Arctic aluminal thermal paste + epoxy = thermal glue?

I have a lot of thermal past layng around and I am wondering if I can convert it in adesive thermal paste adding normal epoxy glue.:thinking:
Any thought?

Im kinda wondering the same thing... got a tube of paste, and 5 different types of epoxy but im thinking they probably wouldn't blend very well.

I wish there was a local source for the artic alum thermal epoxy. Ihate to double the cost of an item with shipping.

forget thermal glue

just use the thermal paste on the slug (has MUCH better capailities than glue),
when emitter is pressed in and worked around to be perfectly seated, it is surprisingly "fixed",
now use epoxy glue around the emitter to finally fix it

... much better working than thermal glue
and loooong time to move the led around

I'll do in that way .
Thank you

claustro said:

I have a lot of thermal past layng around and I am wondering if I can convert it in adesive thermal paste adding normal epoxy glue.:thinking:
Any thought?

Click to expand...

Maybe I can answer your question the other way around. Instead of using thermal grease you have, try making your own thermal epoxy. I forget where I first heard this, so I'm not trying to take credit for the idea.

I did a Google for aluminum oxide and came up with this guy on the first page of hits. I've never bought from this place, I'm just using them as an example of what's representative in the market. You can buy 1/4 pound of 5 micron aluminum oxide for $2.15. The size of these grains are 0.000197" across. This is the same stuff they use in the real thing. It's just so fine you can't really tell it's an abrasive.

This part will require some experimenting to get the proportions correct. After you mix up some epoxy, put say 1/8 teaspoon of the grit in your epoxy and mix it up. If it's too thick, try another batch with less. If it's too thin... well you get the idea.

This stuff also makes an excellent insulator. Say you wanted to put an SSC-P4 or P7 on a bare copper heat sink. The 25 micron grit is 1/1000th of an inch across. Smooth both surfaces with some fine sandpaper. First to give the epoxy a good surface to stick to. And second to smooth down any high spots that might find their way through your 1/1000" thick layer of epoxy. I have a hunch this will work better if you use a ratio of 5 to 25 micron aluminum oxide of say ten to one. Anyway you end up with is the same as the commercial product and lots cheaper. Also it never goes bad, unlike the commercial premixed preparations.

As to your original question, Arctic Silver used to say on their web site you could make your own semi-permanent thermal bond by mixing Arctic Alumina epoxy with 25% Arctic Alumina thermal compound. If you tried to do it the other way around, i.e. 75% regular epoxy with 25% thermal grease of whatever type, I'm sure the number of thermally conductive particles in the mix would be too tenuous to be effective. Some folks have said they use regular thermal grease sparingly under an LED so it doesn't gush out all over. When you've got it where you want it, just put a bead of regular epoxy around the thing to encapsulate the LED.

Oops, I see Yellow already gave you the unmixed idea. My bad, so slooow.

I ordered some of this: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556003014.html

to glue my P7 down.. it has yet to arrive but it should work decent... and the price was right (free.. work paid for it :naughty: )

Superdave said:

I ordered some of this: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556003014.html

to glue my P7 down.. it has yet to arrive but it should work decent... and the price was right (free.. work paid for it :naughty: )

Click to expand...

That's the real thing. I used it in my 3D Mag-P7 and it works great. Be careful if you need to pot a regulator to get (or make) some Arctic Alumina epoxy. Arctic Silver epoxy is mildly capacitive. Which does nothing or might even help a switching regulator on a 3.5 volt LED drawing almost 3 amps. But it might change the behavior of the capacitors on a regulator board.

I tried mixing thermal paste with epoxy before, didn't like the results. It's great if you want the emitter easier to remove. I know they're great products but I choose to stop using Artic Silver thermal epoxies years ago for various reasons. I've been use alumina oxide powder as Al Combs mentioned.