Lapping Tutorial

[Javve]

Some people go for the mirror finish and others don't. I seen Vocch has a nice mirror finish in his/her avatar.

I have seen a couple of tutorials on different sites, but they didn't go into polishing, etc. I picked up a mag/aluminum polish from an auto parts store. Will this work on copper or should I take it back and get something different?

I Have:
200 / 400 / 600 / 800 / 1000
(From a 3M assorted pack with the exception of the 600 which is left over from body work).

With a good tutorial maybe it would be worth a sticky on the air and watercooling sections of cooling.

[PhilDoc]

There use to be one on here. If you do a site search, you may still find it. I don't know about the polish, never tried it. The reason some go for the mirror finish is that along with having the edges match its also important to have as little air gaps as possible. Small scratches on the surface would in theory cause small air pockets. One of the other things is not to apply pressure. Just let the sandpaper do the work. Some say do a figure 8, I just make sure I go both direction

[graysky]

Dude, do NOT polish your HS or IHS. The polish will stay with the metal and hurt your heat transfer efficiency. You can have a look at this thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=143069) for a pseudo tutorial.

[SoulsCollective]

Do not polish, ever. As Gray said above, it hurts your temps as the residue from the polish becomes ingrained in the surface of the IHS or HS and prevents the microscopic gaps being filled properly by the TIM.

You can get a pretty damn nice surface by going with 2,000 grit wet.

[AusScare]

I reckon starting with 250 or 300 would be good, because it takes ages on just 400.

[xenoasd]

question..

do u always go with wet? or dry?

[أشرف]

question..

do u always go with wet? or dry?

For paint, go with wet. Otherwise, go with dry.

[SLi_dog]

Dude, do NOT polish your HS or IHS. The polish will stay with the metal and hurt your heat transfer efficiency. You can have a look at this thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=143069) for a pseudo tutorial.

Do not polish, ever. As Gray said above, it hurts your temps as the residue from the polish becomes ingrained in the surface of the IHS or HS and prevents the microscopic gaps being filled properly by the TIM.

You can get a pretty damn nice surface by going with 2,000 grit wet.
Polishing also doesn't leave the surface flat which is the whole point of lapping :)

While were on the subject, here's my tute. Same method for Heatsinks as CPUs, use water at the start if you want, it just makes it slightly quicker but always finish with dry 2000grit :up:

How to lap a heat sink (http://www.i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=3289)

[Javve]

http://www.i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=3289

Checked that link and it has a pretty good tutorial. It's something seeing it done dry, read different threads and people lap using wetsand and others dry-sand.

I'll take the polish back and see about some 1200 grit since that's the highest I can get here. To correct the sand paper grit I have:

200 / 400 / 600 / 800 / 1000
(From a 3M assorted pack with the exception of the 600 which is left over from body work).

Would 1200 make a big difference from the 1000 or should I go to an auto repair place and see about 2000 grit?

[graysky]

question..

do u always go with wet? or dry?

Always wet. It lubricates and helps to immobilize fine metal particles you don't want ANYWHERE near your chip.

[Javve]

Ahh cool, *very* good point. Going to practice on an old Socket A heatsink since I am replacing it with a newer, higher cfm heatsink. Will lap the new one and it will be like a lapped heatsink on a "nekkid" processor. Not planning on lapping it much due to the mounting method of socket A's, and depending on the bottom, may not lap at all.

I will be getting parts to build a core 2 duo. Now that will be a performance increase :D