Will it bend?
Previously I received the heat pipes from China but did not perform any tests yet.
This is actually a major unknown in the project for the following reasons:
1) The quality of AliExpress items... can vary
2) The entire project depends on the ability to correctly bend the heatpipes. Poor bends will severely limit the heat transfer.
3) I found little useful information on existing attempts to perform major bends on heat pipes. Some threads I found on the matter contained such inane advice such as to heat them up with a "torch" and use "plyers with a light grip" which seems like an unbelievably terrible plan.
I was lucky to find and print this tool on Thingiverse, which someone had specifically designed for heatpipes.
Primitive tool in hand, next was a bit of "napkin math" to confirm what the CAD model was showed for measurements. My CAD model is trash because I made all the measurements with one of those pocket measurement tapes you get for free at a convention.
I measured it out by hand and calculated where the bend should be to be sure.
The bend is supposed to be: 47mm length, 30mm radius, 90 degree angle:
Done
Turned out really good actually.
The diameter of the heatpipe wasn't impacted too badly, so it seems like the tool did a really good job.
I overlayed the bent pipe on the graphics card and case to check positioning.
The intended position is the heatpipe socket which would be to the right of center in the HDplex GPU system.
It's just about perfect... all that is left to do now is to put it all together and see if it will actually work or not.
The rest of the parts I need to Frankenstein the thing together should be arriving in the next 1-2 weeks.
