How I Lapped my Heat Sink

[skou]

Like I said earlier, Arctic Silver makes some pretty good products, that will shine up a HS, just fine.

They also have the nice feature of not loading up the micro grain, of the surface of the base, with oils.

I would imagine the carnuba wax based car polish, would be just about the worst thing you could apply to a HS base, to improve heat transfer.

steve

 

[9mmCensor]

ok if you don't use any polish or any type of liquid chemical added to the HS shiny will usually mean flatter. Copper will never look shiny unless you polish it, however when lapped it does begin to show some shine. A spoon is not made of neither copper or aluminum (which most HS are). It's made from stainless steel or silver, which is polished (in the silver's case). Therefore im not saying that a shine is what its all about, but if you grab 2 identical HS's and lap one not the other, the lapped one will appear more shiny than the other, the reason is that it is flatter.

What im saying is, if you're only using sandpaper, and you see more "shine" out of your HS, its because it is flatter. Just so that you all understand that this will be without the help of any polishing agents, or other metals such as stainless steel.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=329453

 

[jokers_greg]

9mm that thread, used 2 hs, that were first of all different, and the shiney one was done up with polish. He simply shined it up. Heck i can flip the HS upside down, polish the tips of the fins and call it flat cuz its shiny. You're not seeing my point, 2 identical HS's one lapped one not, the lapped one will be more shiny. Take a look at that hs on the left, just by looking at it you can see that it isnt flat, this is most evident around the screws (or rivets, cant make em out). All this guy did was polish the centre (slopilly i mite add).

 

[g0dM@n]

I posted in there, but I don't feel like rewriting it here. Basically the shiny piece is either polished, or just smooth. Neither of those words mean flat, and flat is what is needed for adequate cooling, not shininess.

 

[cw823]

Wtf. This article seems really dumb and "duh" type to be posted on overclockers.com. Gah, I guess times have changed.


Yes, shiny does NOT mean thermally efficient. Many polishing products just add an agent to make it look shiny in the little grits of space in the metal. These may be insulators and hinder efficiency. Just seems way too obvious of an article to be posted, and done in a weird manner.

Buy the heatsink kits as posted in cyber-deals. Heatsink lapping kits.. I forget thier name, insulglass sells them. I've reviewed them and they're top notch.

You can discuss the article, but you don't try to discredit or flame the writer.

 

[rhino56]

i dont see why you guys dont start writing for the front page. if they are hurting for decent articles then step up.

 

[g0dM@n]

I think it was a decent article. Had I not had my physics/thermodynamics knowledge from college I may have not known that shiny doesn't necessarily = good.

Some people don't have as much knowledge as us, and are just VIEWERS. Most of us on ocforums are dedicated members, and therefore gain knowledge 10x faster by REPLYING and WRITING back. I'm sure that a lot of people that see the front page aren't dedicated members like us, and probably only read and learn that way. I peronsally RARELY ever visit the front page. Internet browsers probably do, and those people probably are not computer geeks like us.

 

[jokers_greg]

first off i agree with cw823, you can critique not flame. Thats why i stepped in here in the first place. Like Godm@n said, he only polsihed the HS up, if he lapped it and got it that shiny then im sure it would be flat. Finally rhino made a good point too, if you think that frontpage has stupid posts, then go post YOUR OWN!

 

[g0dM@n]

Well, in all honesty I agreed with him somewhat, but what he said would only apply for people like you and me that are already part of this forum and know The Basics. The thing about the front page is that a lot of people that don't know The Basics will see the front page and be glad that article was posted.

 

[9mmCensor]

if he lapped it and got it that shiny then im sure it would be flat.

No, thats the problem.

Saying something is shiny means it will be flat is not correct. There is not correlation between shiny and flat.

 

[g0dM@n]

Yes, I stated that as well... unless I said it in the other thread about the front page article. Basically, I was saying that shiny can be associated with smoothness (as long as there are no chemicals involved). Smoothness does NOT have anything to flatness. Something that is curved can still be smooth, but it doesn't mean that it's flat. As long as it's smooth, I think a curvativity of zero = flat, no?

 

[jokers_greg]

9mm please carefully read my posts, go lap 2 identical sinks, don't polish em and show me results, if you want i'll do it to prove my point. There is a correlation but not always direct.

 

[9mmCensor]

argg

"there is no correlation between reflectivity and flatness."
This is true. This can be reflective and flat, but that does not mean that something that is reflective is flat.

"i.e. one cannot show a picture of a highly reflective base-plate, like most web-sites do, and then make any assumption as to its flatness and hence its suitability to make good thermal contact against a CPU."

Quotes by Cathar.

 

[skou]

Censor, you've tried. I've tried.

Sometimes, some people just don't get it

Shiny = shiny.

Flat = flat.

Shiny doesn't = flat.

Flat doesn't = shiny.

steve

 

[skou]

Also, shiny doesn't = good heat transfer.

Flat = good heat transfer.

steve

 

[cw823]

So therefore, if I see a really shiny Vette drive by, it's flat. Right?

 

[cw823]

and didn't Christopher Columbus prove that the world was shiny?

 

[JaY_III]

I'm confused what everyone is arguing about.
And what does this have to do with the article in question?
If this is all about the cut polish he used at the end, well it was and its residue all removed at the end, so only metal was left

 

[jokers_greg]

arrrgh, go lap 2 heat sinks right now, one left stock, next one done up a few times with different grits, going up every time. I told you that you can go polish anything, i can polish a spoon that doesn't mean its flat, when an HS is lapped it has a slight shine to it. its like i keep repeating my post and you guys censor out all my writing except the words: flat, shiny. Jeez, show me a pic of a stock HS, then lap it take a look at both HS's you'll see.

 

[cw823]

arrrgh, go lap 2 heat sinks right now, one left stock, next one done up a few times with different grits, going up every time. I told you that you can go polish anything, i can polish a spoon that doesn't mean its flat, when an HS is lapped it has a slight shine to it. its like i keep repeating my post and you guys censor out all my writing except the words: flat, shiny. Jeez, show me a pic of a stock HS, then lap it take a look at both HS's you'll see.

I can take a quarter, sand down all the edges....but that doesn't make it flat.

You have to be careful NOT to associate flat and shiny. Shiny, definitely means "smoother", if you will, but if you didn't do it on a flat surface, you have something that is shiny and NOT flat.

If done correctly, yes. But there were posts suggesting that since it is shiny, it is therefore flat; that is incorrect.