???

I bought that kit and it worked well, but I could have used a bit more of the roughist grit. Luckily I had some lying raround. I didn't end up using the higher end stuff, as I had made it flat, and that was the important part for me. If you want to buy locally, look in an autoparts store.
 
very high grit sandpaper in my area.

Auto parts store in the section on repairing and finishing bodywork. You should find stuff in the 600-2000 range. If not, a marine supply shop in the section on fiberglass repair and maintenance. A woodworking specialty shop or good crafts shop should have stuff in the 320-1000 range if the lower end is not also available in the marine or auto shops.
 
I bought sandpaper in the hardware section of my grocery store, up to 1200 grit I believe when I did my Freezer 64 Pro.
 
I get my Zalman 9500 today and my q6600 in 2 weeks or so and will want to lap them. I've read up on the process and it all seems fairly straightforward, but I cannot for the life of me find the proper grit sandpaper anywhere. All the stores around here (Dulles/Ashburn VA) carry really really coarse sandpaper (60-320 grit).
Any suggestions on where I could locate some 400, 800, and 1000/1200 grit sandpaper?
I've tried Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot and have found no luck with very high grit sandpaper in my area.


Thanks in advance.

just go to a local auto part store... they will have it for wet sanding.

get yourself 800 and then 1200 grit, that's all you need. Honestly, you can get the job done with just 1200 grit alone.
 
Depending on how concave/convex your surfaces are, I highly recommend starting with 400 grit. I did for my heatspreader, and it still took quite some time to get it all level.
 
Depending on how concave/convex your surfaces are, I highly recommend starting with 400 grit. I did for my heatspreader, and it still took quite some time to get it all level.

oh my god, that's just ridiculous... honestly. I don't even use 400 grit to remove rust from 40 year old cars... you'll spend 5 times the amount of effort to remove the grain from that 400 grit then you would ever spend with 1000 grit to start with.
 
now, now, 400 grit isn't that rough. My heatspreader was very concave, even after wearing out both 400grit sheets that came with my svc kit, I had to use some 400 grit that I found in the basement.
 
I just bought a lapping kit the other day for pretty cheap from pcviper.net... 7 shipped.
http://www.pcviper.net/

Check it out, I haven't gotten mine yet so I cant tell you how it is, but it looks promising. Looks to be a good price for what you get.
 
oh my god, that's just ridiculous... honestly. I don't even use 400 grit to remove rust from 40 year old cars... you'll spend 5 times the amount of effort to remove the grain from that 400 grit then you would ever spend with 1000 grit to start with.

Not all that uncommon for a HSF base...

I've had to start with none-other than 220 to remove the extremely convex base on a waterblock before.

For IHS lapping you should start at 800g.
 
when you lap it may i suggest using a glass surface to lap on coz its pretty much straight. i lapped my tuniq w/ this method and it worked great. i used 400-2000 grit. yeah its a pain but when you see the temp drop its worth it. higher Ghz.:D enjoy lapping!
 
regarding the q6600 IHS, should i use the 800 grit until i see copper? then switch to the 1500 to even it out a little more?

yes that will be just fine. I suggest taking some masking tape, and taping off the everything but the IHS, so when your pressing down hard against the paper with your IHS, your not rubbing bits of copper into the pins... not a requirement, but I always do it to be safe myself. Make sure you press firm and evenly when your running the processor over the sandpaper, if your light you will cause cupping to the corners.
 
I get my Zalman 9500 today and my q6600 in 2 weeks or so and will want to lap them. I've read up on the process and it all seems fairly straightforward, but I cannot for the life of me find the proper grit sandpaper anywhere. All the stores around here (Dulles/Ashburn VA) carry really really coarse sandpaper (60-320 grit).
Any suggestions on where I could locate some 400, 800, and 1000/1200 grit sandpaper?
I've tried Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot and have found no luck with very high grit sandpaper in my area.


Thanks in advance.

Try the automotive section at Wal-Mart. They have 1000/1500/2000
 
yes that will be just fine. I suggest taking some masking tape, and taping off the everything but the IHS, so when your pressing down hard against the paper with your IHS, your not rubbing bits of copper into the pins... not a requirement, but I always do it to be safe myself. Make sure you press firm and evenly when your running the processor over the sandpaper, if your light you will cause cupping to the corners.

what do you mean rubbing bits of copper into the pins? the pins are going to be on the side opposite the IHS, which is rubbing on the sandpaper, no?
 
what do you mean rubbing bits of copper into the pins? the pins are going to be on the side opposite the IHS, which is rubbing on the sandpaper, no?

correct, but all that copper you rub off doesn't disappear :)
 
Last night I first tried figure 8 motions, but the motion above gave me *much* better results. Plus (atleast with the Zalman 9500), it was wayyy easier to control the heatsink and keep it from skipping around. I do not imagine this will be much of a problem with a cpu IHS, though, since it's very light and obviously not massively top heavy like a flowered heatsink.

When I lapped my Freezer 64 Pro, it skipped around too, was pretty annoying. Took a while to get it down also, I think there's actually still a small nick that's deeper than I wanted to go on it... but that's what AS5 is for. The rest of it is pretty smooth.
 
You may all think I am insane.. but the last two heatsinks I lapped.. I use an electric orbital sander and 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

It goes way faster than hand lapping and gets it very flat (except on the very edge). I have done the drop of water suction test..

400 grit will also wear down to a much finer grit if you keep it from clogging up... I was able to get a near mirror finish with only the 400 grit and the orbital sander.
 
You may all think I am insane.. but the last two heatsinks I lapped.. I use an electric orbital sander and 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

It goes way faster than hand lapping and gets it very flat (except on the very edge). I have done the drop of water suction test..

400 grit will also wear down to a much finer grit if you keep it from clogging up... I was able to get a near mirror finish with only the 400 grit and the orbital sander.

you definately have some balls, lol. most of the time (almost always) sanders have thin foam pads that the paper sticks to, and that will cause your sanded surface to become convex shaped... better check your contact patch real close with a straight edge.
 
LOL I've also been thinking of lapping my Zalman (9700LED) but the only thing that's been keeping me back is that handling that heatsink usually involves in touching the fins regularly which all of us that have had many experiences with this heatsink know are extremely sharp.
I'm just afraid of cutting myself because it's actually pretty damn easy with this heatsink. If you do lap be careful and always hold the heatsink on the bottom part (this is a pain because the bulk of the wait of it is at the top so holding it like that is kind of hard.
 
you definately have some balls, lol. most of the time (almost always) sanders have thin foam pads that the paper sticks to, and that will cause your sanded surface to become convex shaped... better check your contact patch real close with a straight edge.

Hehe.. I wouldn't use one of the sanders that uses the sticky pads.... I use one that has a clamp on each end to hold the paper... the "foam" on that type is quite hard. I just have to make sure that the paper is clamped nice and tight or it tends to rip.

The way I do it is get the sandpaper wet... turn the sander upside down... then move the heatsink around on the paper while the sander is on. It works really well.
 
oh my god, that's just ridiculous... honestly. I don't even use 400 grit to remove rust from 40 year old cars... you'll spend 5 times the amount of effort to remove the grain from that 400 grit then you would ever spend with 1000 grit to start with.

You obviously have never lapped a heatsink before. 400 grit is a good place to start.
 
I will usually swirl the heatsink around on 800 or so grit to check the bottom of the heatsink to see how much it is going to take to flatten it out and make my decision of the starting grit on that information. The best way is still the old tried and true method of working off a pane of glass or a mirror surface as a base and moving the heatsink over the sandpaper, not the other way around.

You obviously have never lapped a heatsink before. 400 grit is a good place to start.
 
has anyone lapped a stock Heatsink for Core Duo 2 ?

I was thinking about just changing the fan on the stock HS.
 
If that foam is not rock hard, you're going to roll the edge of the heat sink. You might get away with it if you use a really light touch, but I'd not use any such gadget.

It doesn't matter if the very edge of the heatsink is totally flat or not.... just the area that actually contacts the IHS.. or in my case, the actual core as I have removed the IHS.

It is really not that easy to mess it up the way I do it.... just keep the paper wet and un-clogged.. move the heatsink around as well as rotate it 90 degress every once in a while.

Hehe.. before I removed the IHS.. I lapped it with the orbital sander also... that part scared me really bad. The heatsink and the IHS matched up really good.. I could almost pick up the CPU by just setting the heatsink on top and then lifting... with a drop of water.. it would stick good enough to lift the CPU.
 
How long should be spent, roughly, with each type of sand paper? I'm planning on doing with soon with my E6600's IHS, but i have no idea how long i should do it for. Does 50 strokes (50 forward, 50 back), turn 90 degrees, another 50 strokes, and so on until it's been rotated 360 degrees sound about right?
 
How long should be spent, roughly, with each type of sand paper? I'm planning on doing with soon with my E6600's IHS, but i have no idea how long i should do it for. Does 50 strokes (50 forward, 50 back), turn 90 degrees, another 50 strokes, and so on until it's been rotated 360 degrees sound about right?

no need for counting strokes. the IHS is copper with a coating.. when you have full flat coverage, you will have no more silver, it will be apparent when you are done.
 
no need for counting strokes. the IHS is copper with a coating.. when you have full flat coverage, you will have no more silver, it will be apparent when you are done.

Oh right, OK. But, don't you remove all of the copper with the first set of sand paper; how do you tell how long to sand for with 800 and 1000 grit paper, for example, after removing the copper with 400 grit?
 
Oh right, OK. But, don't you remove all of the copper with the first set of sand paper; how do you tell how long to sand for with 800 and 1000 grit paper, for example, after removing the copper with 400 grit?

if you remove all the copper, you'll sand right through the IHS. You just sand until the surface is all copper colored, then you switch to a higher grit to smooth it out.
 
if you remove all the copper, you'll sand right through the IHS. You just sand until the surface is all copper colored, then you switch to a higher grit to smooth it out.

Right, but how long should be spent with the higher grit papers roughly?
 
Alright, I got some 600 grit and 1000 grit.

Sound good? Start with the 600 grit for a while and then finish it off with the 1000 grit? Or should I throw 800 grit into there?
 
so if u lap an ihs, how do u get all the copper dust off? how do you keep the copper/grit/water slurry from getting into the pins and messing everything up? do then dip the chip into alcohol to wash it up or do u need something like toluene?
 
so if u lap an ihs, how do u get all the copper dust off? how do you keep the copper/grit/water slurry from getting into the pins and messing everything up? do then dip the chip into alcohol to wash it up or do u need something like toluene?

I never wetsand my processor. I suggested earlier using some masking tape to mask off everything but the IHS itself. As long as you give ample time for drying, I don't see any problem using alcohol to clean it off.
 
I used 70% isopropyl when I wet sanded my heatspreader. After I was done, to make sure all the copper was off, I rinsed it a bit with more isopropyl over the sink (didn't submerge). Its been working great ever since.
 
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