Modified/Macguyvered T500
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:28 pmHey all,
So, a while back the inevitable happened, my T500 shit itself and developed a product leak right at that plastic mount(bottom one). So I got sent a new one under warranty, then I thought seeing I had one spare I'd gut the old one and try modifying it, as it's probably a matter of time til the new one gives up the ghost too. Part of me was surprised and part of me wasn't at how, half arsed these things are built.
Anywho, had some leftover bits from my pot build, so I stripped off all the plastic bits.
Ended up drilling a 6.5mm hole in the top of a 2" endcap for the coil condenser intake and a 15mm to accomodate a new vapour outlet, which was a 1" copper 90, silver soldered to a bit of 1", which again was soldered onto the product inlet of the standard T500 PC. Where the plastic lower mount was, I wire brushed all the silicone off the bolt and cleaned it up a bit and silver soldered the bolt in place too. Eventually I may get rid of it, just ran out of time (ribs on the smoker were ready :-D ). All has leak tested fine, except for one little S.O.B I thought I may have issues with. The right angle water outlet fitting coming from the inner coil condenser (pics will be included).
Now, I'm suspecting there's more silicone in there (can't see it at all, given the build, wouldn't surprise me either), any thoughts on how to deal with it? Ideally, I'd like to keep that condenser as is, but, it WILL be a product/vapour leak, so I need to deal with it. Should I burn out the silicone and silver solder it up? Or somehow try to gut it and, well, Macguyver something up?
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Death threats?
(Also, I don't HAVE to use it, I just thought why not, buy me some time til I move onto another reflux, getting copper pipe of most common sizes is no issue for me)
Also suspect that the T500 PC is jammed with silicone/rubber bits as well, I don't expect it to have decent joins in it, so may deal with that eventually too, but no need at the moment.
EDIT:
Also, it is a work in progress, so it still needs to be cleaned up etc, and may yet be scrapped as well.
So, a while back the inevitable happened, my T500 shit itself and developed a product leak right at that plastic mount(bottom one). So I got sent a new one under warranty, then I thought seeing I had one spare I'd gut the old one and try modifying it, as it's probably a matter of time til the new one gives up the ghost too. Part of me was surprised and part of me wasn't at how, half arsed these things are built.
Anywho, had some leftover bits from my pot build, so I stripped off all the plastic bits.
Ended up drilling a 6.5mm hole in the top of a 2" endcap for the coil condenser intake and a 15mm to accomodate a new vapour outlet, which was a 1" copper 90, silver soldered to a bit of 1", which again was soldered onto the product inlet of the standard T500 PC. Where the plastic lower mount was, I wire brushed all the silicone off the bolt and cleaned it up a bit and silver soldered the bolt in place too. Eventually I may get rid of it, just ran out of time (ribs on the smoker were ready :-D ). All has leak tested fine, except for one little S.O.B I thought I may have issues with. The right angle water outlet fitting coming from the inner coil condenser (pics will be included).
Now, I'm suspecting there's more silicone in there (can't see it at all, given the build, wouldn't surprise me either), any thoughts on how to deal with it? Ideally, I'd like to keep that condenser as is, but, it WILL be a product/vapour leak, so I need to deal with it. Should I burn out the silicone and silver solder it up? Or somehow try to gut it and, well, Macguyver something up?
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Death threats?
(Also, I don't HAVE to use it, I just thought why not, buy me some time til I move onto another reflux, getting copper pipe of most common sizes is no issue for me)
Also suspect that the T500 PC is jammed with silicone/rubber bits as well, I don't expect it to have decent joins in it, so may deal with that eventually too, but no need at the moment.
EDIT:
Also, it is a work in progress, so it still needs to be cleaned up etc, and may yet be scrapped as well.