Acrylic bending silicon - wrong size?

Cenedd

Cenedd

Cenedd

Soldato
Joined
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Watford, UK
I've got most of the Monsoon 13/10 bending kit - still waiting on the hairdryer heatgun. I just tried the silicon insert in a 12/10 acrylic tube and it rattles about with quite a bit of spare room. Gave it a measure and it's only 8.6mm vs the tubes 10.2mm. Is this normal or do I need to be getting one that's a tighter fit? Thanks guys.

Gareth
 
savagesam117 said:
It needs to be pretty tight in there, you'll get some movement but not much. It'll cave when bending otherwise :)
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^^This, many of the inserts are too small/big as I had the same issue using the Monsoon insert in some Primochill tubing. It was too small and caused it to cave when bending. You're probably better buying a new insert (Theres a Primochill kit here)
 
Did post a reply yesterday but it doesn't seem to have made it. Thanks guys. I feared it was probably too loose...and as a noob I'm going to need every bit of help possible.
E22 dont seem to do their own bending silicon - that i can find. I've actually stumbled on a piece by Barrow for an outlet of quid so I thought that was worth a punt. Alphacool did one I looked at but £8 for a piece of silicon seemed a bit steep!
 
Cenedd said:
Did post a reply yesterday but it doesn't seem to have made it. Thanks guys. I feared it was probably too loose...and as a noob I'm going to need every bit of help possible.
E22 dont seem to do their own bending silicon - that i can find. I've actually stumbled on a piece by Barrow for an outlet of quid so I thought that was worth a punt. Alphacool did one I looked at but £8 for a piece of silicon seemed a bit steep!
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£8 is very steep for what is a bit of fuel rod, just have a look (I still recommend the Primochill insert as it is larger than the Monsoon insert). Fuel rod works just as well for bending tubing and if it is too big you can sand it down till it fits in, that way you get a perfect fit with no collapsing when bending the tubing :)
 
Tried looking up fuel rod and all I get is related to nuclear fission....think I'm on some agency's list now ;)
I'll try the Barrow and let you know diameter (for reference) when it turns up. If not I'll look at adding the Primochill kit when I order from OCUK....still need coolant to fill it with at some point. That dawned on me the other day!
 
E22 do a 12/10 bending tube for just over a quid. I have one to go with their 12/10 ultra clear. Its in the water cooling accessories section. Fits perfectly.
I also brought the Barrow 12mm mandrels and that came with a 12/10 tube, that fits just as well with E22 tube. You can buy the Barrow tube on its own from a well know auction site. However, the Barrow and E22 both seem to be exactly the same, so go for the cheaper option.
 
Thanks Mods. Can I be really obtuse and ask for a link please? I can't find the E22 bending silicon anywhere on OCUK - even tried a search for just E22.
On the plus side, if the Barrow and E22 stuff are very similar it sounds promising.
 
Not sure if I can post to a competitor, so just go to E22.biz site. Select watercooling section, and then accessories. It is called a bending cord. Great service from E22.
 
Ah, that explains why I couldn't find it on OCUK. Yes, had great support from E22 when some tubes were out of spec. Barrow 12mm mandrels may have just fallen into my basket :D
 
I have the week off after Easter and I will try some test bends with my Barrow 12mm mandrels. I bought them after watching a DazMode YouTube video, where he states that plastic is better then aluminium for bending, so we shall see. It will be interesting to see how you get on with then as well, if you do buy them!
I am only using a B&Q heat gun, so I hope that will work out as well.
 
Didn't spot that the Barrow mandrels were plastic. Probably should have realised when it said "ABS". Well, I guess I'll see whether oversize ali or correct size plastic works best!

Still working out how to get through the side panel best and keep it neat. Thought it would be easy get a grommet in the hole to fit the acrylic and then do a right angle into the 20mm gap behind the motherboard tray. Turns out that grommets don't seem to be available in a size that fits a 3mm thick panel that isn't oversized in every other way. Currently thinking of trying to mount the fittings into the thickness of the panel as there's no room for a passthrough fitting. There's nothing like making it difficult for yourself!
 
OK, Barrow stuff just turned up. In case it's of use/interest to anyone, the Barrow 10mm bending silicon is 9.4mm diameter and fits nicely in the E22 12/10 without being too tight. Whether it's better or not, I'll just have to wait for the hairdryer to turn up to find out!

Also, Barrow mandrels are plastic and they seem to fit E22 12/10 tubes nice and snug. I'm guessing that DazMode might be saying they're better because presumably cold aluminium mandrels conduct the heat away from the acrylic faster resulting in it setting (potentially) before you've finished the bend....but I'm just speculating wildly. One thing that is worth noting is that the Barrow 12/10 mandrels are a larger bend radius than the Monsoon ali manrels. Monsoon are approximately 23mm radius and the Barrow approximately 32mm. Given that I'm measuring the mandrel from arc centre to edge, these are presumably 20mm and 30mm respectively.
 
I did four bends with the Barrow 90 degree and was pleased with the results. The first bend was near perfect. I used the Barrow cord with the E22 tube and had no issues.
I used a B&Q 1600W heat gun and it took approx 3-4 mins to get the tube ready to bend.
I had a couple of tubes over bend, which I think was because I was pushing the ends and not gently applying pressure across the entire bend. All in all, a good experience for my first time.
 
That's good to know. Was this the Earlex 1500W heat gun? If so, did you have it on 330°C or 510°C? Kinda giving up hope that the Monsoon one will turn up.
 
My gun is by performance power tools 1600W (made in the UK!). I Bought it years ago for decorating. It has 2 heat settings and I used the higher 450 C setting.
You thought about doing any bends yet?
 
I've not really got enough of the bits in place to link up yet. Keep getting distracted by grand ideas :D Don't want to mount the motherboard, PSU and res etc yet as they're currently all working in the PC I'm on now. I need to sort other parts of the loop out first before I get that far. Right now I'm trying to work out where on a scale of quick-and-dirty to outright acrylic porn I'm going to go for in mounting pump, res and filter. I've got options through the scale but I can't progress until I've made that decision and I have to talk to acrylic pornographers to find out whether what I have in mind is even possible let alone affordable! Worst case I can do with a single flat sheet of acrylic over the PSU shroud and mount stuff in that.

Looks like Monsoon may have discontinued the heatgun so it's useful to know what sort of heat setting your gun has so I know I'm not going overboard or inadequate on the gun. Hmmm, £11, £26 including nice case or £47 with digital display...aaarrgh it's like picking a 980 over a 980 Ti ;)
 
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