any way to remove thermal adhesive ?

G

game14

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
1,454
is there any save way to remove a heatsink glued on with Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive without breaking anything ?:confused:
 
how strong is the adhesive? can you actually pull it apart?

if you can, then to remove the residue, try using isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol that you can buy at any pharmacy store. use a cotton ball or something and dab it and rub it on heatsinks to dissolve the adhesive residue. then it should evaporate.
 
spacey said:
how strong is the adhesive? can you actually pull it apart?

if you can, then to remove the residue, try using isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol that you can buy at any pharmacy store. use a cotton ball or something and dab it and rub it on heatsinks to dissolve the adhesive residue. then it should evaporate.
Click to expand...

Very strong , no i cant pull it apart .
Thats why im asking if there is any way or solvent that i can use to get the heatsink off from the chip . (memory chip)
 
freeze it.

Stick the card in the freezer, it should become brittle enough to remove the heatsink with no issues, just be gentle about it.
 
I wouldn't just freeze it... You don't know how brittle the adhesive will become.

Or how stretchy it is when heated.

Try dabbing alcohol around the sides, and let it seep into the cracks. Maybe that will work. Might take a while though.
 
most thermal adhesives meant for electronics are meant to strengthen their bonds when heated.

Alcohol will do little to break the bonds of an epoxy on a card.

Freeze it and twist very gently. You will have to keep it in there for awhile, at least 30 mins at min, you need the epoxy in the middle to freeze.
 
not trying to be a smart ass or anything here....but why do you want to remove the heat sinks?????
 
Acetone is often used to dissolve the bonds of a two part epoxy. Since Thermal adhesives are usually epoxies, it's possible that acetone would work. Just get a container of pure acetone (no Extra strength stuff) from the hardware store for about 3$, put it in a large metal pan, and soak the card up to the chip (HSF down). Keep it cool (fridge) to stave off evaporation.

If it's a CPU, you can soak the entire thing in acetone for awhile.
 
get a hot air gun.. those kind you use on shrink tube... heat it up a bit and see if you can loosen that adhesive. I tried this on P4 heatsink that was stuck on there real tight... i thought i was going to break it with the screwdriver... but then i heat that sucker up and then pried it off.
 
thermal interface material and epoxies are two different things

TIM will melt when heated whereas the epoxies formulated for ram chips are made to be at their strongest when heated...
 
Maverick986 said:
not trying to be a smart ass or anything here....but why do you want to remove the heat sinks?????
Click to expand...

Want to remove the heatsinks on the mem chips of my old watercooled videocard and put the stock heatsink back on , so i can use the card for another project . And then use those removed heatsinks after cleaning for my new videocard thats gonna be watercooled .
I used thermal adhesive instead of thermal tape for safety reasons , because in case they would fall off they would land right on my mobo and maybe cause a shortcut .
Thats why :D
 
Arcygenical said:
Acetone is often used to dissolve the bonds of a two part epoxy. Since Thermal adhesives are usually epoxies, it's possible that acetone would work. Just get a container of pure acetone (no Extra strength stuff) from the hardware store for about 3$, put it in a large metal pan, and soak the card up to the chip (HSF down). Keep it cool (fridge) to stave off evaporation.

If it's a CPU, you can soak the entire thing in acetone for awhile.
Click to expand...

Acetone ? works for that kind of grazy glue stuff that drys in seconds . But never used it on epoxy . Anyways could give it a try . Hope the card still works after all that freezing and chemical treatment :rolleyes:
The manufacturer of thermal adhesives really should sell something to remove that stuff .
 
I sure hope you used the weakened version of the epoxy by mixing in a bit of arctic silver 5 or else regardless of method there's a good chance it'll hold good...
 
game14 said:
Want to remove the heatsinks on the mem chips of my old watercooled videocard and put the stock heatsink back on , so i can use the card for another project . And then use those removed heatsinks after cleaning for my new videocard thats gonna be watercooled .
I used thermal adhesive instead of thermal tape for safety reasons , because in case they would fall off they would land right on my mobo and maybe cause a shortcut .
Thats why :D
Click to expand...

ahhh ok that makes total sense..
 
had the card in the freezer overnight but the adhesive still holds on , no way to get it off . im gonna turn the freezer to max and put it back in and see what happends then :(
(already got complain what my computer parts have to do in the freezer :rolleyes:)
 
Watch out I killed a video card pulling off the heatsinks from the memory chips. Leave well enough alone.
 
freezing is not enough - need some solvent :( , maybe solvent and freezing ???
 
the problem is that the sinks are attached to the card... it's really hard to get a solvent to penetrate the center of the epoxy.

also if freezing didn't work well... I'm wondering if you diluted the formula, as in it's 1:1 form (no AS5 mixed in), it's VERY strong.

For anyone else in future thinking of epoxing with arctic adhesive, use the 2 parts adhesive to 1 part as5 AND do the as5 dot in the middle of the chip with the epoxy solution only on the outside parts of the chip as it's really gets on there.
 
I've made up a mixture of as5 + as adhesive and glued a mock heatsink onto a piece of ram I have lyring around, once cured I'll test out some different solvents and methods and see what may help you out.
 
Slade said:
the problem is that the sinks are attached to the card... it's really hard to get a solvent to penetrate the center of the epoxy.

also if freezing didn't work well... I'm wondering if you diluted the formula, as in it's 1:1 form (no AS5 mixed in), it's VERY strong.

For anyone else in future thinking of epoxing with arctic adhesive, use the 2 parts adhesive to 1 part as5 AND do the as5 dot in the middle of the chip with the epoxy solution only on the outside parts of the chip as it's really gets on there.
Click to expand...

yep i used the 1:1 form without mixing anything else in , spreaded it out evenly on the chip and pressed the heatsink on - just like recommended in the manual that came with the adhesive .
Never seen any glue that holds like this , im thinking of using the rest to glue some metalparts of my case together , seems to hold better than anything else .
 
funny you should mention repairing metal with it, I used 1:1 it to fix a bolt hole I stripped, just filled it in, drilled it out and voila...

You'll need a good mix of solvent to break this stuff down, I'm starting to wonder just what will do the trick without damaging the card...

If you are daring enough, a carefully placed pin, a small hammer and maybe a magnifying glass and you can "chisel" the pin in between, given how soft the alumium heatsinks are you could get just enough to wedge it in and kind of fracture the epoxy... at the least, create an entry point for the solvent to dissolve the epoxy.
 
Slade said:
I've made up a mixture of as5 + as adhesive and glued a mock heatsink onto a piece of ram I have lyring around, once cured I'll test out some different solvents and methods and see what may help you out.
Click to expand...

thx much man , really appreciate your help .:) .
I think im gonna write their customer support too and ask them if they have any suggestions . .
 
I ran out of alcohol, but I had sprayed some cologne onto a test mix of AS adhesive and it dissolved it VERY quickly. I'll pick up some rubbing alcohol and see if it has the same effect. The problem is, will the alcohol be aggressive enough to get inbetween the heatsink and the memory chip or will it only dissolve the outer edge where there is residue.
 
ive done this, usually the surfaces of the ram and the heatsink are too smooth to get a good adhesion. just take a razer blade and get in between the sink and the module and twist it, they should pop right off. then just use the blade to scrape any extra off the ram or heatsinks, then clean up with alcohol.
 
I let the memory + mock heatsink I did soak in alcohol... as suspected and mentioned by the previous post, the alcohol didn't get inbetween the mem and heatsink...
 
trying alcohol combined with freezing right now ( on a testchip of course )
 
][V][AGIC;1031535968 said:
ive done this, usually the surfaces of the ram and the heatsink are too smooth to get a good adhesion. just take a razer blade and get in between the sink and the module and twist it, they should pop right off. then just use the blade to scrape any extra off the ram or heatsinks, then clean up with alcohol.
Click to expand...

I am surprised no one has mentioned this earlier. I always heard that using a razor blade (gently) worked fairly well to removing stuck heatsinks.
 
infect0 said:
I am surprised no one has mentioned this earlier. I always heard that using a razor blade (gently) worked fairly well to removing stuck heatsinks.
Click to expand...

i use heat and a razor blade. works well if you take your time.
its how i remove IHS off cpus
 
I've never done this, but I think the razor blade sounds like the best idea.

Also, I'm thinking with the freezing that it would be best to cool the heatsink VERY quickly... so the card is still warm + only the heatsink is cooled. I've used canned air lots of times + if you have a full can + spray it upside down, you get liquid coming out of the nozzle which then evaporates very quickly + causes quite the chill on whatever its evaporating from...... you could try that. I'm thinking the rapid change in temp will cause contraction on the heatsink, but not necc on the chip and/or adhesive....

Another option to remove this would be a very swift jolt to the heatsink... 9 iron anyone? FOUR!!!!

I have no idea if the 2nd two options would cause damage... I take no legal responsibility for my (stupid) ideas.
 
When you press on the ramsink combined with the machined surface, you get one hell of a bond. I bet if the ramsinks were polished to a mirror shine, this wouldn't be as much as a problem as there'd be less surface area on the ramsink to epoxy to.

I think a razor blade may work... but on some of the inner chips + the mosfets, it'll be near impossible to get one to fit without coming in at an angle that could potentially damage the board if it slipped...
 
razorblade sounds a little too risky for me , since there are capacitors in the way and the gpu on the other side ....not even thinking about getting cut .... and those mem chips are not that smooth at all .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top