This post will cover the final dis-assembly of the AC unit, and the careful salvaging of parts for the new unit that we will build...
So after extraction, we can now safely cut away the pieces we will not need and carefully remove and set safely aside the parts we will need.
Here is a picture of what's left of my unit after extraction...
You can see the condenser on the left side and the evaporator on the right side. I'm not going to use them on this project, but they are in pretty good shape, and may come in handy for other projects in the future, So when I remove them I will be very careful to avoid bending the fins.
But we will carefully remove and re-use the capillary tube, as it is sized to work with the refrigerant & compressor, and re-using this aprt makes our job drastically easier. Cap tubes and metering devvices, and work by virtue of the fact that their diameter is of a precise size and their length is of a precise length to provide an exactly calculated amount of resistance to the flow of the refrigerant in the circuit. So we don't want to do anything that would change the length or diameter of the cap tube.
So when I choose where to make my cuts on the tubing, I will prioritize salvaging the cap tube over salvaging the evaporator & condenser parts. If I can salvage everything, better yet.
Here is a photo of the first cut to remove the cap tube. I had to pull the copper tube out away from the evaporator core a small amount to allow me to position and turn the little tube cutter. I left enough of the 1/4 inch tubing so that I will be able to re-braze the cap tube into the new circuit, and not have to change the length of the cap tube.
I have made a red mark on the photo to indicate another good place where the cut could have been made...
Here is the second cut to remove the cap tube. Space and choices were both very limited here.
Not much more to say here, except work very carefully.
Please note that cap tube is
not made from soft copper like the rest of the tubing is, and it will not bend easily like soft copper.
So here's our prize, the part we have been so careful to remove...
...probably a good idea to put the cap tube in a plastic bag to keep any dust & bugs out.
So after more cutting, here's what's left:
Pix - a shows the compressor, and the condenser core and the evaporator core.
Pix - b shows the compressor mounting area on the bottom pan. You may choose to use the bottom pan as is, or you may choose to create a new bottom pan from scratch, or you may choose to cut the compressor mounting section off of the old bottom pan and use it on the new one.
Pix - c shows the vibration mounts from the AC unit. There is actually a fair amount of engineering that went into these mounts, so best to save and re-use them no matter how you want to deal with the bottom pan on your new unit.
So we now have our unit fully dis-assembled and are ready to begin thinking about how we can re-assemble it into a vapor compression device that will do useful and efficient work for us.
Best Regards,
-AC_Hacker