drilling in copper, advice needed.

Welp, I'm adding a 1U copper cooler on my ti4400 , and I seriously doubt that arctic alumina adhesive will keep this baby on the card... so I need to mount it using the four holes in my card.

BUT... to say the least, I'm not much of a handyman with metal. I'm good with wood, but I've never drilled 1½ mm holes in copper.

What should I get and how should i do it? I mean this stuff really calls for ultimate precision.

Cheers and thanks in advice for some pro advice...

Flix

Do you have a drill press? That would probably make it very easy(and you probably wouldn't be asking for suggestions if you did). On a drill press, just clamping the heatsink down and then... well... drilling would be my suggestion.

If you don't have a drill press, maybe making a guide to clamp to the cooler would help. Get a scrap piece of metal and drill a hole into it. Mask off the cooler(don't want any scratches). Measure your holes and mark them. Then, clamp the guide on top of one of the holes(or better yet, make a template with all the holes already done) and then start drilling.

I'm just shooting out an idea. I've never done it myself. Someone else probably has a better idea of how to do it that has experience on the matter.

Note: I just read my suggestion and it barely makes any sense. I apologize.

The artic alumina epoxy will hold your copper 1U cooler on, have you ever tried taking stuff off using it? It wont fall off if it is done properly. It will work. Many people have done it. As for drilling, do as stated above.

Copper is very easy to drill. Drill bits go through copper like a hot knife through butter. I use zip ties to secure my HS to the PCB. They're more forgiving if you accidently drill the hole off-center. If you have pick or awl, you can mark you first hole, drill it, take the paper shaft of a Q-tip (one end cut off) and run it through your first hole and then mark and drill your second hole (do the hole that is diagonal from the first one you made. Repeat with the Q-tip in each of the first two holes, and then scribe your last two holes, and they should be dead-on.

well if you don't think it will hold, think again I am unsing artic silver epoxy which is very similar, and I have attatched a volcano 9 HSF to my ti4200, trust me, its not going to come off. I would break the card into pieces and the core would still be attatched to the HSF

Thanks for all the good advice guys.

IF I only had a drill press.. exactly. I actually went looking at some last weekend, all retailing around 70 dollars. But the idea of using a guide and some kind of clamping mechansim sounds good too.

Zip ties... yep... might use that instead, if I can find any small enough to go through the holes.. dang them they barely 1½ mm in diameter.
As for leaving it without holes and just epoxy it... dunno. This whole heat/vibrations thing makes me insecure I'll reconsider though.

Again.. thanks for the good posts.

Cheers, Flix

You won't need a drill press..........yes it's better if you use one, but it's not absolutely necessary. I didn't use one when I drilled my holes, and I had no problems. They make 3.5" zip ties that are perfect for the application.

If you have a credit card just buy a drill press for the weekend, drill your holes, then return it to home depot or something.

If you want something to keep, they make jigs that you lock your drill into and they work like a drill press, I think they are $30 or $40 or something. I think I saw it in the sears add recently or something. Would work just like a sideways drill press.

-Pete

Seeing as you want a good, accurate fit, I'd highly recommend a drill press, and high quality bits. I'd suggest you find a metal shop, or perhaps auto repair shop where a drill press might be available to do the holes for you. It's worth the few dollars it would cost.

BTW, gecko, I tried one of those jigs, and they work really badly. They are not able to hold a straight line.

If you're going to use push pins, then yes, you need to be pretty much dead-on. Your stock push pins won't work, trust me, I've already tried. If you're using zip ties, you really only have to be in the ballpark. That's the beauty of using them. They'll secure the HS down just fine.