Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
The thickness of the IHS or processor cap was always a concern of mine. The structural integrity of the IHS was also a concern.
But recently I lapped the IHS of an E6600, just to get it flat.
The IHS apparently has a copper layer covered with nickel plating. This isn't different than ThermalRight's heatsink bases.
Copper his higher thermal conductivity and lower thermal resistance than nickel. I only suspect that you get a great improvement in temperatures just by flattening the nickel layer, but you get another increment of improvement by lapping to bare copper.
I use latex surgical gloves when lapping the processor, and everyone says to make sure you don't get the contacts on the opposite side from the heatspreader wet. It doesn't take very long. I ground it down with 400 wetordry, and then put it on some 600-grit for a little while.
Surgical gloves are entirely uncessary but the peace of mind can be priceless.
I use bare hands. Surgical gloves protect YOU from whatever you are touching, it doesn't protect whatever you are touching. You'll still deliver just as much static shock with or without those gloves, and whatever you do touch while wearing those gloves will still eventually end up getting onto the CPU as you handle it.
Water on the contacts is bad? You'd think so but it really does not matter. I've had my chips so wet they were literally dripping. Water does nothing to gold, nickle and barely ever so slowly will tarnish copper. The problem with water on electronics only comes when there is a voltage applied. So make sure the suker is dried out before plugging it in. (rinse it in isopropyl and dry).
I use to be really paranoid about killing my chips, then I got into vaporphase cooling and learned over the course of year that motherboards, sockets, and chips can actually handle an exceptional amount of water exposure and just keep on ticking.
The concern to have with water when you lap your IHS is that the water (or any liquid you might be using) can carry metal filing fragments into that little hole on the side of the IHS and from there those metal filings can become lodged under the IHS but short-circuiting something important. I have not heard of a single person ever actually killing their chip from lapping in this manner, but the paranoia exists nonetheless.