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Lapping?

Abula

Abula

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
1,036
I have seen many people now lapping their aftermarket heatsinks and video card coolers, how do you exactly do it, I mean what procedure and stuff do need to buy to do a good job? and is it worth the hazzle?
 
It depends on your HSF starting point and your application.

It rarely makes more than a 2º-3ºC difference at idle, but is a good skill to possess.

I use 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 grit sandpaper (in that order), a mirror, & water. Start with a back-to-front motion (you want to sand lengthwise, NOT in circles or figure-eights), do not press down on the hsf (let the hsf's weight do the work; if you press down on the wrong spot you can end up makes the surface unven or off balance). after about 10 full passes, rotate the hsf 90º and repeat. After about 10 sets of 10 passes on each side, move to the next grit sandpaper and repeat.

You can get a decent shine from the higher grits (some people go up to 2000 grit), you want it as smooth and level as possible. If you are going for the mirror finish, get an orbital buffer (or a dremel with polishing bits) and some mag/aluminum polish (Mother's and Meguiers are great brands).

Here is a good guide:

http://www.bigbruin.com/html/lapping-guide.htm
 
^^^^ What he said :) I have learned this exact same technique at school (engineering mechanics). I did lap my old SLK-800 to mirror finished using this technique. However, I did it at school where we have all the appropriate equipment. We have 2 rotating polishing tables, to shine glass :cool: All in all, it took me about 30 minutes to do it. If you do it by hand, it may take a little longer.

Para
 
After enough practice, you'd be surprised how quickly you can learn to do it, but having the right machines is always good.

I can't wait to get my new dremel and the buffer attachments, every heat transfer contact surface from here on out is going to have "da' bling" as the kids would say (damn kids and your rap music and your spirographs)....:D
 
lapping does set me from unstable 3.6Ghz OC to a stable 3.6Ghz OC on my previous stock HSF
 
revan said:
OT: Tenchi, when did SWTSU become TSU?
Click to expand...
Last year, November or December believe.

Oh, and its officially TSU-SM or Texas State Univeristy-San Marcos (since TSU is Texas Southern University).
 
I know many sinks these days come prelapped, I can think of Koolance waterblocks off hand, very nice finish on those guys, however last time I bought a thermalright sink it needed a good lapping. Definitely a good thing to do on a new sink!
 
Lapping a Heat spreader?

Would Lapping the Heat Spreader do any good and if so have any of you tried?
 
Arctic Cooling vieocard coolers all need a good lapping (esp the VGA silencer Rev. 3), Thermaltakes have much to be desired as well.

Newer Thermalright's are pretty decent, as are Swiftechs.

It's usually the cheaper hsf that need lapping (why would a company take the time (which = money) to lap a hsf that will sell for $20?).
 
Frallan said:
Lapping a Heat spreader?

Would Lapping the Heat Spreader do any good and if so have any of you tried?
Click to expand...

It might. We used to lap Slot 1 and Socket 370 Celeron CPU's to remove the outer nickel plate and bring out their copper surface of the heat slug, both making them smoother, and reducing the amount of material and improving thermal transfer. It lowered temps by probably 2-3 degrees as long as you kept the slug uniform. Also, the slugs back then were often somewhat concave, which meant the edges would keep the heatsink from having adequate contact with the CPU core. Lapping the slug even fixed this.

However, a lot less people are likely to be willing to buy a lapped CPU if you plan to resell it later, so keep that in mind. Also, I doubt that the new CPU's have nickel-plated coper slugs, and they're very flat unlike some of the S370 slugs, so lapping is probably less effective from that standpoint, the only plus being if you're really careful, you can insure the heat spreader is mirror smooth. I'd only use extremely fine grit sandpaper for it and I'd go really slow and careful, if you plan to do it at all.
 
My first Alpha PAL8045 heatsink I bought came from the factory with a mirror finish, and I am still using it. My dads did not. I've lapped CPU and Video card heatsinks. I only really found an advantage when I made sure the HSF and Chip itself was perfectly flat. I did this to my GF3 and it was much much cooler. What good is a flat heatsink when your chipset is concave =P
 
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