Would this work???

seeing as you all turned me into a flashaholic and such, I have the bug to mod my own lights. I can buy a soldering kit and whatever tools I need with no problem. I do however, have a question regarding heatsinking that I`m not sure will be feasable (right spelling?) . Seeing as I do not have a lathe or acces to one, instead of using aluminum and such for a base for the luxeon to sit on and be used as a heat sink, I was wondering if this would work...make one out of epoxy with a ton of arctic silver or metal shavings mixed in, or use ...( you`re not gonna believe this one...) , CLAY. Now the reason I say and ask this is the epoxy would be good to mold into whatever shape you want or even to use a dremel on to shape very easily. The arctic silver or metal shavings would be mixed in to be the metal used as a heatsink. Now, the clay...for the same reasons for shaping and drilling, very easy to work with in that respect, I could even drop washers in both the epoxy and clay for heatsinking and mounting purposes. The clay, I figure is a good insulator for heat but I`m not sure about it`s tendencies to be a good heatsink. Just a brainstorm ( or car crash depending if it`s feasable or not ) that I had the other day. One other thing...this is a serious question and post!

ftumch33,

Short answer: No. Longer answer: Even Arctic Silver epoxy and it less expensive brother Arctic alumina Adhesive have very poor thermal conductivity in bulk compared to metals. Thermal transfer from the "slug" of an LS is a linear function of its contact area, the thickness of the heat-transfer media, and the delta T. A .001" layer will transfer twice the heat of a .002" layer, all else being equal. Some of us lap our LSs and sinks, just like for a CPU HS. But even simple, flat, metal-to-metal transfer is greatly improved with the addition of a conformal interface layer.

Larry

ah, thanks for the knowlege Larry, I guess I`m going to have to build a can for the luxeon then. thanks again -
Frank

Frank,

Best wishes in your endevors(sp?)!! There's a lot of info here to search, and hopefully take some of the "sport" out of getting a solid design. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Larry