Grizz's DIY Heat sink & LED build / showing all colors

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Are those tig welds because it's aluminium and whatnot?

No tony not TIG welds, I have an aluminum spool gun for this type of work. It's easier to tack with the spool gun vursus needing to use 2 hands for the TIG.

[Hustler]

I wish i understood better what this does and how it all works.... Its slow at work and i have a bunch of plate and flat bar just waiting to be cut up.... Just dont know what im even planning for other then dimentions LOL
is there a specific spacing that works best per foot or thickness of plate ect?
Is there maybe a guideline to follow for us LED newbs...
Looks amazing bro.... Hope i get the invite next time i stop in your kneck of the woods

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Hustler

I wish i understood better what this does and how it all works.... Its slow at work and i have a bunch of plate and flat bar just waiting to be cut up.... Just dont know what im even planning for other then dimentions LOL
is there a specific spacing that works best per foot or thickness of plate ect?
Is there maybe a guideline to follow for us LED newbs...
Looks amazing bro.... Hope i get the invite next time i stop in your kneck of the woods

I just used what Martin had figured out for a 48"L x 24"W tank to get an idea of what I needed & asked Martin what he thought I would need. I was going to go with 4 - 12" x 12" heat sinks but decided to go with just 2 - 39" x 12" so that I had a 6" difference on all 4 sides of the tank & between each heat sink.

Any time your down here drop me a line.

[madkeenreefer]

Looks solid. How many watt are the 136 leds ? I would maybee think of putting another fan to help out with the heat as you may find the transfer lacking from the 1/4 sheet to the 1/8 flat,

Cant wait to see it running over a tank should produce some good light.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Ross

Looking good so far.

Are you at all concerned that a slight warpage in the base plate will cause an airgap and render that portion of the sink less effective than those next to the welds?

Originally Posted by madkeenreefer

Looks solid. How many watt are the 136 leds ? I would maybee think of putting another fan to help out with the heat as you may find the transfer lacking from the 1/4 sheet to the 1/8 flat,

Cant wait to see it running over a tank should produce some good light.

There is no way that these will warp, as soft as aluminum is it will actually take a little more heat to warp . Total watts of the LED would be 408w @ 100% which I doubt I will even get close to that.

I am looking for a product I heard about that is similar to Silver Solder. It a matter of heating it up & pouring it in to fill any gaps.

[madkeenreefer]

Hey Grizz check out Loctite® Fixmaster® Aluminum Liquid.

it should get the job done and its easy enough to find.

[The Grizz]

Dude that's the exact stuff I was talking about just couldn't remember what to was called or who was the maker. THANKS

[jostafew]

Grizz, I appreciate the crafstmanship and the work you've put in so far but I see a potential problem with the fabrication of your heatsink; with the fins only being tacked a few times there will be barely any thermal transfer between the main plate and the fin. A continuous weld would have been much more effective (or atleast a heavier stich-weld) Do you have any plans to solder/braze the joint between the fin and the plate? If not perhaps using thermal adhesive would have been more effective? Simply having the fin touching the plate (probably a bit of a gap now due to warp and drift from the welds) will not be much better than simply a bare plate.

On a somewhat related note, if you can build a plenum to spread the air from the cooling fans across all the fins they would be much more effective, rather than just cooling the four or five channels directly below the fans.

I really don't want to rain on the parade, just trying to help prevent burning up some expensive LEDs after the plate soaks up all the heat it can and reaches critical temp.

Edit: I just re-read and see that you plan to solder the fins in place. Looks like you've got it covered!

[Hustler]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

There is no way that these will warp, as soft as aluminum is it will actually take a little more heat to warp . Total watts of the LED would be 408w @ 100% which I doubt I will even get close to that.

I am looking for a product I heard about that is similar to Silver Solder. It a matter of heating it up & pouring it in to fill any gaps.

If there is any visible gaps or you want to run stringers.... Just heat up a cone and give her a good few Whaps with the hammer
She will fit right in the gaps and if you have the gas up you will be mint....
Although im sure your more than fine now seeing the shawdy heatsinks i have seen on car amps/ballasts running tripple or more watts/amps the fins are half useless anyways and your way overkill .

[The Grizz]

Not going to do any more welding on them except to connect the fins to the end caps. To much weld and it will warp for sure. There is only 3/8" between fins so the only way to do any more weld in there is with some aluminum stick rods & they are very messy. The Loctite stuff is the answer to bold it all together.