Aluminium costs
I agree with Duck-Twacy that the costs of the aluminium if bought new is almost equal to the price of new heatsinks. 🙁
So I think the only way to realy save on the costs of heatsinks would be if you can get the aluminium parts for free or at little costs, from the scrapheap of a metal workshop or something like that.
On the other hand, in this way you could create your own unique designed amplifier casing with verry cool (literally!? 😉 ) integrated heatsinks........................
I agree with Duck-Twacy that the costs of the aluminium if bought new is almost equal to the price of new heatsinks. 🙁
So I think the only way to realy save on the costs of heatsinks would be if you can get the aluminium parts for free or at little costs, from the scrapheap of a metal workshop or something like that.
On the other hand, in this way you could create your own unique designed amplifier casing with verry cool (literally!? 😉 ) integrated heatsinks........................
Saibot said:
I think you will find out that folding 2mm aluminium into something reasonably looking is VERY hard, and you will find that a 2*1meter sheet of aluminium will set you back something close to 100 usd....as somebody else mentioned...get the material of a scrap heap or buy real heatsinks.
Happy cooling
Magura
Thermal adhesive
One source for thermal adhesive would be arctic silver:
arctic alumina thermal adhesive
It looks nice from the specs, neither electrically conductive or capacative. I haven't tried this myself, but i've used arctic silver II for my PC's heatsink and it works well.
It's not that hard to get either, but it wouldn't be cheap for a real large heatsink.
I have used some thermally conductive epoxy from Zalman that came with a graphics card heatsink, i think it would be ok, but i don't know if you could buy it separately or if it has low enough thermal resistance for this kind of application. The kind of heatsink you guys are talking about would have lots of joints, and that makes for lots of thermal glue in between the metal parts...
Has anyone thought of casting their own heatsinks?
This could be done on a low budget, but it's a lot of work.
I've been thinking about it, and even made a small prototype electrical melting oven, but my design didn't turn out to be that great (although i managed to partially melt a small piece of aluminium, there's a long way from that to a finished heatsink).
If anyone is interested, i got plenty of inspiration from Dan's workshop and his "improved Li'l Bertha", also try searching for "dave gingery" or "c.w. ammen" on google, these guys have plenty of books to dig into.
Even if you don't get as far as actually melting stuff, just heating the oven is quite the thrill, imagine having something you've built yourself glow orange-red from heat (as long as it's not your speakers, that'd be a bummer)! I wish i had some photos of my furnace when it was in action...
(Sorry for the threadjacking, couldn't resist spilling my mind a little)
/Andreas
One source for thermal adhesive would be arctic silver:
arctic alumina thermal adhesive
It looks nice from the specs, neither electrically conductive or capacative. I haven't tried this myself, but i've used arctic silver II for my PC's heatsink and it works well.
It's not that hard to get either, but it wouldn't be cheap for a real large heatsink.
I have used some thermally conductive epoxy from Zalman that came with a graphics card heatsink, i think it would be ok, but i don't know if you could buy it separately or if it has low enough thermal resistance for this kind of application. The kind of heatsink you guys are talking about would have lots of joints, and that makes for lots of thermal glue in between the metal parts...
Has anyone thought of casting their own heatsinks?
This could be done on a low budget, but it's a lot of work.
I've been thinking about it, and even made a small prototype electrical melting oven, but my design didn't turn out to be that great (although i managed to partially melt a small piece of aluminium, there's a long way from that to a finished heatsink).
If anyone is interested, i got plenty of inspiration from Dan's workshop and his "improved Li'l Bertha", also try searching for "dave gingery" or "c.w. ammen" on google, these guys have plenty of books to dig into.
Even if you don't get as far as actually melting stuff, just heating the oven is quite the thrill, imagine having something you've built yourself glow orange-red from heat (as long as it's not your speakers, that'd be a bummer)! I wish i had some photos of my furnace when it was in action...
(Sorry for the threadjacking, couldn't resist spilling my mind a little)
/Andreas
Casting your own sinks
They can be done. I did it a long time ago and am fiddling with the idea now. The amount of work is huge. If you don't have casting experience the learning curve is steep. I took casting in school away back when. But I'm still thinking it over. It takes allot of preparation to get a good casting. Most websites advocate melting the aluminum in a steel crucible. That creates a very porous casting and not one good for a heat sink. The molds would be the hardest. Lost foam is a method that could work reasonable well. For the ultimate you could go with lost wax casting. The biggest hurdle is the foundry. And then the means of heating and the room to do it safely. The pluses are that you could cast as big a sink as you have the volume in metal. Ie. cubic capacity counts. A large crucible is important. They can be made as well. I think gingerly has a book on that to. The web site pictures tell you enough as to how to pull it off without the book if you think hard about what you want to do.
Mark
They can be done. I did it a long time ago and am fiddling with the idea now. The amount of work is huge. If you don't have casting experience the learning curve is steep. I took casting in school away back when. But I'm still thinking it over. It takes allot of preparation to get a good casting. Most websites advocate melting the aluminum in a steel crucible. That creates a very porous casting and not one good for a heat sink. The molds would be the hardest. Lost foam is a method that could work reasonable well. For the ultimate you could go with lost wax casting. The biggest hurdle is the foundry. And then the means of heating and the room to do it safely. The pluses are that you could cast as big a sink as you have the volume in metal. Ie. cubic capacity counts. A large crucible is important. They can be made as well. I think gingerly has a book on that to. The web site pictures tell you enough as to how to pull it off without the book if you think hard about what you want to do.
Mark
Recycle
IF there are recycling yards nearby, check them out. People throw away all kind of neat amuminum stuff. Your ideas will be as numerous as the pieces you find.
Finding good junk, is half of my DIY fun.
IF there are recycling yards nearby, check them out. People throw away all kind of neat amuminum stuff. Your ideas will be as numerous as the pieces you find.
Finding good junk, is half of my DIY fun.
Magura said:
Haven't thought on that one, sounds like an easy way to build it "cheap". But how thick should the sheet and block spacer be ?
And how big (area against sheet on both sides) need the spacer block be to optimally move heat between the sheets ?
Does someone have a formula ? I'm just to lazy to come up with one myself 😎
/Tobias
You will find it hard to make a formula, it depends entirely what alloy of aluminium you are using, what type of compound you use in between the sheets and how much heat you need to get rid of.
Generally spoken you can say that you need about 1/3rd of the finn area on the spacer blocks and thickness of the finns is 1/20th of the lenght of the finns(from they leave the blocks).
Have fun
Magura
Generally spoken you can say that you need about 1/3rd of the finn area on the spacer blocks and thickness of the finns is 1/20th of the lenght of the finns(from they leave the blocks).
Have fun
Magura
Petter said "It would be MUCH easier to build a heatsink like this. I have seen a transverse variant as well."
Hummm....The Patriot 100....Any relation to the Patriot Missle??
Mark
Hummm....The Patriot 100....Any relation to the Patriot Missle??
Mark
No DIY heatsinks for me.........
After reading about different methods and the experiences of people with this subject, I have come to the conclusion that building DIY heatsinks is not for me... ;(
Some reasons.....
- I don't have access to scrap aluminium / cannot buy it cheap
(My experience: the scrapyard guys know the value of usable aluminium scrap too well - a result of the popuarity of recycling these days? )
- I don't want to spent the (too-) large amount of time needed to get a good working and reasonably good looking result.
(I think you could better spent that time organising a group buy or something to get a lower price)
- I don't have (access to-) the equipment needed to do a good job
- I need more than just a few identical heatsinks and being dependent of the available scrap doesn't help......
So, looking for a heatsink group buy!! (in Europe..... 😀 )
Or organise one myself..........?
After reading about different methods and the experiences of people with this subject, I have come to the conclusion that building DIY heatsinks is not for me... ;(
Some reasons.....
- I don't have access to scrap aluminium / cannot buy it cheap
(My experience: the scrapyard guys know the value of usable aluminium scrap too well - a result of the popuarity of recycling these days? )
- I don't want to spent the (too-) large amount of time needed to get a good working and reasonably good looking result.
(I think you could better spent that time organising a group buy or something to get a lower price)
- I don't have (access to-) the equipment needed to do a good job
- I need more than just a few identical heatsinks and being dependent of the available scrap doesn't help......
So, looking for a heatsink group buy!! (in Europe..... 😀 )
Or organise one myself..........?
Hi, I'm affraid I don' thave the time or money (I'm in my third year of uni at the moment, so I have no money, and lots of exams comming up in the summer) so I won't be in much of a position to organise anything like that for a while. I was just thinking of ordering some heatsinks from conrad, as I can get a few sent over which should be good enough for my next few projects for a lot less than I could ever get them here (and they are much nicer looking).
copper plumming pipe ??
You could try soldering some small sections of copper plumming pipe together with a flat bar for mounting components on to.
The pipe and suitable flat stock should be easy/cheap to source, and soldering/brazing torches are cheap to buy.
Could be an easy way to make an efficient heat sink, but the look will be a little "different"...
Just a thougt....
You could try soldering some small sections of copper plumming pipe together with a flat bar for mounting components on to.
The pipe and suitable flat stock should be easy/cheap to source, and soldering/brazing torches are cheap to buy.
Could be an easy way to make an efficient heat sink, but the look will be a little "different"...
Just a thougt....
I agree with N.P.; DIY heatsinks are easy to make. Scrap aluminum is also relatively easy to come by if you're persistent. Most sheet metal fabrication shops have quite stringent cosmetic standards. Lot's of metal goes on the scrap pile that can serve quite well as heatsink raw material. I have found that they are willing to give good prices in exchange for very flexible delivery terms.
I have attached a picture of a Stasis 2 monoblock with a DIY heatsink. There are 12 plates of .100 aluminum sheet. They measure 17" by 8" and sit on a 13"x17"x2" Bud box. The whole thing is bolted together with 6-32 thresded rod and 5/8" of aluminum spacers. The sheets cost me nothing - I was in the right place at the right time, but I did have to do the cutting to size.
The amplifier was originally a Threshold 4000 clone built in 1979-80. I can't remember exactly. It was converted to a Stasis 2 a couple of years later. Some of the parts came from an A40 that was built shortly after the original AA article came out. The reference to the Dayton Wright XG8's in the original article caught my eye since I owned a pair at the time. That was the beginning of the trip.
The 4000 and Stasis 2 clones all came up without a problem and worked flawlessly for years. The heatsinks never became more than slightly warm. The class A amp transistors for the Stasis 2 are mounted on the rear two plates and they do get a bit warmer than the other plates.
This being my first post ever, I would like to take a moment and say thank you to Nelson Pass. I've a big fan for many years. Thank you for sharing yourself and your ideas with the rest of us. And most of all - thank you for making the music sound so much better.
gl
I have attached a picture of a Stasis 2 monoblock with a DIY heatsink. There are 12 plates of .100 aluminum sheet. They measure 17" by 8" and sit on a 13"x17"x2" Bud box. The whole thing is bolted together with 6-32 thresded rod and 5/8" of aluminum spacers. The sheets cost me nothing - I was in the right place at the right time, but I did have to do the cutting to size.
The amplifier was originally a Threshold 4000 clone built in 1979-80. I can't remember exactly. It was converted to a Stasis 2 a couple of years later. Some of the parts came from an A40 that was built shortly after the original AA article came out. The reference to the Dayton Wright XG8's in the original article caught my eye since I owned a pair at the time. That was the beginning of the trip.
The 4000 and Stasis 2 clones all came up without a problem and worked flawlessly for years. The heatsinks never became more than slightly warm. The class A amp transistors for the Stasis 2 are mounted on the rear two plates and they do get a bit warmer than the other plates.
This being my first post ever, I would like to take a moment and say thank you to Nelson Pass. I've a big fan for many years. Thank you for sharing yourself and your ideas with the rest of us. And most of all - thank you for making the music sound so much better.
gl
Attachments
- Status
- Not open for further replies.