Heatsink Extension

Hey all, Firestorm here,

I'm using a Quad Cree for my build, and it gets VERY hot. I decided that I felt that the V3 Heatsink did not make enough contact with the inside of the choke section to properly dissipate heat through the saber body. The width of the thinner part of the heatsink is about 20mm plus or minus maybe .1mm, which translates to about .787 inches. After several hours of driving around town, I came across a brass piece in the Home Depot plumbing department, a 1/2 inch x 1/8 inch Brass Hex Bushing.

Attachment 14284

I made a quick "jig" to turn the piece on a power drill and went at it with a belt sander and a file. After maybe 30 minutes, I had a pretty piece that fit the inside of the choke better than the V3 heatsink did! Coupled with some Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy, I've got a heatsink extension which cost me(not including gas ;)) about 5 bucks.

Here's some pics;

The Jig, holding the brass piece
Attachment 14285

It fits! Woo!
Attachment 14286

A shot of the piece inside the choke. Fit like a GLOVE
Attachment 14287

Another shot of the choke on the jig
Attachment 14288

This was quick and extremely easy to do once I found the right piece.
Lemme know what y'all think!

EDIT: This is a concept, I still need to find a good source for material OTHER than brass

Execution is great, material choice is a bad idea. Brass is a horrible conductor. It has about 1/4 the thermal conductivity of copper (and about 1/2 that of aluminum). There are several factors to making a good heatsink. Material is important from the standpoint of pulling the heat away from the LED. A large mass will pull and absorb a lot of heat. But just having mass is not going to help you, you need an efficient means to 'drain' the heat out of the heatsink so it can keep absorbing heat from the LED. This is where surface area becomes important. The more surface area you have, the more heat you can give off to the surrounding air. There is a reason why so many heatsinks have tons of fins, pins, or louvers. They allow the heat built up in the heatsink to escape to the surrounding. Then you need to balance how much space you have, how much you want to spend and how easy it is to make.

I hope it works for you, at the very least, you have given the heatsink more surface area to transfer heat to the brass sleeve and then to the aluminum choke.

Agreed with acerocket....need to replace it with a copper one. Or just make one out of copper if you can't find one. But is is a good plan.

This is just a concept build, I wanted to make sure I could do something before finding proper material, and the piece was inexpensive. The walls are very thick and theres an 1/8 hole running through the middle
Sorry, I should have clarified that in the original post. Edited

As for a material source, anyone have any good ones?

UPDATE
discovered onlinemetals.com
we good
END UPDATE