[Beowulf] materials for air shroud?

Thu Sep 1 08:22:42 PDT 2011

Steel has a lousy thermal conductivity compared to Aluminum.  They sell the
"dippable" electrical tape at most home improvement stores.  Foam
double-stick tape is indeed amazing stuff...

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Robert G. Brown <rgb at phy.duke.edu> wrote:

> 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-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org]
> On Behalf Of David Mathog
> >> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 10:29 AM
> >> To: beowulf at 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
> >> mathog at 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:rgb at phy.duke.edu
>
>
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Nathan Moore
Associate Professor, Physics
Winona State University
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