Lapping Results
Some people have expressed interest in seeing the results of my lapping process. It is as follows:
Dry sand on soft emery paper.
Wet sand on 280 grit.
Wet sand on 320 grit.
Wet sand on 480 grit.
Wet sand on 600 grit.
Wet sand on 900 grit.
Wet sand on 1500 grit.
Cotton cloth smeared w/ Colgate toothpaste.
Brasso metal polish.
Buffing with plush cotton cloth.
And these are the results:
Base of the Thermalright HR-01:
IHS on a Core 2 Duo E6420:
My photography is obviously terrible (WHATZ DEPTH OF FIELD PRECIOUSS), but you can see that the bases are flawless and mirror-shined.
Dry sand on soft emery paper.
Wet sand on 280 grit.
Wet sand on 320 grit.
Wet sand on 480 grit.
Wet sand on 600 grit.
Wet sand on 900 grit.
Wet sand on 1500 grit.
Cotton cloth smeared w/ Colgate toothpaste.
Brasso metal polish.
Buffing with plush cotton cloth.
And these are the results:
Base of the Thermalright HR-01:
IHS on a Core 2 Duo E6420:
My photography is obviously terrible (WHATZ DEPTH OF FIELD PRECIOUSS), but you can see that the bases are flawless and mirror-shined.
0
Comments
:wow2: That's smooth!!! :wow2:
I did too... the whole tone of both the images made me think it was an UP CLOSE picture of the heatsink and it's reflection for some reason... blew my mind.
yup, i duct-taped my paper to the glass and had no problems with it moving around.
Hey Thrax, what type of thermal paste you using?
I think an article is in order for this
I've heard it suggested that a mirror surface is actually undesirable, because as long as the surface is flat, very small grooves would allow the thermal paste to increase the surface area for heat transfer.
That seems logical to me, but if Thrax is decreasing his temps by 10*C, I won't worry about it too much
One way to check flat is to color one part with a marker, set them together, and move them just a small amount. When you take them apart the color should be uniform on the surface.
BEFORE
Is there another way to determine if it's flat?
The edges may be a bit rounded over... it's a AMD Athlon Heatsink so only the center touches anything.
My next project will be my work PC's Dell heatsink. Darn think never was lapped correctly and has always been crappy. That one is copper... I'll take some pictures before and after!!!
So I just place the heatsink/cpu onto the sandpaper and lightly rotate it until I can move onto the finer grit?
I'm going to practice on an AMD aluminum heatsink before moving onto my real project. My real heatsink has a smaller surface than the AMD heatsink..so I assume it will be easier to lap than the practice will be. I'll be sure to post pics of course
It's pretty blurry..oops
ADDED: Lowered my temps about 8*C under full load Can't wait to get the Antec 900 yet..then I can finally do some serious overclocking
Tip for getting it really flat: Polished porcelain tiles have a surface smoother than glass and harder than steel, and cost under $10 each.
That looks like an old Globalwin FOP32 heatsink?
I had one for my old T-Bird 900@1000 MHz. (I actually still have it )
I lapped it as well, resulting in a mirror like finish.
It was some years ago but I taped the sandpaper to a pane of glass, that worked out nicely.
Oh I forgot IIRC it lowered the temp by apprx. 8-10C, which is very nice all things considered.