Gosh, I cant lap for my life!

[Emericana]

i have a pal 8045 and a coolermasterheatpipe and can not lap either one of them. here is what i do. i have a big sheet of 600grit wetdry sandpaper. I pour water on it and make circles with the heatsink on the sand paper. I do it for a long time until the paper does not respond to the heatsink anymore. All i get are a lot of circular scratches on the heatsink. Maybe the scratches go away at 800grit but i can not find a big sheet of 800+ grit. I have two questions: 1: what am i doin wrong at 600grit.
2: Where can i get some 800/1000/1500 grit sheets of paper in bigger sizes.
3: Can somebody help me w/ lapping . i have also tried it with some soap and that did not help at all.

 

[NASsoccer]

well i wish i could help you with the lapping part but i am an idiot when it comes to that but i can tell you that you can get the sandpaper and your local autostore, such as advanced or any other one.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Well two things you can do to help finish it up, if you're stuck with a larger grit paper.

One is, to ease up on the pressure, use it very lightly to get a better finish.

Two is to stop using the water and let the paper clog up some, this will work like a finer grit.
regards,

Road Warrior

 

[Starfoxer]

try not to use as much pressure or close to none at all. make
really fast circles and see if that helps after 15 minutes.

 

[Emericana]

thanks for your help, i was doing it w/ a lot of pressure. i am sure that is why but i dont have anymore time to try tonight. However, unless there is a website that sells them, i have no place to get high grit paper on big sheets. at autozone, the only car shop near where i live, they have big sheets for everything 600 and below and small sheets for everything above. home depot and sears only have up to 600.

 

[zoopa_man]

you should be able to get by with the smaller sheets from auto zone. just make smaller cicrles...or what I do when i'm finishing is do figure 8's and just let the weight of the heat sink do the work.

i'd go form a 600 to a 1000 then maybe a 2000 if you want to see your self in it. but the 1000 grit will get you prety close after your arm falls off. Good luck and happy lapping

 

[Rooster]

missing the point of lapping. its not to get the bottum smooth and shiny its to get it perfectly flat.

 

[Razorclaw212]

Hey can a Mod please change his title

 

[Emericana]

no it did not work. i tried going light at 600 for 45mins and i still have a billion marks all over the hs.

 

[oc jason]

also please refrain from swearing in a title or post content

TY

**overclockers seniors**

 

[ptwearnhardtfan]

Try lapping on a very flat piece of steel using different grades of polish. Fortunately for me, my place of employment has diamond dust lapping compound. This works wonders!

 

[Tithulta]

Hey can a Mod please change his title

I second this motion

 

[Pepsi]

Not to get off the subject, but this is a G rated site....... Lapping it's easy #1 dont get in a hurry ; #2 I use an old piece of thick glass cleaned very well and right before i put on my sandpaper I spread a small amount of light oil on the glass to keep the paper from curling up on the edges or moving around. Those big scratches you are getting are from the grit on the sand paper breaking off and rolling around under your project. Possibly due to using CHEAP sandpaper. I use nothing but 3M any autobody supply place will have it. Try lapping with light weight oil instead of water (this will cut nice but kill your paper very fast.) The main thing is patience and small circles (wax on wax off) hehe. If you want to blow some bucks go to a high quality woodworkers store they should have blocks for lapping and TONS of compounds. We wood workers like to keep our chisels and block planes razor sharp.
Good luck
Stay Cool
Pepsi

 

[Emericana]

i have been using 3m. I ordered some 1000 and 1500 grit full size sheets from crazypc.com tho. At auto zone theydont have big 3m sheets for 600grit plus. I lap on a marble surface. i cant use glass cause i dont have extra pieces of glass lying around anywhere and my parents would go nuts if i lap on a mirror or a glass table... i do have some plexyglass lying around from a pcmodding thing i just finished. is that good enough?

 

[Starfoxer]

how much did that cost you for the sand paper and shipping?
lol a new heatsink right there!

 

[mustangman]

You may also consider using a fine micro polishing compound to remove the scratches once the hs is flat. I use 3M polish for aluminum intakes and waterblocks once I've got down to 800-1000grit to finish things off. The micro polish does take a good amount of elbow grease though but it really does in those smaller scratches.

 

[Emericana]

well i needed the sandpaper to lap 3 heatsinks, a sk6, a heatpipe, and a pal8045. i bought total 16 sheets of paper, for 30 dollars including shipping. it was actually 1000,1200, and 1500.

 

[Yodums]

Well, heres my method:

Turn off my system, remove my heatsink, remove the fan off my heatsink. Take dental floss, and wrap it threw the clips to hold it up so your heatsink clip doesn't scratch.
Take a towel out lay it on the floor to support the glass.
Take the glass, clean it with some windex and lay it on the glass.
Boil water, and then put all your sandpapers in a container of water, and heatsink in the container, pour teh water in. I let the sandpaper pre soak for 15mins. Then I will begin.

I found using the liquid soap and any type of those compound cause be to do things way slower. It would be easier to move it in circular motion, but harder to actually lap it. Anyways, I begin 200grit, lots of pressure, slow motion. Then as I move up, I don't apply as much pressure everytime and I do it faster.

Then that's how I finish.

 

[Emericana]

"micro polishing compound " what is a brandname of this and what type of store can i find it in. what should i ask for?

 

[cyber mouse45]

Ok, here’s a weird (and not so good) scan of my block. See the reflection of the coin?? I can see my self in this thing. I went from 220-320-400-600 and that’s it. I used my one technique too. (top secret)