Rotary Single Stage Blend Build – On the hunt for the best performance and experiment

[Pjalchemist]

Rotary Single Stage Blend Build – On the hunt for the best performance and experiments in blends.

I know what I want, how I like to have it, where etc.

So why a blend, I’ve seen a few people try it and work. We have the famous Drewminster for his amazing blends. I also want to experiment. This is not to be confused with an auto cascade but this is a blend of hydrocarbons AKA Azeotope.

So with out bragging away more here is the spec…..

Condenser: - LUVE STVF 400 (4Kw 240v Fan)
Compressor: - New Wide Tech 44N110A1-BEAD (12,000 BTU 16/18cc displacement)
Safety:- Danfoss KP15 High Side Cut Off Switch, High Pressure Blow-out Valve, 3L Expansion Tank
Evap: - Poitres 54mm 42mm stepped spiral
Suction Line: - DN10 Stainless Braided 150cm
Insulation: - 25mm Thick Suction Line Armaflex
Base:- 2X 18mm MDF, glued together, Decked with 3mm Aluminium Checker Plate, Spring Loaded Flight Case Handles, 50mm Locking Caster Wheels
Refrigerants: - R290, R600, R507, R23, R744, R1150 (all to be played with for what works best)
Ideal Work Load: - Target idealy is 300W at the coldest temps possible stable and safely
Other Bits: - M5 T-nuts, M6 T-nuts, M10 T-nuts, M5 stainless bolts, M6 stainless bolts, M10 stainless bolts, M10 locking nuts, lots of washer and few spring washers, PVA wood glue, Epoxy resin,
Cable: - CY 3 & 4 core

I’m not an artist but a rough layout idea/plan was needed. So here it is. Least everyone knows the basic plan and it’s not just in my head now!

So here is the main part before I do anything to it. I put the run cap, feet, cable all in a bag keeping it neat and tidy!

Now I’ve pulled the compressor and to make it cleaner to work on, I now need to remove the left over armaflex off the compressor. This is nasty. Incomes a bottle of acetone and an old rag, some moments of getting high and scrubbing like mad. Why am I doing this, I will be re-spraying and want it clean more than anything. Call it OCD perhaps but as I said I know what I want. I also used a hair dryer to soften the glue on the stick to pull it off, in case I wish to refit it or something with it! I also cleaned the metal bracket and bolt of this sticky mess, even thought it’ll be covered when insualting. Told you , OCD!!

Trip to the local DIY shop, I called 1st to check stock, ordered and they even cut it for me. 24x40’’ is the size of the base. We have 2 places to get this stuff from. One is massive and charges over the odd and doesn’t even offer a cutting service, the other has been part of the village from day one. I’m all in favour of supporting local things so this was my natural move. Whilst there I picked up a nice bottle of PVA wood glue, latter use to join the 2 sheets together.

So now I need to make out some holes for drilling the handle reased holes. 17mm deep so I will just bore through the single sheet this is 18mm. I decide that I will mount them 1.5’’ from the edges both sides. I traced around the reacsed section and then used a drill to drill out some holes so I can fit a jigsaw blade in and get cutting. MDF sure is dusty.

Well I need to glue them together making one thick solid sheet and base. 36mm thick! Taking the uncut sheet I squeezed a healthy amount of PVA wood glue on there. Cheap pant brush to hand and get spreading the glue nice even coat. Any reason to get messy. Now to place the other sheet on top getting a nice and even on the edged. I added some weight via some old speakers, full C02 tank, and 2 tools boxes and a 24KG Kettle bell (I'm a bit of a bodybuilder) I had in the garage. Quick wipe of the edges from the excess glue and leave it for 12 hours +.

Sorry for the lack of photos and lots of words. Sadly I didn't have the memoory card fitted when i was doing all the cuts, kinda gutted about that epic mistake!

Now the glue has dried and both board are nicely bonded together.

Quick sneak peak at a rough real parts layout.

I need to dill some holes for these handles. 56 holes in total. Easy way to mark out I found was to use one handle and a pen and dab in the holes.

Now to make this thing easyer to move when when on the deck as to being a 2 man job I’m going to fit some caster wheels. Ebay yet again. Proving a good result here.

With the handles in place I can now mark out the location for the condenser. Again I decide to fit this 1.5’’ back from the edge of the handle. Incomes the LUVE STVF 400, got this for a barging off eBay (yep I love eBay). I don’t think the mounts are the best for something this size or weight but I will try to use all 3 of them! Again I’ll use the pen and dab it in the mounting holes to show me where it need to be drilled. 6 holes max, way better than 56! I’m also going to use the M5 T-nuts here on under the base, same reasons as the handles to give a nice solid mounting. So I will there for need to hone out the holes I drilled to fit the t-nuts. All this drilling and honing is getting fun! NOT!!!!!!!!! LMAO

Now the heart of the unit, 12,000 BTU of rotary power. I pulled this from an air con unit I got given for free. Told it hissed one day and never works. Turns out the plugs fuse had blown. Replaced and the unit works. I had a quick play and got it to pull down to -23c, this was inside the house with heating on and no condenser fan running (some reason it wouldn’t power on). I decide to mount it to the right (backside) of the condenser fan air flow. Few reasons why, 1st was cooling for the compressor, 2nd was the expansion tank going the other side, 3rd suction location, 4th discharge could flow in front of the fan for a DSHC. Using the pen with the rubbers mounted on the comp the old dib and dab marking for the 3 holes.

Nice sharp wood bit and the sweet smell of burning wood and 56 times latter it’s done! It was messy to say the least! Let alone all the others I did for the condenser and wheels.

I ordered some M5X8mm T-nuts off eBay. I need to drill a slightly bigger hole on the bottom of the base to fit these in. I only need to drill this larger hole 8mm so I marked 10mm on the drill bit to make it easier to see. I chose to fit these on the base as the idea was when I got to pick the unit up on the handles the T-nuts have something more to grip into with the weight of the unit pushing down on them if you catch my drift.

Enough drilling, now for some grinding! This is all starting to sound very very seaded!! Dug out from the shead a very dusty sheet of 3mm aluminium checker plate.

Just to show it’s size and thank god I have enough of it left over I’ve taken a few snaps with the base board in place.

Using the trusty speakers again I’ve set it out so I can find the best way to cut the sheet to make the most of it. Help from the trust 24KG KB again keeping the offcut steady.

Lots and lots of fun, dust, and tons of noise the sheet is cut to a size that’s easyer to use and fits the job.

Flipped over, checker!!!

Base poped on top to show size.

Need to call my mate and have him work his magic on the checkerplate. He has a gulitine and break press at his work. So he can box the board in. I’ve a feeling there may be a small bit of welding on the corner sides to join it up solid. So just waiting on him now.

 

[Pjalchemist]

 

[Pjalchemist]

 

[Pjalchemist]

Base weight 21kg

 

[Korben Dallas]

Mother of god...

 

[Dark Mantis]

Hey very interesting build. Can't wait to see more of it. Just as well you are a body builder as you are going to need to be to shift it I reckon!

 

[Untitledone]

I must say, that is looking to be a very high quality setup. I have been wanting to do phase change cooling, but being a poor college student with little time as of late, have not be able to do so. I will be looking forward to the finished system. How is the noise on that rotary compressor? I have not had much experience with those. All of the refrigerators, and air conditioning units I have come across so far were not rotary. I will also be interested in the outcome of each of those refrigerants. From my understanding, the boiling point determines the minimum temperature possible with the system tuned for it. I could be wrong, and would to find out more from your experience.

 

[Pjalchemist]

Mother of god...

Should see the drawings (unit after this) for the father of god!!

Hey very interesting build. Can't wait to see more of it. Just as well you are a body builder as you are going to need to be to shift it I reckon!

Hey dude, next few days will get the parts needed to bolt comp and cond down, will weight it then again before going to painters.

I must say, that is looking to be a very high quality setup. I have been wanting to do phase change cooling, but being a poor college student with little time as of late, have not be able to do so. I will be looking forward to the finished system. How is the noise on that rotary compressor? I have not had much experience with those. All of the refrigerators, and air conditioning units I have come across so far were not rotary. I will also be interested in the outcome of each of those refrigerants. From my understanding, the boiling point determines the minimum temperature possible with the system tuned for it. I could be wrong, and would to find out more from your experience.

It's pretty cheap if you can get the parts. It also depends where you are. If your after part PM me, i've lots hanging about. The noise off the rotary is ok, nothing like my 36,000 rotary, ive fallen asleep with a 12K running before. You can use pretty much any comp, R134a + and doesn't have to be a rotary. I've a single stage im teaching someone to build using a simple Danfoss NL11F, holds 300w no problems. Yes and no on the temps with the gases. Each gas boils at a different point, there for they absorbe the system heat, cool the system and also each other gas, 1 for 1 sorta thing. Some gases will only go so cold before they can cool or drop no more. You can get past a bit more via a vacume but its not advised. Then you have a flow control, thermal valve or cap tube to control the flow to which is the metering device and there that also determins the point of of the gases boiling off.

Awaiting some bolts and nuts to finish moutning bits, weight in then off too painters

 

[Untitledone]

I have a refrigerator that appears to have vented its refrigerant, as well as a window AC unit that was in my brother-in-law's shed that a rat chewed the cable on. As far as I know the AC unit was working, but has a decent amount of cosmetic rust. The refrigerator has been in my garage from 2003 until a few months ago when we got a free one to replace it. The refigerator was a free one provided by PG&E to reduce energy costs, but stopped cooling in 2006 at which point we just unplugged it and let it sit. Last I check it ran, just did not get cool, so I guess that it just got a leak, and no longer has refrigerant.

I am really interested in the R7xx group of refigerants, since they are not regulated if I am not mistaken, have less impact on the environment, and generally have very low boiling points. I eventually want to get a crappy system going and test it on the multiple Pentium 3 machines I have lying around. I also want to try to make a cascade and see how low I can go in temperature reliably.

This has many interests for me, not just for overclocking, but other science experiments. It would be awesome if I could go low enough to get some liquid helium action going on to play with superconductive materials. If they were able to get liquid helium in labs in the late 1800's I am sure we can get there using modern refrigeration knowledge. Everything I have learned so far has pointed me to the fact that it should be possible, and most people who even think about going that low are scientists that have budgets big enough to just buy liquid helium. I am poor, and also want long durations of low temperatures with no consumable materials.

 

[Pjalchemist]

R7XX (C02) is becoming a lot more mainstream now as to just on big unit thats using others higher end gases. -70c out the box is pretty comen now.

Make a single stage 1st, dead easy then try blends then try a cascasde

The unit that leaked may need a oil change due to be open to the atmosphere for so long and some oil suck moister in

 

[Untitledone]

Alright, thanks for the advice. Also the 700 series of refrigerants has helium, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and others. Its mostly elementary gasses, no compounds, or man made gasses. I definitely like nitrogen, and helium. I was thinking of a 25% r134a and 75% nitrogen for my first setup, and once I get that down I will try my second and maybe even more stages.