copper tube obsession:
http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3

[toxent]

Thanks mach! It's nice to see someone who's as enthusiastic as i am about this theme.

You have some good suggestions there. I'm definitely going to look into the heater core, and fire extinguisher.

I guess i could do a worklog. It'll probably take a while, this will be a spare time kinda thing. Depending on when i get the money together, I could probably start in november/december timeframe.

Btw, the pics of those other mods look cool, thanks!