Project: Heavy Water

*I will be finding the photos and a new host for them soon. My apologies*


So I have lurked around here for several months gathering ideas and gathering materials. I will have the first couple build photos soon of the work I did this weekend to post so it is time to share my design work.

About me: My name is John, and I work for a credit union in Oklahoma. I've always been a tinkerer and have built all our computers from scratch. I've done a few case mods in the past but normally very mild. I had an ill-fated attempt at creating a buble screen behind the window of a previous case but I couldn't get the home made plexi-glass tank to seal and bubble correctly.

The basic idea revolved around wanting to do something new and extreme. Around here finding something in that category was quite a challenge... So the first element was oil immersion. Not a entirely new concept there, so I wanted to take it one step further. So I went into a cooling system you wouldn't normally apply to a computer... Evaporative cooling.

The name came from a suggestion from a forum member in another thread and it really fits. The case weighs in at about 70lbs un-modded, and there will be 10 gallons of oil and 4 gallons of water in the final filling.

Concept images. Here is a very rough (eg 5min) sketchup image of the final structure. I'm struggling with sketchup as my training in Cinema4D doesn't translate quite right.

The rough concept for the internal plumbing goes something like this.

Materials:

First off, this is in-fact a case mod. So there has to be a case to begin with. Here are some before photos of the case this is going to happen to.

Small update: I got the wire mesh that will form the structure for the hyperbolic towers.
[IMGhttp://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/halcyonforever/Computer%20Mods/mesh.jpg[/IMG]

Creating the tower is proving a challenge, the metal isn't wanting to contract in this manner. I may have to develop a different construction method.

Here is the first attempt with the mesh. I haven't actually tried to get the bend in yet, just the basic size with this mock up. The height is correct at about 18 inches... just have to figure out the how to insert the bend.

So I have decided the mesh is not strong enough to support the material it will need to. I am now constructing a series of steel support beams that will form the inner structure of the towers.

I will say that pipe bending sucks and bending pipe at a non-uniform hyperbolic angle sucks even worse.

8 rods cut to size, and two bent to shape... will take a few days to bend them all. The challenge is I have to put about 100 pounds of pressure on them to start the bend but have to be gentle to avoid instant over-bending.

So the idea of vertical metal supports has not worked out. The supports are not exactly what I was looking for and I also learned the method the full size towers are constructed (as diagramed in a later post) So work has resumed on the towers starting with the bases with have just finished being constructed.

Yes this is probably the slowest build ever, but I am not putting alot of money into supplies so it gets gathered piecemeal. However the supply pile has grown to where I have enough to actually accomplish some now.

glad to see youre starting this project! i cant wait to see how it turns out

This has potential. Can't wait to see it

Congratulations, you are officially off-the-charts crazy!

Perfect :D

I'll be keeping a close eye on this one, I'm looking forward to seeing how you pull it off.

Awesome.

youve got my vote and sub

I apologize that the links broke today... the curse of a dynamic DNS, it changes on me too much. I will probably call AT&T and get a static IP.

bugger. wasnt the dynamic ip, was the bloody dhcp

OK... Any way don't sweat it.

I think the looks amazing! I'm going to subscribed to this for sure. Cant wait to see how it will turn out. Also that case is HUGE!

Yeah specs when I got it from the scrap heap.
Compaq Proliant 3000
Dual P2 500
10 hard drives (not sure the sizes because they were magnetically destroyed and didn't feel like researching a broken part that got trashed)

the computer itself had more custom daughterboards and controller cards than I had ever seen.