Sizeing acrylic sheeting....

[killerproblem]

ok so THIS project is not a planted tank.... but i was trying to get a clear answer for this question in the custom pc fourms to no avail. well i was flipping thru my old projects and saw a note i copied from here, ahh there might be someone there who can tell me.... so here i am...

i'm building my new computer ATM and I've decided to go with a oil imersion tank for part of my cooling system, basicly i'm droping the motherboard, power supply, and sutch into a tank of mineral oil (basicly baby oil just no perfumes) built into the main case.
So my question is how do i size the thickness of the acrylic?
the "tank" section of this case will be about 14"L X 14"H X 8"W , so about 6-6.5 usgal of mineral oil total.
I want to build it with annother 6-10" under the tank for the radiator and active cooling system (in two seprate chambers so for support under the tank there will be 3 panels of acryilc the outer two and one in the center), and the front of the case will be full height with about 8" of space for the Hard drives, dvd drives, and sutch.

so i've been looking at acrylic sheeting avail at tap plastics i don't know what thickness('s) i'd need to build this from. I had been thinking of using 3/16" black for most of it and a piece of 1/8" or 3/16" clear for the window side of the tank section. should I be using something thicker? If needed I'll try and draw out a plan (besides the one I've done by hand) to explain it better...

thanx ya'll

[chuukus]

1/4" acrylite FF or GP will be fine. Or you can get 1/4" plexiglass G. It must be cast acrylic and the edges of the acrylic should be routed smooth before being solvent welded. I would use WELD-on 3 or 4 solvent. If at all possible stay away from WELD-on 16 for this application you will be glad you did.

[ER9]

i have to disagree on both the 1/4 and 3/16". because your height is the tallest dimension all the force of the liquid weight will bear down on the bottom seams. if you happen to get a bad glue joint with either the 3/16" or 1/4" you could blow out a seam. just as a precaution of a huge mess i would use 3/8" at least on two of the sides at minimum, (all sides if you can afford it) and 1/4" on the other two. technically i agree 1/4 is enough but it depends on how good you are at getting a very good glue joint. FF acrylic will be a little easier to glue though.

remember water is 8lbs a gallon. i'm guessing mineral oil is heavier. the taller the enclosure the more force is applied to the bottom.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by ER9

i have to disagree on both the 1/4 and 3/16". because your height is the tallest dimension all the force of the liquid weight will bear down on the bottom seams. if you happen to get a bad glue joint with either the 3/16" or 1/4" you could blow out a seam. just as a precaution of a huge mess i would use 3/8" at least on two of the sides at minimum, (all sides if you can afford it) and 1/4" on the other two. technically i agree 1/4 is enough but it depends on how good you are at getting a very good glue joint. FF acrylic will be a little easier to glue though.

remember water is 8lbs a gallon. i'm guessing mineral oil is heavier. the taller the enclosure the more force is applied to the bottom.

Oil floats on top of water so it should be lighter. If you get condensation drops off the cooler they will sink to the bottom and lay on top of your motherboard as little dropslets.

dave

[killerproblem]

thanx ya'll ....Hmmm i might need to post that drawing after all, to show the support structure to see which size will be needed... allthough my post(s) in the computer fourms has been there for almost a month i've had more responce here, heh thanx again ya'll... BTW, mineral oil is lighter than water but only by a bit something like 7.4 Ish Lbs/gal.... i'll be back with some drawings in a day or so....

[691175002]

One thing to consider is that a few gallons of water on the floor is a mess while a few gallons of oil on the floor is going to be an absolute disaster. I don't even have words to describe how sorry I would feel for the person who has to clean oil off carpet.

[Regloh]

The words "secondary containment" come to mind

[mountaindew]

Assumptions

ACRYLITE® GP acrylic sheet is material used
Two part polymerizable cement used to cement parts together
Proper cementing techniques are utilized
Bottom of tank is fully supported
While the tensile strength of the ACRYLITE GP sheet is 10,000 psi at room temperature,
continuously imposed loads below that could cause stress crazing and/or failure.
Therefore, 750 psi is the design stress used for water applications.



tank height 14 inches
tank length 14 inches
closed top yes
maximum water pressure psi 0.5054
maximum allowable stress for acrylite gp psi 750
thickness of sheet required with top 0.206
Standard thickness of acrylic 0.236

In short it would take min. of 0.25 or thicker acrylic

This is per acrylite design calculator and is just a guidline for tank construction

hope this helps
MD

[killerproblem]

allright here are some of the drawings i was talking about.... these are not complete, i'm still working on adding everything, but what i'm looking for at this point is where should i be looking for adding supports and reinforcement?...i was thinking of dbling up that center beam and adding in supports on either side of the bottom cutouts....

note that the cutout on the bottom section (the part with the plate on standoffs) will be on both sides for the cooling system. the front of the case is the side with the window and the drives will be facing that side, sorry i just haven't gotten around to placing them in these drawings... my hand drawn ones are mutch more complete to include all the componets and wireing allong with the external details, i'll get there, eventualy...

[DorianBrytestar]

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but is there a performance reason that you are going with oil immersion or are you doing it for the look? Oil immersion has a lot of dangers and from everything that I have seen does not give any real advantages over simple air cooling.

Are you going to have your connections immersed as well? (Keyboard, network, sound card jacks) Could make for messy hands if you have to reach into the oil to connect things

[killerproblem]

well I've started construction, I got a deal on some 7/16 grade (it's acc just over 3/8" thick) clear and i ordered a sheet of 1/4" grade (.236 nom) of grey it's comming allong a bit slowly ATM but i should have some photos of it -without the top and front doors, and drive bays in a few hrs to a day.

thanx again for the help and advise.

dorian:
In working with my last performance pc i had no problem keeping the cpu and video cards cool but the NB, SB, and the ram tended to overheat... so for this setup full innersion... the real coolong system in this is a two stage setup, first the oil is pumped thru a 3 fan cooled radiator then it goes into a TEC cooler before returning to the tank.
the radiator i'm intending on using is rated for well more than the pc's wattage (ie the btu's generated, and yes wattage isn't a supper accurate method of determining btu's but thats how the pc equipment is rated), and should take the oil down real close to ambiant ait temp. the tec cooler is being designed to provide about a 15 deg c drop, with power to spare for temp regulation.
the mobo will sit with the connections at the top of the tank above the "water line" but still closed inside the case, i'll prolly build a connections panel (with short jumpers to the mobo) into the upper back panel.

as far as dangers... mineral oil dosn't conduct electricity and dosn't soften/eat at any of the componets used in the computer at all. even with 120vac in the tank you can place your hand in the tank safley. years ago mineral oil was used as a liquid insulator for some types of transformers.
mineral oil has a flash point of 135C (275F) and a autoignition point of 260C (500F)
it has a Flammability Rating of 1 - Slight so there is really no risk of it deciding to light up.
also there are now 2 immersion type pc's avail on the consumer market (they are just both very limited in the H/W choices avail for them and the cost is very excessive- $3000 to $4500) , but alas the cases are not for sale you'll proll see some avail in a year or two though.

[fox]

I watercooled the CPU,NB/ SB and the MOSFETS onna Rampage Extreme. Temps are just fine with a 45% overclock. Added a bunch of restriction to the loop but inlined another pump for redundancy.

Good luck with the immersion

[Vladdy]

The drawings, are they Google Sketchup renders?

[killerproblem]

here are a few photos as it is standing right now... the copper thing at the end is the start of the TEC cooler, the cold side.

i use google sketchup and viacad 6 for drawing...

[Regloh]

You computer people crack me up You say it's all about performance, but then it has to look cool too, or what function does the fancy lighting serve?
Very nice build though!

What are you thinking for fish, plants, filtration CO2? Oh, right its oil, not water... You don't need a bubble counter then

Just yanking your chain