Adventures in lapping - Page 3 - Overclock.net

**Burn** · 12-03-06

I usually run the sandpaper under water every, say, minute? Or 30 seconds if I can see the shards build up.

leimrod · 12-03-06

hmm... i'm going to have to remember that for next time. Don't think i'll chance using water while doing my opty

the slightest chance that any of it could get under the IHS or between the pins is not worth taking. If I can find another spare HS i'll give it a go.

leimrod · 12-06-06

First let me tell you that i'm glad others are going to learn from my mistakes in this thread and start off with a better understanding oh how to lap either your HS, or IHS... I am NOT however glad that my Opty is now lacking 1 pin

but it still works, after replacing it back in my mobo with sweaty palms and booting up all seems fine, I guess I lucked out and accidentally broke off a redundant gnd pin or something. It happened because I had put the black square of foam that comes with AMD64 CPUs on top of the pins and was sanding when one of the edges snagged the sandpaper and I pressed down a little too hard on one side, thankfully only one pin broke. I then reevaluated how I was going to continue. I placed the plastic covering over the CPU and foam and sanded it very gently (picture below)

Heres how you can avoid this:
1. Bevel the edges of your IHS BEFORE beginning to sand (do this by stroking along the edges on a low grit sandpaper)
2. Protect the pins with by using the package that came with your AMD CPU
3. Press down VERY lightly on the CPU, the movement alone should be enough to sand it. If you find it isn't sanding fast enough, move down to a lower grit sandpaper.

leimrod · 12-06-06

First off you will need all the same supplies as for the HS guide, but you will also need some kind of protection for the CPUs pins as outlined in my last post, also i'm adding to the list "Brasso", I got recommended this here and I have to say it works very good for removing very fine scratches after you have finished sanding.

First heres the euro test with the stock nickel plating. You'll want to sand this off until you see only copper, I used about 1 A4 sheet of 230 grit to achieve this.

After a while you'll accept that your warrenty is gone for ever

and you'll start to see all that coppery goodness. From this picture you can see how horrible concave this IHS was, as the copper around the edges has already begun to show and the nickel in the middle is still barely touched.

Almost gone...

voilá, naked copper

Here it is after 400 grit

after 800 grit

20 microns

and the finished article... after 15 grit and a rub down with some brasso.

Here's a few more glory shots... was it worth it, hell yes

. It might of almost been a very expensive copper pocket mirror for the missus but for now its a perfectly flat,shiny thermally efficient Opty 165

frostbite · 12-07-06

Nice work there, how long did it take?

**TheLegend** · 12-07-06

Indeed, very nice work.

Expect some big drops in temperature due to the IHS no longer being concave and the lapping itself.

leimrod · 12-07-06

All in all it took longer than it should. But if I hadn't run into any problems it would of taken less than an hour. I spent about 10 minutes at the start sanding off the nickel, then about 5 minutes at each grit level. My mistake was I attempted to use some of that finishing paste from easypckits with my dremel, it didn't work at all and left a load of black marks in the surface which I had to use acetone to remove, which took about 20 minutes, then when I was at 15 microns a shard of dirt got onto the paper and I sanded over it, leaving a deep scratch in the surface, I had to go back to 400 grit to remove it and then work my way back up through the grit levels again

As regards temperature difference, the main reason I even considered lapping in the first place was because of my ridiculously high idling temps. With my Zalman 9500 I was at 50'c+ idling

now i'm at around 32'c with the Tuniq and lapped HS and IHS and some AS5... i'm going to be moving over to liquid pro tomorrow, then i'll see if it makes any more difference.

alk · 12-07-06

A dab of brasso and a good bit of elbow grease makes quite a difference doesn't it!

Xaevyn · 12-08-06

Very nice job. Makes me want to lap mine.

leimrod · 12-08-06

Quote:

Originally Posted by alk

A dab of brasso and a good bit of elbow grease makes quite a difference doesn't it!

It did, I was surprised. I wouldn't lap without it now, it got rid of all the fine scratch marks that sanding at 15microns would leave behind.

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Adventures in lapping

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