Damaged LRWW Cascade Water block

[Gregeff]

Hey guys,

I have a Little River White Water Cascade CPU block which was the top Water cooling block not all too long ago. However the top plate is broken from excess pressure from the barbs as shown below:

It doesn't actually leak too badly as i was using it for a year after i had found it broken with only minimal leakage! I have now replaced it with the Storm that succeeded it.

I don't want to throw it away as it is a beautiful piece of engineering which i brought directly from Cather in Australia. Does anyone know if I could glue it with the right glue? Or maybe get a replacement top from somewhere? I've had a look for replacements online but have been unable to find any.

If I can't do either of the above what do you think it would be worth sold in this state?

Cheers,

Greg

 

[shauncr91]

Probably worth just scrapping it imo.

If you decided to fix and sell it, im not sure too many people would want a block thats been broken.

 

[MikeTimbers]

See if you can contact Cathar. He's around on overclockers in Oz

 

[mrthingyx]

You could ask Cathar nicely and he might make you a Delrin one.

I'm not sure the material can be fixed as new due to the nature of the polymer; you could probably have a go with superglue or something or airfix glue (i.e. dissolve and 'fix' a specific area of plastic).

shauncr91: I'll take it you're new to watercooling. The Cascade was the first block to shift perceptions as to what waterblocks could actually do for non-IHS CPUs... so much so that it was copied by... pretty much everybody. There is not a decent-performing block on the market to day that is not an almost direct copy of Cathar's design.

As a second-hand option, the block is pretty much worthless as it has a potentially fragile crack in it ('tis the reason why Cathar starting offering them in Delrin), but as a monument to watercooling, it's priceless. I'm still cut up at having to sell my Cascade SS and that was in perfect condition.

 

[Gregeff]

Thanks Guys, I'll try and get hold of Cather then. The last I had heard he was in a pretty bad state after his motorbike accident I hope he is ok now. Do you know if there is any news of him designing any new blocks?

 

[VoG]

ive actually still got my old LRWW Cascade SS which i cracked the top off, so whilst i was waiting for Cathar to ship me a replacement top for it i figured what the hell lets see if i can fix it, tis all ready bust so nothing ventured nothing gained

ide managed to crack the top in no less than 4 places around a barb & it leaked like the proverbial seive, so after a wee bit of experimentation i hit on a water proof repair.

all you need is a 1mm thick peice of aluminium + some araldite, some fine wet 'n' dry and a vice ( or G clamp ).

use the cracked top as a template & copy it exactly ( screw holes/barb holes ) using the aluminium.

then sand both the surfaces of the aluminium & the top ( the outside surface of the top ) until there both thoroughly keyed & ready to be bonded together. lightly coat the aluminium with araldite, staying away from the barb holes.

drop the aluminium plate onto the top & bung them both in the vice but don't go crazy with the pressure, just enough to squeeze the excess out but no more, & leave it to bond.

take it back out & trim any over spill before the glue is fully hard as it's a helluva lot easier that way. and bobs your uncle.

i did mine a couple of years ago & it's still leak proof, you just need to take a bit of care with the preperation & you'll be sorted.