On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
Also thin aluminum. You can get aluminum sheeting that you can cut with
scissors and that is easy to bend into shapes if you have a bending jig
(or can make one with two pieces of board stock and a vise). Cheap,
fireproof, meltproof at any temperatures you're likely to reach, no
toxic fumes in a fire, can be glued or screwed. The one drawback is
that it is a PITA to weld or solder if that's important to you, but for
an air shroud you can probably make compression joints (interlocking U
rims, squeezed down) that are adequate.
Most hardware stores (roof flashing), some auto parts or hobby stores.
Copper too, but more expensive. Don't know about thin "enough" sheet
steel, but probably -- copper or steel would both weld or solder easily.
rgb
> Cardboard? Card stock? Masking tape? White glue? (that's what I usually use
> for cooling ducts.. easy to cut, glue, tape..) It's no more flammable than
> plastic, and it doesn't melt and get soft. Papier Mache, works too.
>
> On the other hand, if you want to mold a smooth curve, then plastic is the
> way to go. Vacuforming can make a very nice thing, and the form is made out
> of wood (usually), but you don't need to go to that extreme.. you get some
> nice thermoplastic, put it in hot water to get it soft, and mold as needed.
> (yes, you could use those old LPs you've got stashed away.. )
>
> Thin, cuttable plastic could be polyethylene (not necessarily High density)
> or similar. Polystyrene and acrylic tend to be more brittle. ABS is very
> nice to work with. PVC is also easy to work with. Nylon is another
> possibility.
>
> Do you want to be able to glue it?
>
> What I would do is call up profesionalplastics.com formerly Cadillac
> Plastics (many outlets nationwide) and see what they have. It might be more
> useful to find a retail outlet and go look through their scrap bin.. Before
> Gem-O-Lite in Woodland Hills went out of business, that's where I used to go.
> Plastic Depot in Burbank has a huge selection.
>
> Drive over there, and ask the counter folks what would work for you. $10-20
> will get you more plastic than you know what to do with.
>
> Art supply places (e.g. Blick on Raymond.. any of the countless Michaels or
> Aaron Bros) also carry sheet plastic, but I find the plastic places tend to
> have more variety, and more practical information about use for "engineering"
> applications.
>
>
> Jim Lux
> +1(818)354-2075
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: beowulf-boun...@beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-boun...@beowulf.org] On
>> Behalf Of David Mathog
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 10:29 AM
>> To: beowulf@beowulf.org
>> Subject: [Beowulf] materials for air shroud?
>>
>> Anybody know of a nice cheap, high melting point, easy to work with
>> sheet material, for making a custom air shroud?
>>
>> We have one box with stuff in it that looks similar to HDPE, the
>> material the white flexible cutting boards are made of, but it is a bit
>> thinner and more rigid that that. Unfortunately there are no markings
>> on it, so HDPE is just a guess. Whatever it is, it cut easily with
>> scissors (I had to trim it slightly at one point.)
>>
>> Background. We have an older Supermicro SC-823 server with dual
>> processors. The air shroud it came with only covers the first
>> processor. That didn't matter much when it had two low power processors
>> in it, but after upgrading it to dual Opteron 280s, the uncovered second
>> one runs considerably hotter than the covered front one. (Swapping the
>> processors around didn't help - the heat stayed where it was, so a
>> ventilation issue, not a processor issue.) Supermicro does make a newer
>> shroud which extends to the back of the case, but the manual (google for
>> "SC-823 air shroud user's guide") indicates that it is designed for
>> Intel CPUs. So it may or may not fit around the Opterons.
>>
>> The redesigned air shroud will probably work, but I'm about 90%
>> confident that taping a sheet of plastic onto the back of the existing
>> shroud would work as well - if I can find a plastic that won't flap
>> around or melt.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> David Mathog
>> mat...@caltech.edu
>> Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
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Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:r...@phy.duke.edu
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