Great way to build up a heatsink/shim on an annodized surface

I decided to mod my Surefire L4 with an XM-L and 2.8A driver recently but was befuzzeled by how I shim the XM-L up .030" while retaining a heat path... Solution: Solder does not bond with anodized surfaces, however a strip of copper tape does. I simply put the copper tape on the anodizing, built up a nice big solder mound on top of it, then filed it flat and to the proper height (took me two tries: 4 minutes total). No machining, perfect sized shim, and I have an extremely good thermal path!

Good idea but when it heats up will tape shift easily?

criminalhate said:

Good idea but when it heats up will tape shift easily?

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First: welcome to the forum!
Second: I feared that heat would break down the adhesive, but the adhesive stayed strong during and after soldering (approx 500 degrees). It was rock solid when I put it in there, of course it could degrade over time...

criminalhate said:

Good idea but when it heats up will tape shift easily?

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See those solder pads underneath the copper square that the OP stuck on? Those are also stick-on pads that SureFire uses.

The Sandwich Shoppe sells 0.03" thick copper shims. You can use some thermal epoxy to glue the shim to your SF heat sink.

You can also use a hole punch, like this one, to make your own shims. These tools use a punch with a point on it, so the one downside of this tool is that the shim will have a dimple in it that needs to be flattened.

Justin Case said:

See those solder pads underneath the copper square that the OP stuck on? Those are also stick-on pads that SureFire uses.

The Sandwich Shoppe sells 0.03" thick copper shims. You can use some thermal epoxy to glue the shim to your SF heat sink.

You can also use a hole punch, like this one, to make your own shims. These tools use a punch with a point on it, so the one downside of this tool is that the shim will have a dimple in it that needs to be flattened.

Click to expand...

That's kind of where I got the idea from. I don't know what the Surefire pads are made from, but they loosen when they're hot and re solidify when they cool. It's not solder, but it acts like it...

michaelmcgo said:

First: welcome to the forum!
Second: I feared that heat would break down the adhesive, but the adhesive stayed strong during and after soldering (approx 500 degrees). It was rock solid when I put it in there, of course it could degrade over time...

Click to expand...

thanks for the welcome =)
That's good to know about the tape. What brand is it? I have 3M copper tape and the glue really kind of sucks on my roll.

I don't know, I got a couple feet of it from IlluminationSupply.com (Great place for all your XM-L upgrading needs)!