Forging Silver...

[BrainEater]

I'm just in the process of building 3 fairly high performance waterblocks ( each one needs to dissapate ~500 watts )......

The body will be machined aluminum..The 'face' I want to make from .999 pure silver.
Each piece needs to be 2 inches square by 1/4 inch thick....I can pay to have someone else forge the pieces , or do it myself.I figure it can't be that hard.Make a mold , melt the silver,pour the silver.

Anyone know of any useful links / knowledge on this process ?

 

[RealMentalCase]

Maybe i can help you with a phone number --- 911 lol j/k

 

[zer0signal667]

I'm just in the process of building 3 fairly high performance waterblocks ( each one needs to dissapate ~500 watts )......

The body will be machined aluminum..The 'face' I want to make from .999 pure silver.
Each piece needs to be 2 inches square by 1/4 inch thick....I can pay to have someone else forge the pieces , or do it myself.I figure it can't be that hard.Make a mold , melt the silver,pour the silver.

Anyone know of any useful links / knowledge on this process ?

First of all, that would be considered casting. Second, your home-made casting will more than likely turn out poorly - people don't seem to realize that casting is not as simple as melting and pouring a metal. If you want a good-looking, high-performance waterblock, you should buy a chunk of silver and have it machined.
Sorry if I dashed your hopes, but casting silver is just not the best choice in this case.

 

[HeThatKnows]

Silver and aluminum is a bad combo - serious potential for corrosion. The galvanic potential between the two is high enough that even with with anitfreeze or another anti-corrosive, the aluminum will rot.

You can buy hunks of graphite intented for high temperature molding (ebay's a good source). Carve or mill your design, pour, break peice out of mold.

 

[BrainEater]

... you should buy a chunk of silver and have it machined.

I can do all the machining myself , The problem I'm having is 'buying a chunk of silver'.
I can find silver powder ,wire,ribbon,small ingots ..... but no 'plate silver'...

As far as galvanic corrosion goes : I have a plan for that.

 

[RealMentalCase]

I don't know if this will help ?

http://www.tulving.com/goldbull.html

look towards the bottom of the page

10 OZ. SILVER BARS!
$80.90 Per Bar
50 Bar Minimum

if that won't help atleast call em

Maybe they can tell you where to get what you need !

 

[zer0signal667]

I can do all the machining myself , The problem I'm having is 'buying a chunk of silver'.
I can find silver powder ,wire,ribbon,small ingots ..... but no 'plate silver'...

As far as galvanic corrosion goes : I have a plan for that.

So what are you going to melt and cast? What size are the small ingots that you can buy?

 

[DryFire]

I don't know about in teh states but in lebanon there are many people who will sell you one kilo or one ounce of silver.

If you wanted a decent cast you'd have use injection molding and put teh molds in a centerfuge.

 

[weapon--]

this might sound like a slightly odd source, but check with any local jewelers in your area - I know the guy that runs one of the local shops and he has let me dig through his supply catalogs which have all kinds of interesting stuff in them in the ways of silver -- including silver sheet, plate, dust, etc etc etc. I don't recall the max size that was in there but he could at least get a piece that was 6mm x 50mm x 75mm - he gave me a price for it once but the market has jumped around a little so I have no idea what it would cost now.

other possibilities:
http://www.kitco.com/about/aboutus.html

if you need a big honkin' bar of silver:

10 oz Brand Name .999 Fine Silver Bars Buy Price $75.21
100 oz. Brand Name .999 Fine Silver Bars Buy Price $729.00
1000 oz COMEX Acceptable .999 Fine Silver Bars Buy Price $7,470.00
^ about 1/2 way down the following page:
http://apmex.com/shop/shop_silver.asp?orderid=0

 

[killernoodle]

There is usually not much difference in performance between a copper and a silver waterblock... And definitely not enough to justify the tremendous extra cost...

 

[cgrant26]

There is usually not much difference in performance between a copper and a silver waterblock... And definitely not enough to justify the tremendous extra cost...

QFT

http://www.engineersedge.com/properties_of_metals.htm

As you can see by this linked list of properties, silver is not that much of an improvement over copper. Silver has approximately 7% better thermal conductivity than copper. It's much more difficult to machine, much more expensive and will cause the aluminum in a loop act more as a sacrificial anode. Also keep in mind that this list is referring to 100% pure silver and Copper so the difference in thermal conductivity for any silver you would likely be able to obtain will likely have a diminished thermal conductivity.

 

[bigbadgreen]

I'm a jeweler and also in charge of all the csting we do in the shop here. you can find all the plate, more commonly called sheet, silver you want from jeweler suppliers. How thick do you want the base? I can look it up in the Rio Grande catalog and give you the part number and estimate cost (cost changes based on market). they have great customer service I've been ordering from them for years back when I was a student even.

you could also potentially cast the plate but it'll be difficult and if you don't have the right tools it probably won't turn out good at all. You're probably also limited to sand casting unless you want to buy more than enough casting investment (plaster like substance with additives to allow it to hold up to 2000+ degrees). They don't sell it in small enough quantities for it to be worth your while, unless you plan on making blocks for everybody you know.

If you do want to cast and want some suggestions feel free to ask. If you are going to case you might as well cast the whole block out of silver, silver casting grain (just small balls of silver so it melts easier) isn't much more expensive than silver sheet at all. My jewelry specialty is wax model making, I can go further into it if you decide to cast.

Good luck if you post back I'll get you those numbers for the materials you want.

 

[BrainEater]

Thx for all the responses.

Several people have mentioned galvanic reaction :
This cooler setup is the new cooler for the ThinkTank project.....due to the fact that the tank is aluminum and the piping/wire wrapping is copper , as well as the heatpipes i'm building........I will be employing some form of active cathodic protection , so extending this to the waterblocks should'nt be an issue.

As far as the cost goes :I've already blown 150$ on a failed copper heatsink.....While impressive in it's dissapation , I'm not getting the results i want , so cost for the cooler is no object now.....that extra 7% is worth it to me.Thats 35 watts per unit for 105 watts total.

As far as what I'm looking for :I need three 2x2x 3/16-3/8 inch pieces of .999 silver....technically , the minimum size is 50mm^2.
A 10 oz bar might be close , or useable....I'll look into that.

Thanks again for the help !