Water Works

[AceX]

Ok, I have a crazy and outlandish idea for my next case. I kow its crazy and outlandish because when I told my friends and family, everyone but my dad looked at me like I was nuts. Trust me, you will probably think I am in a second...

Ok, I want to put a water fall or wall of water in my case.

Crazy, I know...

The idea is to get two pieces of acylic or plexiglass and make some sides out of 1/2" spaces, making a box about 12" high x 12" wide x 1" deep. The whole thing would be sealed tighter than a vault. The inlet would be at the top and would have a copper or clear tube going across the top with several holes drilled into it, making the feect of there being a wall of water. The outlet of this feature would be completely submerged in at least 2" of water at all times, which would keep any air out of the system.

I want to try and make this water fall the radiator for the cooling system. I already have a pump selected and I already have the lines needed. I'm just rying to figure out what kinds of problems I may run into.

Just for a small visual imagination; Imagine looking at a computer when it's off. It's got the Corvette flags laser etched into the glass, the visible parts of the chasis are powder coated black, and when you hit the power switch, a wall of water suddenly engulfs the side window, blurring all the new activity just enough so that it's still visible, yet undefined. Blue lights would illuminate the water as it tricles down the side. All making for one hell of a display...

[crazybillybob]

I'm not sure It's crazy but it's going to be one big build!
Make sure you plan the flow rate of the falls and the rate of draw from the pump to keep the 2" min in the res. Bonus is that the water fall will help cool the water!


Good Luck,
Crazybillybob


I'll be watching for this one!

[AceX]

I honestly believe that that will be my biggest hurdle. The trick will be in planning the amount of water that will be in the system and the amount that will be released by the hose up top. I'll have to do some math to match them up, but it is very doable, just got to double check my math and make sure I don't mess it up.

I'm looking at this pump right now. I has a low flow rate compared to others and its already a DC, making it a breaze to supply the power to it.

[Aero]

dude this just gave me a swweet idea for my mod .


I never thought of a waterfall....hmmm...this could be good, of course with several twist, but the idea of free flowing water in a case, or on...or out of.....oh this is going to get messy

[Smitten]

easiest way i can think to control your waterfall is a potentiometer. 2inches in the bottom of the *reservoir* shouldnt be an issue. want i dont suggest is having the tube at the top with holes in it. the released water will be less the farther it is from the source unless you have enough pressure for it to reach that far or feed the tube with water from both ends (easily accomplished with a Y connection). this may still show an uneven flow with less at the center unless, again, enough pressure from the pump is given. this would, imo, still give it more of a rain looks than a waterfall look.

If you want to be creative, limit your tubing, and since you're already working with acylic sheets, try making the top be fed by just 1 tube at its center and feeding the fall between two sheets very close to one another. i suck at drawing, so will try to explain this the best i can.

basically, if you take a garden hose and 2 triangles and make a box from the triangles, placing them 3-4mm apart for the water, sealing 2 sides and leaving the third side open. the corner opposite the open side is where the hose would feed the water. doing this will give you a very even, non-rain looking sheet of water, just like a waterfall. in essence, you'll be changing the round tube into a very thin rectangle, same flow throughout. this will possibly put back-pressure on the pump as its very similar to putting your thumb over the opening of a hose. if this is too confusing, i'm sorry and hope someone else who understands my logic can explain it better.

[AceX]

I understand what you are saying. The original idea was to have a sort of "ledge" the would fill up with water and then the water would over flow into the viewable area. I've seen it done on garden fountains. It's not *too* complicated. The idea is that the water will over flow evenly across the entire surface or the "ledge."

Another Idea I had was to take the tubing to be placed up top and cut a slot along the entire length of the tubing, making it all come down over the entire acrylic. I would run the feeds from both side in order to make sure that the pressure stayed equal. This would require a larger pump however.

I'm still working on the design. Talking with some guys who build custom aquariums, trying to get their feeedback on this. Maybe they know something I haven't thought of yet...

[snickells]

I know where Ive seen this b4, in my aquarium! All you need to do is make sure that the res (which I assume the water will be falling in to ) is deep enough to accommodate a large enough water supply to the pump. Easy!

Can’t wait to see it in action

[AceX]

I just picked up a chasis to try it out on.

[public_eyesore]

ive seen someone do a watewr fall in their case. It was fetured in cpu and was some like japanese theme, where it had one of those rock walls with water running down, it was pretty cool, but kinda usless.

[AceX]

This one will actually be put to work. I'm just in the final stages of planning. I just need to settle on a final design.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to build a custom side panel.