• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Home Made Heatsink

F

feelingshorter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2004
Messages
216
Common, the idea never crossed your poor ass? We poor people gotta improvise. Plus it might be a cool [H]ardcore idea.

I read a tutorial at http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap.htm under ghetto ramsinks and i was thinking if anyone attempted this....

making a ceramic bowl
melt pennies/alumnium
then pour it into a ceramic mold (the mold would be small and have fins)
Use thermal adhesive glue and glue the thing down on ur ram or graphic's memory :D

Oh yea, i forgot 2 mention....since pennies and alumnium arent easy 2 melt over a fire in ah ceramic bowl, ur gonna need 2 add other chemicals 2 it 2 make it melt at lower temp. But i dont know if such chemical exist, so if anyone knows.....and what about the effects if the chemical, wether it will make it suck up heat as well...
 
I thought about making a micro pin waterblock this way, but copper melts at like 2000F, so that would be tough to do.

It would be easier than a pin fin waterblock because you could drill many small holes rather than trying to mill them out of a solid copper block with a 1mm end mill :D

I am going to try it one day, just nead a ceramic block thick enough to drill the holes and mill out a design for the base.
 
1st: Illegal to distroy/alter/deface/use on TV, United States currency:eek:

That out of the way,
Aluminum becomes plastic(starts to melt)at 800 degrees
Copper around 1500 degrees.
Very difficult to obtain those temps on a stove!
Suggest you use your processor:D

Don't know of any chemical that will lower melting point.

P.S. I melt metal for a living

What u want to do is
take some wax
shape it into wat ever
pour ceramic/plaster around
melt out wax
pour metal in
Not responsible for any burning flesh or otherwise:eek:
 
I saw that afrotech site a couple years ago, and there's so much weird crap that they've done!
 
Thanks so much kleptophobiac
U had to make me go there:eek:
They got way to much time!!!!!!!!
 
Originally posted by OPUS1
1st: Illegal to distroy/alter/deface/use on TV, United States currency:eek:

...
Click to expand...

Common misconception. You can mutilate currency all you want, you just can't use it as currency afterwards.
 
Originally posted by OPUS1
1st: Illegal to distroy/alter/deface/use on TV, United States currency:eek:
Click to expand...

I remember going to Disney Land and they had a machines in one of the store that flattens your pennies into the shape you want (IE: the face of daffy duck) so i know its not illegal hehe.

And about that making it outta wax first and then cover with ceramic, good idea. And about heating something 2 1500 degrees, is that possible if you leave the pennies in a ceramic bowl over a hot fire? "FIRE" not stove. I can proably melt the alumnium tho, but proably doesnt make a good heat sink.
 
Your kitchen stove top actually gets much hotter than you might think. Many in fact do get hot enough to melt aluminum. The reasons you probably hadn't noticed how hot it gets is because you've never touched it at full output, or you've always had some water/food sitting in the pot you were using to cook. If you left a ceramic bowl on top of your front burner and stuck a block of aluminum in it, it would be likely to melt eventually.
 
Melting your own copper or aluminum is going to make a really crappy melt, it'll be loaded with impurities from the coins if you use those, and oxides that form readily at those temperatures. Cast materials don't have the best properties either. Most aluminum heatsinks are extruded and and copper ones are machined from a solid block. Likewise, you're probably better off machining your waterblock from a copper bar.
 
I'm going to be making a new heatsink For my AIW out of a solid copper heatsink intended for a 1U rackmount enclousre. In the end it has to be 50x50mm and I'm going to stick a papst 50mm fan on to of it. FYI I'm buying the HSF off of ebay.
 
The reason why blacksmiths used bellows was to increase temp of flame
Ever see copper bottom frying pans/Camping cookset outta Aluminum
Your stove will probably melt the same time your pennies do:eek:
and no, your microwave overclocked isn't powerful enough:p

If you trully insist, try acetilyene or stuff like that
and to remove oxides
for copper: add broken glass/ poke a hole thru melted glass(glass will rise to top)/ pour around 2000 degrees
for aluminum: For the amount you'll have just skim the oxides off the top/don't stir/pour around 1400 Degrees for thin wall

Again not responsible for any faliures:cool:

The fumes are not to good to breath :rolleyes:

Right waycool: pure copper is way to soft. Most metals are alloyed with other elements to achieve properties desired

Cast materials don't have the best properties either. Most aluminum heatsinks are extruded and and copper ones are machined from a solid block.
Click to expand...

Most HS are extruded or machined due to cost
I've made cast HS with both matierials that allowed for some pretty neat shapes.(money no object:D )
 
Ok, the pennies thing is screwd. I knew there were zinc in pennies but i dint know it was mostly zinc! What about alumnium? It is proably easier 2 work with since it melts at a lower temperature. I'm sure there are alumnium heatsinks on the market today. Now that we found all the problems with the pennies, lets get ideas for alumnium. I was just thinking, just melt it mold it, and stick it on the ram with thermal adheasive glue.

Forgot 2 mention, the fumes are poisonous from the pennies! :mad: So any idiot that gonna try this at home, buy a 1k gas mask from your local military outlit. Or as the point of this [H]ardly smart idea of creating your own heatsink, just use a cheap cloth and put it over your nose :p (even tho the only thing it will proably do is make it hard for you to breath ).
 
Casting your own heatsinks is going to be alot more work than it's worth, in my opinion. After you cast it, you'll have to lap the base too, because aluminum contracts alot when it cools and the base is probably the surface you'll notice it most on. I'd just buy a heatsink and cut it to whatever size you want.
 
Originally posted by kleptophobiac
pennies before 1983 are pure copper...
Click to expand...

Hehe, thats a lot of old pennies, like i said, the idea is screwd! Lets just make it out of alumnium. I was thinking...glue a penny made before 1983, as a base, then take regular alumnium foil and shape it into what eva shape you want.

Ill proably cut out a piece of paper and see how i can fold it 2 look like regular ram sink/chip heat sink(so you can use it on ram and graphic card). Ill proably post my ideas in a few days, send me your thoughts.
 
take a 1983 penny, and some aluminum bar. Bore out a hole for the penny, and silver braze it in.

Mill some notches into the aluminum bar, and slide in some aluminum plate and braze it in. Voila, craptastic homemade heatsink.
 
Originally posted by kleptophobiac
take a 1983 penny, and some aluminum bar. Bore out a hole for the penny, and silver braze it in.

Mill some notches into the aluminum bar, and slide in some aluminum plate and braze it in. Voila, craptastic homemade heatsink.
Click to expand...

I found some cool things at "Hobby Lobbie" story (a hobbie store with all stora crap, i dunno if they have those stroes in your areas but..) if everyone would be able 2 find the thin alumnium bars. And they are like 1-2 bucks a piece, i mind as well buy a heat sink for 2 bucks a piece then, and that defeats the point of making ur own heatsink.

Dont forget the whole point of this is 2 make it as CHEAP as possible, time is not an issue, so yall better start finding pennies before 1983, because i just have an idea :D . Ill proably open my computer and measure how long one of them black bars is (the black memory bar, like on ur ram and graphics card). I found some internet sites with other cool "designs" that you can fold your paper into, so i was thinking a crane on top of ur penny or something like that :D. Hell ill just write a tutorial on homemade heatsink after i figure out all the bugs. Alright, let this fourm die, see yall in 1-2 weeks! (if i can find that many old pennies)
 
Bars? Isn't the point of a heatsink to have as much surface area as possible?

I would stagger stack a bunch of pennies, then slice down the meeting point between the two, so you've got two pieces with one flat side and one finned side. I'd probably try to use a torch to heat them up enough to stick them together, then surface the bottom so that it's smooth.
 
it'd probably be easier to buy a bunch of sheet copper from a hardware store (they have it, I used it to make a ghetto water block) or buy copper water pipe than to find that many pennies.

Another option I've seen done is to take sheet copper, cut a bunch of large squares, then a bunch of small rectangles the thickness of your desired base, then laminate them together with silver soldier and an oxyacetilne torch.

(Bad ASCI art representation)

Code: 
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Supposedly from the article, they had a hard time getting the thing hot enough to melt the silver soldier because of how much heat the thing dissapated. Then lap the base (I think they drilled 2 holes and used machine screws to keep the assembly together while the soldiered)

Don't have a clue where the article is- saw it on the front page quite a while ago.

Magnin
 
Originally posted by 8Complex
Bars? Isn't the point of a heatsink to have as much surface area as possible?
Click to expand...

Most people dont happen to have an acythene thorch at home (or any other torch). And the metal bars i'm talking about are made of alumnium and there is also ones where you can buy that is made of copper. They are HALLOW, not a thick bars. They have all sizes avabilable at Hobby Lobby.

Magnin, something that kids can do at home :D. So i think pennies before 1983 would be a good idea and it wll be cheap. I have a stick of 512 MB DDR 2700 ram (Sam Sung). And it has like 8 of those rectangular black bars on each side. So thats about 16 pennies. Thats much cheaper than buying a 2 dollar sheet of metal and cutting it and buring it togeather.

And regarding your silver solder thing.....no torch (because i dont have an acethene thorch! I mean, its safer for the kids out there that try this at home and burn their freakin house down).

It seems some people havent gotten my basic idea already:
1: find 16 or how many pennies before 1983.
2. buy hallow alumnium bar or copper bar and cut it.
3. fold the alumnium foil and add in the bars (hard 2 explain this one, but 2 lazy 2 draw a graphic right now, be shown in a bit)
4. place the penny on the square rectangle of memory that you want 2 cool, add the alumnium foil and use thermal adheasive glue (or tape)

Another problem arises:
"Tin coated solid copper to prevent oxidation" -most ramsinks have that. I read the specs of popular ramsinks and i was like *wtf is this? I read the dictionary def and still dont really understand. Is there gonna be like water or dew forming on the heatsink?
 
Originally posted by zer0signal667
Melting your own copper or aluminum is going to make a really crappy melt, it'll be loaded with impurities from the coins if you use those, and oxides that form readily at those temperatures. Cast materials don't have the best properties either. Most aluminum heatsinks are extruded and and copper ones are machined from a solid block. Likewise, you're probably better off machining your waterblock from a copper bar.
Click to expand...

ding ding, we have a winner

heat sink makers dont melt the metals and mold it, they use blocks and machine the sinks from those. the supplier smelts in much better, cleaner, efficient conditions than a bowel on your stove

if youre really set on melting some stuff, the only way and best way to get what you want is to built a furnace, basically you need a grill with a hole in the bottom and a high output fan that blows in (not up, thatll blow ashes in your face, just a high input air supply), you get the fire goign good and turn that on and it blows oxygen into the fire, making it burn much hotter. youll go through fuel really quickly though so make sure to have lots of wood/coal on hand. and for gods sake dont burn yourself.
 
Originally posted by feelingshorter Another problem arises:
"Tin coated solid copper to prevent oxidation" -most ramsinks have that. I read the specs of popular ramsinks and i was like *wtf is this? I read the dictionary def and still dont really understand. Is there gonna be like water or dew forming on the heatsink? [/B]
Click to expand...

you knew all that other stuff but not what OXIDATION is?

oxidation as were talking about it is when oxygen, O2, combines with a metallic substance and coats the substance with a very, very thin layer of the oxidate of the metal. for instance, if you leave iron, Fe, out in the air for long enough, it becomes FeO2, ferrous oxide, or rust. with water, the oxygen breaks off of H2O and latches onto the iron, giving FeO2 and also H2 which recombines with water and produces H3O.

I'm pretty sure thats how it goes, if im wrong someone please correct me.
 
Originally posted by kronchev
you knew all that other stuff but not what OXIDATION is?

oxidation as were talking about it is when oxygen, O2, combines with a metallic substance and coats the substance with a very, very thin layer of the oxidate of the metal. for instance, if you leave iron, Fe, out in the air for long enough, it becomes FeO2, ferrous oxide, or rust. with water, the oxygen breaks off of H2O and latches onto the iron, giving FeO2 and also H2 which recombines with water and produces H3O.

I'm pretty sure thats how it goes, if im wrong someone please correct me.
Click to expand...

Oh thats what you call it when it rust, i knew i herd that word before.......

and about ur idea of building a furnace we wont need one! I dont plan on melting anything.
 
Torches are cheap at local hardware stores, like $8-15. At least I'm talking about a propane torch, but it's just one of those things I have around since I work on cars much more often then computers. :)

Regarding obtaining the coins... I'm willing to bet just about all of us have some sort of cup or jar with misc. coins in it from spending cash and not wanting to carry pennies. Just look through there... I looked through probably around 100 pennies and found 25-30 that were pre-1982.

BTW, the thermal adhesive sounds like a much better idea, but I've never seen anything like that before.
 
Well, iron rust is a bit more complicated and your model is quite simplified. There's also some Fe2O3 in there and the "average" molecular formula is Fe4O5 (I think its this, at least).

On the note about pressing pennies, its legal in the states... but not in Canada, that's why we steal your money and provide them with those machines in little trays (maybe I should stock up... after just cashing in $15 worth of pennies saved up over 3 years is giving me some ideas)
 
Originally posted by 8Complex
Torches are cheap at local hardware stores, like $8-15. At least I'm talking about a propane torch, but it's just one of those things I have around since I work on cars much more often then computers. :)
Click to expand...

Indeed. I use propane to cook food at my house so buying a torch would be no problem. But i dont think we will need 2 melt anything.
 
Just thought I would point out, someone destroyed his Radeon 9600 in the Video Card Forum when he tried the penny idea. You can go read about it there.
 
Originally posted by Cardboard Hammer
Common misconception. You can mutilate currency all you want, you just can't use it as currency afterwards.
Click to expand...

Otherwise those penny machines would be illegal. You know, the ones where you put a quarter + penny in, then watch the penny get stamped into a new shape. :)

Just thought I would point out, someone destroyed his Radeon 9600 in the Video Card Forum when he tried the penny idea. You can go read about it there.
Click to expand...

You can destroy your card by putting ramsinks on it the wrong way. All it takes is a little piece of metal crossing a gap that isn't supposed to be crossed and presto, instant paperweight!
 
Originally posted by Sc0rched
Just thought I would point out, someone destroyed his Radeon 9600 in the Video Card Forum when he tried the penny idea. You can go read about it there.
Click to expand...

Next time put a freakin link 2 the that post! I looked across 4 pages and dint find a title that i suspect the story you talked about was posted but thats pretty funny, knowing someone was stupid enough 2 glue that many pennies 2 where it screwd up their videocard. Did he glue across a bridge and the voltage jumped or did it break? Oh just send me the link 2 the post please (since i am not looking through more than 5 pages of fourm titles, i got a 400 page book 2 finnish in a few days).:p And my idea for this heatsink will require only ONE penny, not 5 stacked up like the tower o piza, it might be a craptastic idea but it is hella cheap :D :cool:
 
I once melted a penny down just for the fun of it with a little mini-blowtorch/soldering iron I bought from radioshack a good while ago (and have never regretted, it's like wireless without the interferance and weight.) Ok, it was a modern penny, but purer copper should melt easier if I remember my phsical science classes well enough. Oh, and I definitely have to point out the obvious screwup I saw there. I once had a GF2 GTS which I decided I wanted to seriously overclock. I found some run of the mill heatsinks and stuck them on there with a little help of artic silver and a few dabs of superglue (yeah, I know, but, hey, this was my version of getto and not so different really) but one of them had all the superglue in between layers of artic silver, so the glue was simply making some of the artic silver solid. Much much later on, after a while of sucessful nice overclocking, suddenly my video card stopped working. I finally opened the case trying to figure out what it was, and guess what I find at the bottom of my case. A heatsink fallen completely off one of those ram chips. The chip was completely roasted due to all the overclocking and the lack of proper cooling. Anyway, I say this because I saw, like someone mentioned earlier, that he didn't have the entire chip covered at all with his little makeshift heatsink. Ever little bit of the chip that is directly exposed is a part of the chip that is cooking.

Anyway, someday I must properly cool this videocard. I wish more of them would come with at least cheapo heatsinks on the ram. *sigh*

BTW, what is the worst case scenario if a copper heatsink should oxidize anyway? I mean, iron rusts, weakons, and etc, but what does copper do? Does a copper heatsink with oxidization on the outside just simply work that much less efficiently? Or wouldn't it still be better cooling than the air alone?

EDIT: Found this on the Afromods website. The real reason why P4s suck:
pentium4.jpg

Suddenly it all makes sense...
 
Originally posted by dotZIP
Well, iron rust is a bit more complicated and your model is quite simplified. There's also some Fe2O3 in there and the "average" molecular formula is Fe4O5 (I think its this, at least).
Click to expand...

well i'm explaining it to a public forum, I cant assume everyones going to know the oxidation states of iron
 
Originally posted by Nazo
I once melted a penny down just for the fun of it with a little mini-blowtorch/soldering iron I bought from radioshack a good while ago (and have never regretted, it's like wireless without the interferance and weight.) Ok, it was a modern penny, but purer copper should melt easier if I remember my phsical science classes well enough. Oh, and I definitely have to point out the obvious screwup I saw there. I once had a GF2 GTS which I decided I wanted to seriously overclock. I found some run of the mill heatsinks and stuck them on there with a little help of artic silver and a few dabs of superglue (yeah, I know, but, hey, this was my version of getto and not so different really) but one of them had all the superglue in between layers of artic silver, so the glue was simply making some of the artic silver solid. Much much later on, after a while of sucessful nice overclocking, suddenly my video card stopped working. I finally opened the case trying to figure out what it was, and guess what I find at the bottom of my case. A heatsink fallen completely off one of those ram chips. The chip was completely roasted due to all the overclocking and the lack of proper cooling. Anyway, I say this because I saw, like someone mentioned earlier, that he didn't have the entire chip covered at all with his little makeshift heatsink. Ever little bit of the chip that is directly exposed is a part of the chip that is cooking.

Anyway, someday I must properly cool this videocard. I wish more of them would come with at least cheapo heatsinks on the ram. *sigh*

BTW, what is the worst case scenario if a copper heatsink should oxidize anyway? I mean, iron rusts, weakons, and etc, but what does copper do? Does a copper heatsink with oxidization on the outside just simply work that much less efficiently? Or wouldn't it still be better cooling than the air alone?

EDIT: Found this on the Afromods website. The real reason why P4s suck:
pentium4.jpg

Suddenly it all makes sense...
Click to expand...

That picture owns my life :D


Oh yeh on oxidation of copper...iron on cars rusts all the time, as long as its thick, you dont have a problem, since its just on the surface...however on a heatsink thats less than desirable since it will impede heat transfer. I would assume that most heatsinks are treated somehow (dont ask me how) to slow this down, but usually it will take a few years to show, and at the rate us hardcore OCers go, well have switched cooling solutions long before its even an issue. However, I have an SLK-700 (i think thats the model), all copper, that is starting to oxidize at the base. i won it at a LAN party last year, so its not terribly old.
 
my slk900u looks very dull from handling, etc. =/. Anyway to get rid of that bs? Does it stop it from cooling any at all?
 
Originally posted by Tengis
my slk900u looks very dull from handling, etc. =/. Anyway to get rid of that bs? Does it stop it from cooling any at all?
Click to expand...

it might make it cool less

to get rid of it I believe you can use ketchup.
 
Not that I ever did this or suggest anyone should do this,

But I remember some kids putting a penny on top of a quarter and then carefully placing this onto a train track and then searching for 1/2 hour and finding this real shinny flat quernny(penny & quarter):eek:
Probably make some neet fins:)
 
Originally posted by OPUS1
Not that I ever did this or suggest anyone should do this,

But I remember some kids putting a penny on top of a quarter and then carefully placing this onto a train track and then searching for 1/2 hour and finding this real shinny flat quernny(penny & quarter):eek:
Probably make some neet fins:)
Click to expand...

i live like 300 feet from the rail road and the train runs VERY often. I sometimes get woken up at night by that stupid thing gonig *HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK* why the hell do train make that STUPID ASS NOISE! It pisses me off, its not like people are blind and gonna walk in front of a train moving SLOW AS HELL, i could out run (actualy, out walk it, but its carrying like 100 18 wheeler cargo) it, always making that *HOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKK*

So thats a good idea, i think ill take the time and see if i can make a pennarter. But the train might push the thing off before it gets squashed so i think ill have 2 tape it down or something so it wont blow ahway n so the penny gets smashed RIGHT in the middle of it. Not only that, it is proably easier 2 melt the skinner it is. Does anyone know what a quarter is made out of? I dont think it is silver is it?
 
Wow didn't mean to get yur goat:p
I use to live near the wrong side of the tracks and the friggin freight train would pass by 3 in the morning, now 5 years later I get up at 3 in the morning:mad:

silver & copper
try crazy glue and watch your fingers:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top