Thought this would make a robust heat sink

Saw this heat sink in the store. A CPU heat sink.The fan could be removed, or possibly even left in there. It's for a big ast flashlight. Like perhaps 3,4, or even 5 - 5 watters.
A put on yer blinders type of flashlight.
A take no prisoners flashlight.
Don't know if anybody has discussed these puppies before, but they sure look like they would dump heat fairly well verses storing it.

Welcome to the world of Thermaltake. The top one there, it is for Athlon Socket CPUs and maybe some of those odd ball Pentiums (Pentium 2 and I don't know what else)

The bottom is a Thermaltake Golden Orb. A beautiful heat sink it is. Used one (Well, a chrome orb, same basic thing though) on my dads Athlon 900, but now he's running an Athnon XP 1800 with a Thermaltake Volcano 6cu+ on it, that's a 7000 rpm fan

If you think LEDs are sensitive to over voltage and heat, try your hand at overclocking a CPU! Poor teenagers named Saaby need not, and do not, apply.

Hestsinks are designed to conduct heat in a certain direction. placing a Luxeon where the fan is would basically IMO bathing your Luxeon in the heat from the fins. placing where the heat source should be would be an overkill.

Not really.
The objective is to pull heat directly from it's source I.E. The bottom of the led. The plastic covering the led is very insulative, and of little or no concern regarding somewhat warm air circulating in front of it.
Getting rid of the heat after the bulk peice of metal is heated can be increased greatly by increasing surface area - hence the fins.
This heat sink is about the right size for the D cell lights.
Just figuring that there are some modders out there that would like to live on the edge, and this heat sink is the best I've seen short of making yer own from scratch. Somehow I don't think just one 5 watter is going to make em happy.

Yikes, those look awsome. Where can I get some of these? I especially like the round one. That one could be sawed in half if one thought it was too big.

The flat(er) one is good for modding up a bank of Luxeons - I mean why stop with just one 5 watter? This could get fun - or expensive.
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Doug Meister, if you wanna sink up a bank of luxeons, try popping by any shop that sells stuff using extruded aluminium sections (like boat shops, window/picture frame makers...etc). You'll find a whole bunch of designs that you can easily saw to length and/or even bend to your needs. Should be tons cheaper than using CPU heatsinks.

They'll also probably be tougher - the fins on these CPU heatsinks are relatively fine and will bend quite easily when knocked or pushed firmly with your fingers. Unless you're gonna protect the fins (thus possibly reducing their effectiveness) with an external shroud or casing, you'll find cheaper and tougher results using architectural aluminum sections instead.

I have to admit the CPU heatsink *do* make VERY attractive heatsinks, though and I was very disappointed that I couldn't use them for my apps.

I've got an overdriven 1w on an old Golden-Orb, but I haven't gotten around to mounting it on the fan-side... It's my nightlight right now. I have several other computer heatsings laying around, including an electric-blue one, and a massive Slot-type off a P][. It WAS black, but heating it up (like, to 800+ degrees) turned it to a faded black-gold. Looks neat, but I'd have to get a 5w to justify putting holes in it to mount anything.

This would'nt be so much for looks, but round is a far cry better than square. The fins would'nt stand up to a drop to the floor, but they can be handled quite easily with no fear of bending them.

In the first picture there is a large chunk-O-metal in the middle. It extends beyond the fins. Can't remember for sure but I think it has a radius large enough where it could be machined with threads to screw into a C or D cell battery tube. Ya chuck the plate and the fan...drill a few holes in the chunk for wiring amoung a few other things, and yer ready to go.

Not saying this is a great mod for looks. I am saying if you want to drive 3 or more 5 watters hard .... it's a great sink for this kind of mod.

Somebody is gonna want to have the brightest led flashlight in the world. This sink should work great with the little effort.

I'm daydreaming about old tech for heatsinks -- sturdy and double purpose -- fanfold flashbulb reflectors that might work both as heat sinks AND reflectors for side-emitting LEDs.

Here's a site selling some of the old ones, with a link that shows one of the fanfold flashbulb reflectors -- can you see it as the collar attached to the little round heatsink of a side-emitting LED?

http://www.flashbulbs.com/images/product/6.jpg

I emailed asking if there were any fanfold reflectors for sale and gave a pointer to CPF.

Check your attic and garage sales too.

PS. Don't scroll down on that flashgun page. Just look at the picture and come back promptly.

I really like their advertising strategy on their front page. I'd buy whatever she was holding

http://www.flashbulbs.com/index.shtml

C'mon Hank, were you really looking at the flashbulbs?

I dunno about cooling a Luxeon, but these sinks suck for any sort of CPU cooling, except at the very lowest end of the performance spectrum. As such, they can be found at places like Fry's Electronics and computer shows in abundance.

Of course, their newer GPU and chipset coolers are not a bad idea.

What are you trying to do, light up the entire Colorado Rockies with a single flashlight???

It might work for one gonzo lantern. That fan is 12 VDC. The word 'invention' flashed in my mind. Prototyping, drawing up plans, going through patent process. Then see about having it manufactured and marketed, with royalties paid to you. Those dinky D cells are not going to do the trick for your project.

I can see the headlines: Entire city of Denver, Colorado is blinded for 1 week, when inventor tests prototype lantern. Cheyenne Mtn. Panics, until it realizes that there is no thermal signature!

I have no intention of making a flashlight to light up Pikes Peak.
Personally - I'd like a very small flashlight preferably 2 AAs with a 5 watter led, and if I got 15 minutes worth of light out of it....I'd be tickled pink.

So far .....The only heat sinks being used from what I can tell from modders are blobs of metal encased in the head of the flashlight where the only means of heat dissipation after initial warm up is the action of waving it around. I don't want to look like a kid with sparklers on the 4th of July.

If ya want to overdrive your LED. Ya need the eqivalent of a radiator on your light I.E. Increase surface area to dump the heat as fast as is possible.

Many of the newer Thermal-take head sinks have copper disks imbedded in the contact bottom side of the primarily aluminum heat sink. This minimizes additional weight but moves heat from the source to the periphery of the heat sink base more efficiently.

I'm toying with the idea of bolting a DB6AA body with 6 serial 2700 mAh A NiMHs or a DB8AA body with 6 serial 3800 mAh 4/3 A NiMHs with a cut-off head to the fin side of a Thermaltake Volcano 9 heat sink with the fan removed. (The Volcano 9 has a larger copper disk than Saaby's dad's Volcano 6+. It also has a variable speed fan -- I replaced the 7000 rpm fan on my Volcano 6+ with a 5000 rmp fan from an older Volcano 5 withn no copper disk to avoid going deaf.).

I would cut away some of the central fins so that the DB body could snug up to the upper base of the heat sink.

Then, 3@ 5 W LS's (or maybe 4 @ 5W LS's if I put 7 @ A NiMH's and a dummy in the DB8AA body to compensate for voltage drop) could be bonded to the copper disk of the Volcano 9. Short 3/4" copper pipe stubs holding collimators could be bonded in place over each LED.

On the other hand, the current drain on this puppy could motivate me to drive a 3 or 4-LED package with 6 rechargeable D cells.

This might be a way to utilize one of the 50-year old Big-Beam sealed beam lanterns I've collected. The 6V metal chamber will hold 6D cells and I could replace the sealed beam holder with the heat sink/ 4 * 5W LS assembly.

Like I said somebody is gonna want to light up Pike peak.

LS/O fit a TO-3 heat sink almost perfectly.

Gimme a few days for my next order to get in, and I'll show you guys how slick this works.

-Darin

Got it!



An LS/O fits very nicely in a large TO-3 power heatsink. The mounting holes line up. I'm building a seperates system with this one (battery pack on the belt or something). This HS is rated for 25W, so it should be able to handle a lowly 1W LS, right?

Anyone have a dead 1w/o to epoxy a 5w emmitter to?

More Power!