Liquidextasy waterblocks

[al_bundy]

Hi, i hope u can understand. Its my english + google translate. I know its not perfect, but the most interesting things r the pix. I prepared 142 pix. Now u can see the first 32 pictures and u will know some details behind the company, especially the start of LiquidExtasy. It will needs some days or weeks to translate text for 142 pictures.



Hello community,

If we start to talk about LiquidExtasy waterblocks, we have to start in the year of 2000, despite of the company started in 2008. In the year 2000 I had youth consecration and wanted to buy a water cooling system. I went to Jolly Joker Computershop, a local computer shop in my hometown, and asked for a quote on water cooling. They said it would be too expensive and its not worth. I went home disappointed. However, the water cooling issue has not died.



But the first of all a few words in advance. My name is Marc and I'm known in the communities as Al_, Al_Bundy and Teddito. The company started on 2008 and deals with the waterblocks. Later milling spindles and table tennis blades. So Custom-made waterblocks and table tennis blades are also possible for u. So that this service does not die, I need help from the community and platform. I can return some pictures and offers for the implementation of your custom builds and also experience in the field of CNC, table tennis and waterblocks. It is important to me that agreements are kept by both sides, although there may be delays in delivery for understandable reasons.



Corona, but also the Ukraine war is a challenge for many companies. Copper deliveries take up to 3 months, copper prices have tripled in some cases, it can no longer be delivered to every country as example through DHL especially also longer delivery routes ect. Pp. But I'm still here and have a right to exist because, as far as I know, there is no one who offers waterblocks for custom PCB's or realizes your custom builds easily and affordable against the submission of CAD files. Some users and small companies before me did that too, but unfortunately they are no longer active. I would be happy if I could enjoy similar permissiveness in the forum to be able to show my work.



I started my forums career in 2002 and have intensified waterblocks crafting threads since about 2007. Gradually everything has expanded and now you can order waterblocks for many exotic cards and boards. The company was founded in 2008 and production officially stopped in 2016 due my illness. Hopefully everything will be back to normal in next year so that everyone can have more fun with this project. However, this requires help from the community that honors the work and does not boycott it. If you do a lot, you sometimes make a mistake, that's completely normal. However, it is important that the errors are eliminated appropriately. If something went wrong, always write an email.



Unfortunately, since 2018 it hasn't been that easy to reward due to longer delivery times, which I didn't choose. It is well known that Liquidextasy is a onemanshow. If the protagonist is ill, nothing happens. If there is a broken cnc-machine, the productions stops. Or at least for a short time. Luckily I am now in a solid position with 3 cnc machines. Normally, a machine is always running if I'm not distracted by other activities. However, in the last few years, health has put a spanner in the works for me to start where I left off in 2017.



In the last 5 years I have invested around €60,000 in my health. Money that would have been used very good for the company... Unfortunately, my health improvement is very slow. Of course, it must broke bcoz I had an high pace and if u don’t care to urself and care just to ur company u will be sick…. But let's start with the history in 2002.



I started in 2002 and had a lot of things to do with copper and got various skills for copper processing. In 2004 I started building my first water cooling system, which I presented on Easy-mod.de at the time. The cooler got the name Al_Vis V1.

At that time there was a platform that tested waterblocks on a special benchtable ( with a FET not with a real CPU) and tested waterblocks of performance. -> Watercoolplanet.de I sent them some waterblocks, which didn't do badly for the first time. With the Al_Vis 1.4 I built a cooler that made it the 2nd place in the ranking. Coolers built with just a Dremel, driller and file. More coolers and reports in the forum followed and I received requests for replicas.



That's actually where it all started. I bought an HBM BF 20 Vario with studendsalery and earned some pocket money until I saved up a kit for the CNC.

To get more skills in CNC I joyned Peters-cnc-ecke.de forum. When the modification to cnc-actions was finally finished, much more complex structures could be manufactured.

After my study was finished, the German goverment transferred me to civilian service, where I had prepared everything for founding the company in 2008. In the summer of 2008 the time had finally come and I had some support from a forum member in terms of CAD and CFD/FEM simulations. This is how the Narrowline CPU cooler came about and the company was founded under the Liquid Extasy label.

Then in 2009 Liquid Extasy got a reseller. Aquatuning. They helped me to sell the waterblocks. The first water coolers for graphics cards were also developed and sold via the online shop. For example for the Nvidia GTX 285

But the productiontime take too long time for me, I removed the original spindlemotor of the milling machine and replace it with a Kressspindle. From then on, higher feed rates are possible.

Other coolers quickly followed, for example the Asus P5Q and Nvidia's 8800GT.

In 2010 I changed the cooling structures of GPU coolers. -> HD 5870 waterblock. The cooler was created in cooperation with PC-Masters. Meanwhile, the interest was huge. I as a one manshow had released the most water coolers ever/year. Even the big ones like Aquacomputer and Watercool couldn't keep it up. 2010 was also the year I developed my first console water block. The Playstation 3 water cooler.

Since the Kress router regularly stopped working, I switched to a more expensive millingspindle. Suhner UAL23RF. This made it possible to produce faster. However, only 10 months. -> Bearings broken L. In 2010 the first fullcover waterblock for motherboards followed. The Asus Maximus III. Furthermore, In 2010 dealt first with the topic of nickel plating.

Meanwhile, I was also on the payroll at Alphacool. The clue was a universal waterblock for chipset and gpu’s. Alphacool sold thousands of Smart Motions . Unfortunately, the partnership did not last long because Alphacool closed the business at the time. Despite being the legal successor to Alphacool International, I had to forego the developer fee for the Smart Motion. So I modified the Smart Motion and released the VUCI. In retrospect, I should have sued Alphacool...

Later I started to offer windowcuts.

Since the Suhner millingspindle was broken again, I bought a real milling spindle and replaced the Suhner. For this purpose, the CNC was embedded in a housing which was also created in-house. Of course, with the foresight that something bigger should go into the cabin.

A little bit more was possible with this milling spindle. I was preparing for a small series for my friend. It was about a CPU waterblock that should be on the level of the usual waterblocks like Heatkiller and Kryos. I started slitting.

A current HD 6990 waterblock looks like this now. It is one of the cards with the highest TDP ever. A positive development of the cooler design should be noticeable

 

[W1zzard]

I've approved this post, OP is verified to be a rep of LiquidExtasy

 

[al_bundy]

Iam testing the RTX 3090 TI waterblock right now

 

[al_bundy]

In 2012 I bought another machine that had to do something. Because the orders were increasing and the online shop was expanded. Now the coolers could also be ordered outside of Germany.

So it was inevitable that I should develop a waterblock for the Voodoo 5 for a special customer. So I did. It didn't just stay with a waterblock, I create also a small air cooler and also a huge air cooler. Completely overkill but the good man wanted it in that way

With the MSI 570GTX water cooler, the cooling structure has been changed again. Also made a little more flow-friendly during the year.

Towards the end of 2012 I care about a new CNC. This has not yet been completed to this day. The machine got stronger portal cheeks, a stainless steel tub, a 50mm sacrificial plate made of PVC and a China spindle.

In 2013, a benchtable followed for benching graphics cards. The benchtable is equipped with a 360 Monsta and an Aquastream XT. This means that almost everything can be taken care of in the best possible way. All tubes have an inner diameter of 13mm and G3/8 connections so that the cooling system is not limited, but rather the cooler to be tested. I also began to work on producing table tennis blades for competitive sports. Which works quite well and innovatively to this day. The blades are sold under the Customblades label.

Looking to the future, one eye was already on a pneumatic tool changer. That's why I invested in a Boge compressed air system. As it turned out, the unit was too small because Ibag gave me wrong information. A 3KW compressor with a 160l tank had to be ordered later. So I initially had a small 0.75 kW workshop compressor with a 120 l tank. And a milling spindle with a pneumatic tool changer that had been lying around for years due to a lack of peripherals. The compressor was insulated.

In the end of 2013, the bearings of my HSD milling spindle was also broken, which I had repaired once. The milling spindle could be purchased new for €900. The service cost me €450 for material (bearings) only. Later I switched to Chinese spindle. But not just any. I tested over 15 brands from different manufacturers until I found what I was looking for. In the course of this activity, I began to expand my portfolio with milling spindles. I imported the good spindles from Asia, checked them for defects, grounding the millingspindle and polished and grinded the inner cone, and gave the spindles to an electrician who checked all spindles of electrical safety. The spindles are delivered with an accuracy certificate and test report from the electrician and the spindles do what they promised. Until noiw J the spindles can be used for well over 4000 operating hours if used properly. So what the Chinese can't or don't want, I take as an opportunity to improve and offer it.

In the meantime, the water coolers could also be ordered with black screws and a nickel option was introduced. I was desperately looking for coatingcompanies who can offer this cheaply. However, all of my price expectations could not be met. So I started nickel-plating by myself. The first parts were quite difficult, but after I got used to it and use new oils, the nickel plating has been very good.



This topic was very challenging. I must have tested around 20 different coolants. Tool life, smoke development, cleaning of the workpieces, price and the possibility of chemical nickel plating had to be guaranteed. In the end, I opted for the expensive version that combined everything else. Blaser Blasocut BC25MD.

 

[joemama]

I love those pictures, these are some sexy hardware
Is the big air cooler one with heatpipes?

 

[al_bundy]

Yes. 12pieces of 5mm Heatpipes. Really overkill. One pipe should be enough each gpu.

 

[Ferrum Master]

How many PSI's for those barometers? I have also one in my system, but is tough to get really weak pressure ones. 15PSI is the weakest one... it would be great to have like 10PSI.

 

[al_bundy]

We in Germany use bar, not psi.
It is 1 bar, but useless. Perfect wouhld be 250mbar.
The this is iam poor and i dont like to spend 150€ für a barometer bcoz it has no value.

 

[Ferrum Master]

We in Germany use bar, not psi.
It is 1 bar, but useless. Perfect wouhld be 250mbar.

D5 can go past 250mbar in the loop. 0.5BAR should be okayish. It is a great way to monitor if pumps do work fine and some clog ups haven't happened.

Those things usually do not cost much. But it seems you haven't also found those... maybe somewhere in the food industry there are some low pressure manometers... too lazy to search more.

 

[al_bundy]

It depends of the system. I work with an Aquacomputer Aquastream Ultra. Maximum value r 20mbar with radiator, and cooler.

 

[al_bundy]

In the summer of 2014, the second console water cooler was released. The water cooler for the Xbox 360. In addition, the portfolio has been expanded to include another Playstation 3 waterblock for a different revision. In addition, I began to deal with the subject of engravings a little more closely. First of all, you need some hardware. Hardware that could also be used to mill finer cooling structures.

For engravings and finer structures, I used a 300W engraving spindle from Han-Qi. It quickly became clear that this would be a significant benefit bcoz the spindle can handle up to 2mm tools. Engravings and structures with a slot width of 1mm were no longer a major problem in terms of time.

However, the wear at 60,000 rpm was enormous. So I decided to test an engraving needle. After few tests in different materials and the correct "cutting parameters", the result was great. The age of engraving has begun. In December 2014, the first cooler with an engraving was delivered. It was called the GTX 980 Reference. In the meantime there were also a number of custom-made products, including a customer who wanted a blue anodized waterblock. No problem for an extra charge.

At about the same time I switched from wet milling to MMKS (minimum quantity cooling lubrication system) in order to keep consumption of the expensive coolant low. About 3-4 liters of coolant were lost every day on the large machine. I was able to reduce that up to 1/3 with the MMKS. The coolant no longer hits the tool as a "water jet", but as a spray mist. This was to become a major problem later on, which has still not been fully resolved.

Due to the new milling spindle, finer structures were introduced into the waterblocks. It started in February 2015 with a GTX 980 waterblock. I also found sources for colored acrylic glass. So it was now possible to offer waterblocks in all colors and to combine them. Further coolers with nozzle technology were developed. For example for the Zotac GTX 980 AMP.

In the spring of 2015, the machine park was to be expanded with an engraving machine. Originally, I only wanted to engrave and mill smaller acrylic glass parts. But with the China CNC 3020 I completely failed. The machine did not meet my requirements in any way. So I started building a small HSC milling machine to myself. Meanwhile, the nozzle technology has also made it into full-cover CPU water coolers. Asus X99 A

Further custom-made products were requested and delivered to satisfied customers.

 

[al_bundy]

Attached is the construction of the small HSC milling machine with a range of 300x240x90mm made of aluminum with a 1.2Kw China spindle that I ground out (concentricity 5µ) with 60,000rpm. The engraving went great, the milling of the acrylic glass edges is excellent and everything is super fast (feed rate up to 6m/min). Thus, the small engraving spindle on the Bf20 Vario was obsolete. It was dismantled and sold.

The machine was finally operational in 2016 and relieved my BF20 Vario. In the course of this I developed a water cooler for Coolaboratory, which then also went on sale.

In spring 2016 I started to tackle the project with the pneumatic tool change. The goal is a tool magazine with up to 22 tools. The system is still not in use due to lack of time, but it is imminent. The tools have to be calibrated, the emissions have to be minimized (oil fog) and the cooling of the spindle has to be completed.

March 2016 the engravings got an update. You can now also have the engraving designed for you at no extra charge. Green, yellow, blue, black, white and red are selectable.

 

[al_bundy]

Furthermore, I began to deal with the topic of air filter systems because the air in the workshop is heavily contaminated due to grinding dust and oilfog in the air. In retrospect, this is one reason for my pulmonary emphysema. And that in my mid-30s. I read a lot and also got offers from companies. A company build and airfiltresystem for €8,000. Unfortunately, the budget didn't exist. So the only option was to build it myself. I started with 200mm duct fans and vacuum cleaner filters. That brought a significant improvement, but I was sure that there was still a lot of space for improvement.

At the same time, new milling spindles came in for testing. All spindles were put through their paces, but the most spindles were judged to be more bad than right. Other suppliers were sought and later found. The problem with many milling spindles is simply that the out of the box is not good. The cone angle does not fit on almost all spindles. cone accuracy is not good up to 50%. There are leaks, overvoltages, the spindles are not grounded, screw connections have been broken and rusty inner cones have been founded. You get what you pay... I sort out all my unusable spindles and only deliver excellent spindles to my customers. In 8 years there were only 3 complaints! Strange.

January 2017 I started to manufacture and integrate the tool magazine.

In the spring of 2017 I continued with the airfiltersystem. H13 as final filter should be good. Which was then quickly accomplished. In retrospect, the filter area of approx. 50m² is not too small. Because a volume flow of approx. 1800m³/h is required to filter all emissions. -> air exchange rate of approx. 18. That is not extremely high, but it is very high. Companies that offered to install an air filter system recommended an air change rate of 8-10. I would never be happy if I had this small air exchange rate. I also made a suction shoe for the milling spindle of the large milling machine, attached it and expanded the Z axis for another milling spindle. The spindle is used for dry milling. For example wood. -> Table tennis blades from the label Customblades.

After half a year, I got along so well with my small HSC milling machine that you can create mirror-clear edges. However, my pace has slowly caught up with me. In autumn 2016 I had to officially stop the production. This still applies until today. Unofficially, however, production continues to the best of our ability. The already mentioned pulmonary emphysema is only one part of the truth. Accordingly, there are basically hardly any innovations from 2017 onwards. What I have created myself over the last 10 years will be expanded from now on and only very slowly. Especially since it has to be said that nothing has developed technologically on the watercoolingmarket market at GPU waterblocks. Existing cooling designs are only adapted to new videocards. However, there was an optical update at the beginning of 2018 where I was still able to use panels. It started with the RX Vega 64 water cooler.

In March 2018 I started to deal with the topic of vacuum technology. After some testing, a good configuration was found, although the vacuum table had to be adjusted. All of my vacuum tables have 4 lines for suction and a 1" maintube to the vacuumpump. There is now enough airflow through the small holes of the vacuumtable and the parts remain taut even when large areas are open.

 

[al_bundy]

In the meantime there have also been some custom-made products such as backplates and special material combinations. Among other things, an IHS made of 935 silver and rebuilds of EK waterblock covers. Furthermore, the quality of the cooler has steadily improved. Something has also happened in the area of occupational safety and the elimination of emissions. A new powerful centrifugal fan with up to 1800cfm was bought. From here a turning point began. I focused a lot more on occupational health and safety and took more and more care of my health and spend a lot of money in this part. The place at the sun moved away from month to month. L

Accordingly, a short time later, the cabin of the small HSC milling machine and that of the Bf20 Vario were also vacuumed. The vacuum cleaner filters ended up in the garbage and I installed a 2-stage filter system with G4 and F9 upstream of the H13 final filter so that the filter service life remains correspondingly long. In addition, the belt grinder has been given a trunk for suction.

It's now autumn 2019 and I got orders for illuminated signs, among other things.

January 2020 the Bf20 Vario got an update. 3Kw China spindle with 24,000 rpm. This time, of course, water-cooled. Finally the whistling sound of the air-cooled spindle was gone.

 

[Calenhad]

This is a treasure trove of history. Thank you for posting this.

And sorry to hear about your health issues, hope this is something that can be cured or at least treated for the years to come. Best of luck!

 

[al_bundy]

Naja, since my rehabilitation it getting a litle bit better. But its still a long way :-(
Thank u.

 

[al_bundy]

The air quality was much better after the big update of the filters and the fan. It feels like it could stay that way. But I wanted more. Bad mistake. The active carbon filter is said to filter molecules by itself. odours, volatile solvents ect. Pp. That may be true, but the use of active carbon filters has deteriorated the air quality because carbon dust was blown out. So I had to remove the filter again

In the meantime there are not that many updates anymore because my health has been significantly worse since mid-2018. Among other things, also by nickel plating. So I looking for good doctors and finally ended up in Erfurt, where the doctor diagnosed a heavy metal intoxication. After 15 DMPSA infusions, my levels have now normalized. I was primarily exposed to mercury and nickel. The 7-fold to beyond the limit., There was an urgent need for action. I hope I don't get lung cancer because of this. More great coolers have been released.

In November 2020 I bought a particulate matter measuring device. The result without an air filter system was frightening. 576 particles/m³ 0.3µ particles in the air and only with 2 machines inside the cabins. With the air filter system, the value has dropped to 54 particles/m³. That means as long as the big machine isn't work, it's fine with the air filtration system. I also attached pressure monitors to each filter that let me know when the filter is full. Replacement of vacuumcleaneriltre to class H13 filters was also completed. With the Gigabyte RTX 2070, I greate a new cover design which is still in use today, provided the layout of the waterblocks allows it.

 

[TPCEA]

This has been a very interesting read. Thank you for sharing! How is your health now?

Unless I'm mistaken, activated carbon and other similar substances would rapidly get gunked up by oil and be useless without a multi-stage system that removes the oil first. And, of course, the dust is an issue because it's close to impossible to filter without losing too much airflow, although running small bubbles through water might help, or a series of chambers that force it to drop out of the air. It's a sticky problem! (Pun intended). I wish you better health and continued success!!

 

[al_bundy]

Naja, 5h every day working is possible. But sometimes i get problems. If the sun is shining, noone annoys me, then its possible to work 8-10h/day.
Since iam back in Germany i restarted to make sport and iam successfull again. But the last two weeks i neglet the sport bcoz my cnc machines running again. But i guess i will be finish in the end of next week, then i can go to sport trice a week again.

The Airfiltersystem i have is not that bad, also the capacity of the filters. The endfilter has a surface more than 50m² and u can filtre the fog of oil not that bad. But the filtresystem is still not finish yet. The next update should comes in around 8 weeks.

 

[TPCEA]

How often do you have to swap out the oil filter? Are you using HEPA?

 

[al_bundy]

H13. I have never been changed the filtres. They r still not full yet. I have a tool that tell me when i have to change the filters. -> Differential pressure measurement

 

[TPCEA]

What is the pressure when new versus when it's time to change the filters? What tool do you use? Pitot?

I suppose ULPA would be too restrictive for airflow...?

 

[al_bundy]

This is the tool. U15 would be great. But the recomendation of the profi is H13. The most industrialsystems has also H13. So it should be fine. Preasure i cant remember. I must study the datasheets of the filters. Bcoz i have different kind of filters. G4, F9 and H13. The big H13 filter has a preasuredrop of max. 350Pa. The small ones may be 50Pa.

 

[TPCEA]

This is the tool. U15 would be great. But the recomendation of the profi is H13. The most industrialsystems has also H13. So it should be fine. Preasure i cant remember. I must study the datasheets of the filters. Bcoz i have different kind of filters. G4, F9 and H13. The big H13 filter has a preasuredrop of max. 350Pa. The small ones may be 50Pa.

Really very interesting! I was going to suggest Corsi-Rosenthal box filter (home-made) but you clearly have something so much better that this CRBF is like a joke in comparison! I really hope that this will keep you safe. Is there any chance that the emphysema will get better?

 

[al_bundy]

Thank u. The emphysema is unfortunality not cureable. :-(