diy heatsinks - please give some advices

[lgreen]

Seems to me he would cut those with a hacksaw of some kind and file the ends. That would be super safe and is how I'd do it myself. Only takes a few seconds to cut an aluminum angle. I agree with your warning about cutting with power tools.

[bluemartini]

Elliott sound has an article of building your own heat sink

DIY Heatsink

[tinitus]

I have bought Fischer most effective exstruded heatsink
But they do have welded heatsinks that are even more effective

Bolting it together doesnt seem very effective
Tho, you have the option of HUGE finning, and that itself might be very effective

The first classA from LarsClausen(LCAudio) was a diy effort
Four output devices were stacked and clamped tightly between sheets of aluminium
It might have used forced air too
I have always thought it seemed like a nice trick

[MJL21193]

I bolted mine together, then welded on the angle that the amps attached to. VERY good thermal transfer efficiency:

Picture 517.jpg

[Bigun]

Nice photo - I do like that amp !

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by MJL21193

then welded on the angle

Attachment 147269

Thats probably a very good trick

If welding isnt a possible option long big T-profiles or mounting angles like below might also be useful to bolt on any kind of long finning
But Im not sure that will be cheap either

[GK]

Originally Posted by lgreen

Seems to me he would cut those with a hacksaw of some kind and file the ends. That would be super safe and is how I'd do it myself. Only takes a few seconds to cut an aluminum angle. I agree with your warning about cutting with power tools.

Cut aluminium up to 5mm thick with a hand held circular saw heaps of times. With the right cutting saw it works great, and the large teeth don't clog up very easilly. Just make sure that everything is well clamped down and be prepared for the saw to jam occasionally. And if you're cutting a large sheet, wear ear protection coz goddamn it's bloody noisy.

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by GK

wear ear protection coz goddamn it's bloody noisy.

And its even more important to use good eye protection

[DQ]

Thank you all for your answers.

Since I received the advice to use screws on 2 different forums, screws will be. I've just bought them, actually.
Arctic Silver makes several products, but the Ceramique is the most cost effective for large surfaces. Arctic Silver 5 for example would cost me twice as much, at least here in Romania that is, and would cover about 40% of the surface as compared to Ceramique. Same is true for the Arctic adhesives.

At your advice I will use a hacksaw.

Right now the only problem unsolved yet is whether I must or I may not remove the black layer of... how do you call it? - the result of anodizing - from the contact surface of the L shaped profile, that is, where the teeth will be in contact with the main aluminum sheet. I received contradictory advices in this respect, what do you think?

Edit: yes, of course I will use eyes and hearing protection when working with the metal! Thanks for mentioning it, anyway.

[tiefbassuebertr]

Originally Posted by MJL21193

Making your own heatsinks can be cheaper, especially if you get the material for nothing:

Attachment 147232

But must be weighed against your time and safety. Working with aluminum, especially with power tools, can be dangerous and it is hard to justify the savings after you have been sitting in the emergency room at the nearest hospital for five hours.

Fine work. If there are such components available as standart device (similare as screws and profiles), everybody could easy perform diy a heatsink in each wanted size.
But I think, to find standart devices like this one is more easy:
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/diyhs-f4.gif
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/diyhs-f6b.jpg