Why aren't we just making our own heatsinks?!
- Thread starter zovc
- Start date
Making your own heat pipes, HAH! I'd have nightmares making sure the capillary system on the inside is there correctly to transfer the liquid properly even during bends.. 
Making your own heat pipes, HAH! I'd have nightmares making sure the capillary system on the inside is there correctly to transfer the liquid properly even during bends..
Admittedly my first attempt used a pipe cleaner. Not sure that really worked out.
That's not enough, though. Heatpipes have an extruded capillary structure on the outside, without that they won't really work. If you want to do a DIY heatsink, get heatpipes and bend them yourself. That's absolutely possible. But making your own, not so much.
Alternatively, a large heatspreader oder coldplate or how they're called might be a good base to solder fins onto.
How are heat pipes and fins normally joined in manufacturing? Are they just kind of slotted into each other? Like, are the pipes fed through holes in the fins?
This is a great idea! Maybe it would be possible to make a heatsink that is the entire case.
And as far as your emoji situation goes, this extension works great on Chrome.
And as far as your emoji situation goes, this extension works great on Chrome.
I can't find the case I'm thinking of, but LTT did a video long ago on this case. Lian-li has a mini-ITX case like that one (might be thin-mini).
The one I'm thinking of is a aluminum cube with a stand at the bottom, HardwareCanucks did a review of it.
I can try to dig up links if you're interested.
I think he may have been asking how the pipe and fin array are put together, like if the the fins are stacked one by one onto the heat pipes, if the pipes are fed through holes on a completed fin array etc.
IIRC most heatpipes now use copper (or other metallic) foam as the internal wick, rather than internal capillary grooves. You can buy bulk copper foam pretty easily, so cutting it to size and inserting it into a copper tube should be possible to DIY. The tricky part would be if it needs to be bonded to the outer copper tube (e.g. solder, braising, adhesive), or can just be in contact.
Man, engineers and physicists are crazy!
Yeah, @LocoMoto moto is right. Cool to know that they are soldered, but how are they 'fitted' (I'm sure there's a proper technical term I don't have) together before being soldered? Assembled?
Yeah, @LocoMoto moto is right. Cool to know that they are soldered, but how are they 'fitted' (I'm sure there's a proper technical term I don't have) together before being soldered? Assembled?
The stamped plates that form the heatsink fins are stacked up, the heatpipes threaded through pre-stamped holes (heatpipes are pre-bent when possible, sometimes heatsink layout prohibits insertion before bending), the heatpipes are soldered to the plates (if desired, many are just friction-fit without solder), then the heatpipes undergo any additional bending operations (if the desired configuration did not allow for pre-bending), the mounting plate attached - and possibly soldered depending on design - and any other mounting hardware attached.
From what I've read, your common solders aren't the best at heat transfer, something like thermal adhesive is likely a good and easier alternative
Oh yeah, I remember that! I think they also did one that was full ATX. I remember thinking it was strange that it didn't have many fins though.
Not to go too far off the rails, but would it make sense to use a vapor chamber instead of a copper block in water cooling arrangements? I'm not sure the additional cost would justify the performance or not
