Looking for heatsinks

[calgaryreefer]

i went to home depot today and saw some 1"x48" aluminum square tubes that might work, making them like a t5 bar, add enough fans it will work i think, i will try one to see how the heat is, but i suspect it will work really nicely.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by calgaryreefer

i went to home depot today and saw some 1"x48" aluminum square tubes that might work, making them like a t5 bar, add enough fans it will work i think, i will try one to see how the heat is, but i suspect it will work really nicely.

I recall reading somewhere that 1.25" x 1.25" x 0.125" 6063 aluminum works best for this application.

[mike31154]

You could look around for a place that recycles electronic components, shouldn't be that difficult in a large city. They'll have plenty of heatsinks out of old computers etc. Trick will be convincing them to sell you the stuff rather than ship it off for 'recycling'. I recall when I lived in Ottawa, there was a place in the south end where you could get all kinds of surplus electronics dirt cheap.

Only downside I guess is that your lighting set up might end up looking like something out of a '60s horror movie.

[rstar]

I thnink it would be interesting to see a pc liquid cooling concept applied to cooling LED's. Most kits are inexpensive in the grande scheme of things and allow expantion.

[mason dixon]

Would empty aluminum soda cans work? Put the leds on an aluminum bar stock and then use some thermal glue to glue a bunch of soda cans end to end(caps removed) and have a pressurized fan blow air through the soda can tube?

[StirCrazy]

check out "Steve's" LEDs. he used 1.25 square tube with 1/8th wall thickness and uses these fans on the end of the tube.
http://shop.stevesleds.com/Cooling-Fans_c11.htm they are the cooling fans from sony wega's you can get the fans cheep from him and then buy some tubing at your local metal shop.

Steve

[themastr]

Princess Auto had U shaped Aluminum Heatsink that you can use.

Hope this helps

[Jfish]

I know this is a bit of a sidetrack from what you guys are talking about and it it works better living close to the border but this is what I did. I ordered heatsinks from rapidled, it was free shipping within the US. Many small towns along the border have businesses that will accept packages for Canadians. I got the package shipped to that business, gave the heatsinks plenty of time to ship and then went and picked them up. You have to enter into the states and declare them at the border but it easily saved me a couple hundered on shipping expenses. Just a thought for ya if your within proximity to the states.

[justincgdick]

I just wanted to add that the cheapest I found for heatsinks is LEDgroupbuy.com.

In Calgary, I got my C-channel aluminum at metal supermarkets. They have any kind of shape/metal you would need and much cheaper than Home Depot. http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/

[Dive_dry]

you can get heat sinks from rapid LED they are canadian progressive reef now sell there product. You dont have to go through progressive to get them it is just an option