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Thread: Heatpipes...

  1. #1
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    Default Heatpipes...

    Has anyone here messed around with heatpipes? I'm wondering if they stand being desoldered from existing fittings, bent into new shapes, etc. I'm building a 1.2 GHz MiniITX mainboard into an old Peavey SX sampler case (1U rack type) after the original innards died. The new back panel is 3mm aluminium, so it would be ideal if I could pipe CPU heat to that to get silent cooling, and I bet someone here might have tried this sort of thing already. I don't even know if most of them are soldered in place, they might be connected some other way, but as far as I know a heat pipe will stand soldering temperatures.

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    I have bent them to fit in to Media Center type cases, one success and one failure due failure of an end crimp. The failure was my fault though; I was lazy too rough and using the wrong tool for the job.

    Don't use vice grips

    Haven't tried soldering one, though they really thick walled so unlikely to rupture.
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    usually, they are either clamped on the heatsink or press-fitted into the copper blocks

    it should be possible to bend them but you might want to use a copper tube bender as they could flatten at the bending point

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    Uh, they are not that hard to make if you goof.

    youtube "home made heat pipes"

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    something tells me that something designed to move heat from one area to another is going to be a bitch to solder lol

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    There is life beyond 60/40 , trust me.

    Google copper/phosphorus or Harris Stay-silv...

    And the same sort of pinch tool I use on Argons, or if you solder the pinch immediately, the much cheaper air conditioning pinch tool, which does not work on lasers or high vacuum.

    You can get phos-copper rods at home depot and they work with MAPP gas.

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    Making them is exactly what I want to avoid. But I did look into it. But: I want to use them, not study them. Cans of R134 and vacuum pumps and hoses and pressure gauges and pipe benders and crimpers are something I can't afford to buy unless I'm spending a goodish chunk of my life on making them.

    Actually for my current project I'll do better with a lot of heavy copper double-braid removed from a BT2002 coax, paralleled and clamped at each end between short bits of copper bar. Like a sandwich with Artic Silver epoxy as the butter and the ends of the braid as the marmalade. It has to be short, and ideally flexible, and will be more than adequate.

    Thanks for the replies. I'll take care with bending them when I get some to try. For soldering, it won't matter if they are heated to 'standard' solder temperatures if they're thick walled. They start at low pressure and even when they turn to all vapour and pressure rises, I think they'd stand it, but I have indium based solders for various low temperatures as well.

    Those that are fitted to blocks by direct clamp fits might be hard to remove, I bet they heated the blocks before drilling them, kept them hot, then chilled the pipes so that when their temperatures equalise, the fit is very tight. If I was assembling them, that's how I'd do it anyway (if it didn't damage the pipe).

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    acetone works in heat pipes quite well and does not require the vacuum pump to fill the tube.

    Granted it tends to like to ignite, but that is not my problem.. With Good engineering and a acetone or propane or Nh3 heat pipe will work just fine. Propane used to be used in early home fridges, along with some other stuff that would shock you or a environmentalist....


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    I can manage acetone. I might try that to study it but I'll stay with my parallel copper braid for this current job. Apart from the lack of a countersunk drill bit to finish the parts I'd be done by now. I mangled my last countersunk bit on some stainless...

    A flexible heatpipe would be nice, but I don't think anyone's got very far with one yet so far as I know. It's been tried, but the one I saw would be big and messy.

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    I would imagine that if you go via the liquid media route, and you are not going to use an internal capillary structure you would have to consider orientation.

    In other words the heat source would need to be lower than the radiating section.
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    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





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