;-)

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[Elcs]

Always glad to see a thought out guide posted. Rough around the edges with respect to grammar and spelling but easy to rectify.

Bold and Italics could be useful to partition your piece and make it easier to read. It isnt very well sectioned for my tastes at first read.

Pictures.... most definately pictures will help to convey what you are saying. I dont particularly get the actually moving the heatsink around to lap it part.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[Scorpion]

Nice post. I've always been curious about lapping but never read the opinion of someone who's ever had a lot of experience as yourself. The technique sounds good, although I have a hard time visualizing the procedure. I'm not that exerienced in a machine shop, although I wish I were. I've got a decent understanding of woodshop though.

I think someone should sticky this guide, and perhaps someone can provide visuals to help to understand the method, for those of us who aren't all that experienced with lapping or machining.

Thanks Galvanized.

 

[grimlykindo]

Great guide Yankee,

Even though many companies discourage lapping their heatsinks, I would still like to try it sometime. I always check my heatsink base to see how flat it is before I install. So far they have all been almost perfect, so I've never felt the need to lap it.

But when I do expect some PMs from me!

As more and more high performance heatsinks are hitting the market I have a feeling that lapping will become much more common for all of us.

 

[TheoPetro]

Thanks A TON for this guide. I made my own water block for my rig and its not the smoothest on the bottom and i didnt know how to help that. i didnt think sand paper would get it any smoother than it is (you can see yourself in it but i dont know if that means its smooth). im gonna try this this weekend and ill let ya know if it yeilds any results for me. im a novice metal worker/ welder/ plumber myself lol (at 19 its hard to be anything but a novice in these fields). always fun to learn somethen new about the trades. thanks again

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[vanvock]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Good to see someone post info, and not just questions... And I'm bumping so that I can find this later tonight.
Tas.

 

[Navid]

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/heatsinklappingguide.php
http://www.directron.com/hsflapping.html
http://www.ochardware.com/reviews/elitecoolkit/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/lapping/
http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?REVIEWDIR=heatsink_lapping_kit
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews/lappingguide/index.php?file=1
http://www.modsynergy.com/article6.htm
http://www.driverheaven.net/guides/lappingheatsink/

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[rise]

nice post Yankee! much appreciated. wish i had talked with you before my latest lapping as i forgot the dish detergent. nice tip on breaking the leading edge too. would've been helpful

 

[JBDan]

This is great GY!! Did not even see it until now. Appreciate the passing of knowledge.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[MadScientist]

After reading all those articles there's those that say to lap in a back and forth motion and others in a circular or figure 8 to get the best results.
And then there's this article that suggests that "Since it's only the mating of the surface that matters, not the flatness, why not lap the two pieces (ie CPU and heatsink) together in order to achieve the mating".

Overclockers

.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[BonzaiDuck]

GY --

I didn't know anyone other than 3M made 400-wet-or-dry. Usually, that's what I find at the hardware and auto-parts shops . . .

Great work. Somewhere, I read the right link and picked up on the figure-eight method. But now I know about the deleterious effects of mirror-polished surfaces . . .

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Last night i lapped a stock passive HS for a new VGA and reinstalled it with ceramic paste.
The base was .006" concave.

The two Intel chips i have checked were .0015"(about) proud at the center

What method/instrument are you using for these measurements?

Here's the best lapping instructions I have found, similar to GY's, and the prices of their lapping kits are reasonable.
EasyPCKits
Lapping Instructions

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

 

[Parkre]

Very nice, Galvanized!!! If I understand correctly, it takes quite a while with copper as opposed to aluminum? Would it take longer for Silver than copper? I have come up with a insanely creative heatsink, using a pre-'64 50 cent piece. Now that I have this idea in my head, I can't wait to go back to school in Jan. WTF is wrong with me??