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Post by birkie on May 9, 2017 3:02:39 GMT
I pulled the heater day, and confirmed that it is truly dead. It came out really easy; it was loose in the hole and there was no resistance whatsoever. On it was stamped 18W (or 16W, not entirely clear). A new 20W heater is on order so that we can fire it up and see what happens.
It looks like the machine does still have refrigerant in it. How much remains is still an open question. Applying heat to one of the pigs eventually causes a light and steady boiling sound (which persists for some time after removing heat), which is encouraging. It's very much unlike our CK, where the mere warmth of a hand placed on the evap causes a very audible glug a few seconds later.
It looks like if I wanted to drive out any oil that collected in the pigs, I'd have to heat both simultaneously in order to avoid sending oil from one evap into the other?
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Post by ckfan on May 9, 2017 3:54:55 GMT
Good deal. That is encouraging. Yes, you would need to heat both at the same time to drive any oil out.
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Post by birkie on Jun 4, 2017 18:44:05 GMT
Still waiting for the heater to arrive from Nordic Sensors. I've also been away a lot, so haven't had much of a chance to play with the DR3. The other day I took a closer look the cabinet. I'm now waiting for the moisture inside it and the ant colony living inside it to both dissipate. The cabinet has a wood frame, and is insulated by cork. There's a layer of tar paper right beneath all the exterior enameled steel panels, and a layer of kraft paper which covers the cork itself. One corner off the cabinet had recent water infiltration. Even after sitting in my garage for a few weeks since we moved it, the moisture hadn't dissipated. The tar paper made sure of that. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any real structural rot so far. As I was taking all the trim around the perimeter of the top plate, I ran into a colony of ants. They had laid their eggs along the underside of the long strip of trim across the front of the cabinet. I let them flee while I explored the textolite around the door openings. The textolite inside the cabinet is a bit weathered, but came off OK. Behind it was a sticky strip of no-ox-id cloth. It was sandwiched between the textolite and the wood frame. The wood frame is actually bevelled to match the textolite, so the strips seem to be backed by solid wood. It doesn't look like the method they used would create a great seal, however. After removing all the trim around the top perimeter, I noticed that that the top sheet metal was still not free. It looks like it forms a flange around the perimeter of the hole on the top of the cabinet. The varnished wood that surrounds the perimeter of that hole holds the seal material in place, and grips the flange from the top sheet metal. It looks like I'm going to have to remove the wood around the perimeter of the hole to get the top piece off, and remove the sealing material. If the cabinet proves salvageable after a complete teardown, then I've been thinking of mortising small reed switches (or hall-effect sensors) right behind the textolite, and a corresponding magnet in each door. This would function as no-contact switch for a string of LED lights around the inside perimeter, hidden from sight. We'll see how difficult that might be after further cabinet teardown. Here are some pictures: goo.gl/photos/f8L4e2yGUbpUnTQy6
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Post by Travis on Jun 4, 2017 19:08:46 GMT
Or you could spray it with Raid and simply replace the insulation on the sides.
I thought about disassembling my 11 c ft cabinet once. I quickly decided it was good enough. I only need so many in-depth projects to suck my time and wallet dry.
Don't take my comments as negative. I just spent way too much having the DR4 evaporator sand blasted. Now to flush it and get it powder coated.
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Post by ckfan on Jun 4, 2017 19:14:45 GMT
You'll get it done birkie. Good work. Sounds like it will shine when you are done. I like the idea of a reed switch and magnet which can be easily hidden to control a light. Very clever!
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Post by birkie on Jun 4, 2017 23:36:07 GMT
Or you could spray it with Raid and simply replace the insulation on the sides. I thought about disassembling my 11 c ft cabinet once. I quickly decided it was good enough. I only need so many in-depth projects to suck my time and wallet dry. Don't take my comments as negative. I just spent way too much having the DR4 evaporator sand blasted. Now to flush it and get it powder coated. Oh no, I don't see that as negative at all. Having knowingly bought houses that are in about as good of shape as that DR (complete with carpenter ants), I'm eager to see with my own eyes if the cabinet is sound in all the hidden places. Rust and rot are a cancer; given how long that thing must have been stored outside, it's a distinct worry. It was only $45, is fairly uncommon, and we'd like to use it as the primary fridge - so we'd be happy to open our wallets when needed if it still has a chance at a long life. Besides, my wife has a soft spot for the hard luck cases, and it's cute. I'm just glacially slow. That DR4 was lucky to have found you, Travis!
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Post by elec573 on Jun 5, 2017 6:28:14 GMT
Thanks for the look inside! What type of wood is used on the cabinet? Didn't know tar paper was used on these machines that's interesting, but given the time period it's understanding. Looking forward to your next update.
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Post by timeswelding on Jun 5, 2017 22:00:35 GMT
Looks just like the inside of my 11 cubic foot D35 cabinet. They were very well built.
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Post by birkie on Jun 6, 2017 2:54:34 GMT
Thanks for the look inside! What type of wood is used on the cabinet? Didn't know tar paper was used on these machines that's interesting, but given the time period it's understanding. Looking forward to your next update. Thanks, I'll post more pics as I get more sheet metal off. The wood frame is pine. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem like the moisture in that one corner significantly affected the wood structurally. So far, it has been in surprisingly good structural shape given its rough history. Looks just like the inside of my 11 cubic foot D35 cabinet. They were very well built. Yes, it is incredibly well built. I haven't dug deep enough to be sure, but it looks like it might actually use mortise and tenon joinery! It looks like each corner is additionally secured with a couple nails through each tenon to keep them from pulling out. It even looks like the framing around each door could be m&t as well, with the shoulder of each joint at a complex at an angle to match the bevel of the door jamb. If so, it must have been a fairly expensive cabinet! I'm more of a wood worker than a metal worker, so this is right up my alley.
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Post by birkie on Oct 25, 2017 2:23:09 GMT
Things were quieting down a bit, so I had time to play with the DR3
I attached the new 20W heater from Nordic Sensors (.. which measured only 18W!), heated up the sump for a while, crossed my fingers, and flicked the switch...
... and it worked! The evaporators gave deep bubbling sounds and rapidly got cool to the point of sweating. After a few minutes, the condenser coils felt good and warm all over, and so did the float. Great!
It did sound a bit rough, in my opinion. Here's a video shortly after starting. It sounds a bit metallic. Tilting the unit didn't make any difference, so it wasn't rattle due to refrigerant in the sump.
10-15 minutes in, it was a bit louder, and was just barely starting to get a rattle. I tilted the control-side up about 10 degrees, and that made it go away. It was drawing about 250W at this point
About 20-25 minutes in, it started to develop a rattle again. I didn't have my jack on hand (or a convenient place on the crate to lift it from the jack), so I couldn't tilt it any more than that. I shut it off after I started getting uncomfortable letting it run in that state.
So I'm wondering if the 18W heater is a bit too anemic for it. I think I remember Travis's DR3 kept improving through 30W. Ambient temps were in the mid 60s in the garage.
In any case, I think I'm going to attack the stripped purge screw next, empty it of its SO2, and see if I can stabilize the liquid and suction lines. It's getting R124. Then I can work on it, do more extensive tests, etc in the basement over winter.
Oh, and buy a higher wattage heater.
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Post by Travis on Oct 25, 2017 2:29:33 GMT
Aaron,
My DR3 has a 30 watt heater because it has 134a in it.
I believe the DR3's had 18 watt heaters originally. Garrett told me that.
My DR3 is going to join the 124 party soon. I am tired of it being a glorious storage cabinet.
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Post by ckfan on Oct 25, 2017 3:12:22 GMT
That brings a tear to my eye! I'm so happy it is working. It does sound a bit rattly but what do I know? I've never heard a bone stock DR3 before. Very cool stuff.
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Post by birkie on Oct 25, 2017 3:36:18 GMT
It does sound a bit rattly but what do I know? I've never heard a bone stock DR3 before. Very cool stuff. lol, neither have I! I don't really have much to compare it to. Well, there's also the video of the "still has a lead seal" D35 that timeswelding has. That's close, but not a fair comparison as it's in the middle of a normal cycle, not pulldown. That DR3 certainly has its bones showing, though.
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Post by birkie on Oct 25, 2017 3:45:15 GMT
Aaron, My DR3 has a 30 watt heater because it has 134a in it. I believe the DR3's had 18 watt heaters originally. Garrett told me that. My DR3 is going to join the 124 party soon. I am tired of it being a glorious storage cabinet. yaaaay, it'll be great to see yours running again, on R124. I still wish I got a 30 or 40 watt heater, just so I can find the point at which it is most happy. A diode in series with it would put it into the range of stock heaters.
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Post by coldspaces on Oct 25, 2017 5:13:53 GMT
Sounds like a DR that isn't warmed up yet. Even with a heater they seem to have a warm up period. So good to hear it runs!
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