Whadaya think??

[Hotsauce]

I would like to get some opinions about a little project I'm thinkin up here. I have a large brass nut from an old 75ton press.

I'm thinkin this thing would make a great hs if I could cut some fins out of it, or maybe run some piping through it to make it a water block of sorts.

It weighs about 3lbs.

Opinions please!

 

[rivercom9]

Those nuts are BIG! J/k. Anyways, would brass really make a good HS or WB? From what Ive heard, brass insnt the best material to use for cooling purposes.

 

[Hotsauce]

My bad! I'll have to edit that one. I was digging for brass heatsinks and came across something that looked like a chart. If I was reading it correctly brass is less conductive than al, but that didn't make sense to me since brass is 70% copper (according to the same chart) which is better than al.

So I thought I'd try to get some direct input just incase someone has tried something along the same lines.

 

[Tecumseh]

This looks cool, but brass is not a good HS material.
Sorry, you are better off thinking of something else
to do with this nut.

 

[rivercom9]

If that nut is 70% copper, whats the other 30%? That is probably what will hold you back from haing great heat transfer. It sure would make a good paper weight, even better than the AMD stock HSF!

 

[Yodums]

I doubt it's worth it as you already mentioned. Since brass isn't a good heat conducter.

Yodums

 

[craigiz1]

Paper wieght.
Plus, I don't think it would be worth the time to get it into a shape that you can use.

 

[rivercom9]

I just meant using the whole friggin nut as a paperweight!

 

[Hotsauce]

Well, at least I saved some time here, would have hated to put the time into making something out of this thing, and have the stock hs from amd out perform it.

Thanks for the input guys! You saved me from quite a few hours of frustration.

 

[thamaestro]

Brass is worse than copper because it is impure. When cooled to a metal, copper makes one big crystal...
When it has chunks of other stuff in it, the thermal conductivity of it as a whole drops.
Keep in mind this is for alloys, not stacks... a aluminium hsf with a copper base works.

 

[Silversinksam]

I agree as Brass is a terrible conduit for thermal conductivity, as brass is made of Brass, copper and some zinc

Brass has a W/cm-k of 1.220 while Copper alone is Copper 3.937

Naturally I have to put in a plug for silver as its the best Silver is 4.173 W/cm-k

 

[Hotsauce]

I agree as Brass is a terrible conduit for thermal conductivity, as brass is made of Brass, copper and some zinc

That was your chart that I found Silversinksam.

Looks like you did quite a bit of research?

I've read that solder is a decent conductor. It is primarily made of lead and tin, (depending on the type you get), but what about silver solder?.

I would think this would be less expensive than pure silver, but does it conduct better than copper?

 

[rivercom9]

Silver is very good at conducting heat. Too bad it costs a lot. Is there anything better?

 

[Hotsauce]

Silver is very good at conducting heat. Too bad it costs a lot. Is there anything better?

That's why I'm thinking silver solder. I used it a couple of times when I was in the Navy, but if memory serves me correctly you have to read the contents carefully because some solders will contain more silver than others.

It's very expensive as far as solder goes but, it has to be cheaper than pure silver though, and alot easier to melt down/form.

If nothing else it could be used to tinn the bottome of a hs.

 

[rivercom9]

What did you use silver solder for in the Navy?

 

[Hotsauce]

Ummm, well, lets just say that it was used in certain circuits that ran at higher than normal temps,