Build your own reservoir?

urbanlegend786

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Messages
304
I am looking in too t-lines and reservoirs and i saw a website that a guy built his own reservoirs and i was wondering if it is possible and/or reliable?????
 
LOL........I build mine.......... :eek: Never had a leak yet..........knock on wood.................. :D

DSC00778.JPG

DSC00780.JPG


dsc018864im.jpg
 
You can use just about anything as a res. Any size plastic bottle w/screw cap, even a tupperware bowl...as long as you get the barbs sealed good.
But, for the price of lexan/acrylic....it's alot easier just to buy one pre-made.
 
I'm thinking about modding one of these:

It comes with a tec to cool the water....don't know how effective it would be....but this would definately get some attention when people come over and see this thing full of glowing geen/blue water siiting on top of your computer :D
 
i was going to build a 4"dia 4" tall res from solid coper barstock, but was shocked at the price of just the bar stock ($120 for a 4" section) + i hate turning anything softer than 7075 on my mathe, its just makes a mess thats a PITA to clean. rather turn Ti than Cu
 
I'm designing an all copper reservoir. It's in the machine shop right now. I'll post pics when it's finished. :) 4" diamter copper rod is hard to find. ;)

-Ben
 
Cost and the fact that PVC is easy to get hold of is the reason I use it...............:eek: I get all the scrap I need from different job sites............:) That's if and when I decide to work that is.............;)
 
ahh this makes me remember my friend and I were messing around with cooling and we decided to use some of those 3-Liter Big K bottles.
 
When you make your own, do you even try to get the threading in barb holes?...or just drill a hole, and glue your barb in place
 
So far I've made 2 reservoir: one was a 5 gallon detergent bucket and worked well but was a royal pita to get to a lan, and the other, well I don't really like to remember the other when I don't have:

leakage (Small).jpg

If you want to make your own reservoir, first read this. From my experiences:
If you're using thick acryllic or anothe materail, tapping can give a better seal, but remember to still use a sealant that will stick to both the barb and the reservoir material.
Pick a material that is either very stiff, or one that can give some while still being very strong. There's gonna be some torque put on your reservoir's fittings, so the material you use has to be able to take the torque without leaking like the one pictured.
Try to run a seperate leak test with your reservoir before your entire loop's leak test, that way you can know where to focus your attention on during the leak test.
If you can't have the reservoir inlet facing the outlet barb, then stick the outlet higher than the inlet, and if you have a cyclone spinning inside, causing air bubbles to get sucked back into the loop, then stick one of those mesh plumbing drain covers inside over the outlet's intake, if you can.

Otherwise, good luck and show us pics when you get yours done :)
 
Just wondering which site I could get a premade res from, looking for something with clear pvc or a simply cylinder. The only ones I have found are too small like the danger den res. Was also looking at the invotec ones, but they use 1/4" barbs :( I need 1/2" OD barbs.
 
I think when I decide to get a cube case, that I will make a custom resevoir. Cause I plan on having a huge res, so that its easier to fill the system cause the pressure from the water in the res will force it through the pump and radiator... (hopefully). Besdes, the cube has a lot of room in it, so a big Res shall be sexy and fairly easy to place... Or so I think...

I don't know anymore.
 
Bio-Hazard said:
LOL........I build mine.......... :eek: Never had a leak yet..........knock on wood.................. :D
Dude, i'm quite interested to know how u build it... Do u have a detail read thru like the 1 on ur ext housing?
 
what kind of sealing thingy did you guys use??? and also what kind of thingy did you use to connect the WC tubing to the reservoir?
 
Pretty easy to build really, just get a chunk of PVC pipe the size that you want along with 2 end caps that match, and glue them together with the special PVC glue from your local hardware store. I tapped standard 1/4 in NPT in the res and used standard 1/2 OD barbs. Works like a charm and cheap and takes about 30 minutes for me to make (if I take my time). There are a ton of different options if you want to do a little more work, just have a look around your local Home Depot or Lowes, they have everything you need and can explain the little details on using the glue........... :D
 
i understand how ot use the PVC glue, etc.. done plenty of pipe work in the bathrooms and kitchens..

what i dont understand is the term "tapping" how does that exactly work?
 
Also pretty easy to do, on plastic and PVC anyway........ :D You just drill a 7/16 hole (for 1/4" NPT) and get yourself a 1/4" NPT thread tap, about 5 bucks for a cheap one, and slowly start cutting yout threads onto the hole. You need to make sure that the tap is running straight, but just tale it slow and easy and back the tap out often to keep the threads clean. You'll need to remore the tap every so often to check if you've gone ear enough because the threads are tapered , if you go to far, the barb might bottom out on the res and not totally seal, then you'll need a ton of tape.............. :eek:
 
now that makes TOTAL sense. I had never seen a tap before (so i thought) but i have seen one of those before... now it takes total sense.. i had no idea it was called "tapped".. i was imagining you actually "tapping" something, with like say a hammer :rolleyes:

now i get it! Thanks for the pics bio, that totally cleared it up for me!

Chris
 
bradyapba said:
now that makes TOTAL sense. I had never seen a tap before (so i thought) but i have seen one of those before... now it takes total sense.. i had no idea it was called "tapped".. i was imagining you actually "tapping" something, with like say a hammer :rolleyes:

now i get it! Thanks for the pics bio, that totally cleared it up for me!

Chris
noob.jpg
 
Bio-Hazard, thanks for those detailed pictures. Are those PVC tubing cover or? How did u managed to have the transparent plastic attached to the reservoir? U glue them together using rubber glue?
 
The one with the clear top was a total pain in the butt to put together, everything was hand fitted and then I used high strength silicone sealer/adhesive to put it together. I figured out later that it would have been easier to use clear PVC for the top also and put it together with the PVC glue, holds better, but there's not a lot of pressure in the system anyway.
 
J-Pepper said:
Why does so many US water cooling setups look so... well... ghetto??? :confused:

Pride of Canada, my boy. Pride of Canada. And it was more proof-of-concept than anything. I usually replace my motherboard/CPU/vidcard every few months so doing it up nicely and permanently isn't an option I like considering right now. When I build a machine for show or sell, however, it's a different story. But this was my own machine, used mostly for overclocking experimentation.



Shmuckety said:
That's a big pump. Is it loud?
It's not too terrible, actually. It hums, as most pumps do, but if you mount it somewhere with a bit of cushioning (rubber, foam, whatever) it's near-silent. Got it at a plumbing shop :)
 
I actually did have the pump submerged and running at the bottom of the tank for awhile, but it gets quite warm and I found the water's cooler when I leave the pump outside.
 
J-Pepper said:
Why does so many US water cooling setups look so... well... ghetto??? :confused:
It's just the way it is............ :D I like the way mine is, I built it to cool my computer, no one elses..................... :cool: If they don't like it, life sucks when you can be so picky, and it's mine not yours so why do you worry.
 
Saw your's before.............. ;) looks great and you even have a use for your empties.............. :D
 
Back
Top