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Designing heat sinks

Klompen

Active member
Have any of you designed your own heatsinks and if so what method do you use?

I am currently planning a large COB grow with 50W "driverless" COBs. I am most likely going to do 3 per fixture, with 4 fixtures total. Each one will have 2 "full spectrum"(aka Blurple) grow cobs, and 1 "cold white"(6000-6500K).

My current plan is to create some copper plates that I will attach the COBs to, but beyond that I do not have an absolute plan. I am thinking I will probably solder those plates to a larger aluminum structure of some kind, but I am not sure what type of solder will give me the best heat transfer. I'm also not really sure how much cooling I need per 150W fixture, but I want to err on the side of excess. I have been scrapping metal for at least a decade on a serious level so I have PLENTY of metal to work with. I just need to figure out how to best utilize it. I will probably be running surplus 80mm PC fans for the active cooling since I have literally hundreds of them. Not sure how overboard to go on that though.

Suggestions would be appreciated. Pictures of your own solutions would also be really great!
 

warpese

Active member
Veteran
hi Klompen, i think a cpu heatsink for cob is sufficient, complete cpu heatsink is all you need.

one like this for 50w cob is perfect and no need more metal working

81X-HAsGphL._SX466_.jpg
 

Klompen

Active member
I have gazillions of CPU heatsinks. I've encountered too many people who have had these particular COBs burn out using such. I want to go pretty overboard.
 

warpese

Active member
Veteran
I have gazillions of CPU heatsinks. I've encountered too many people who have had these particular COBs burn out using such. I want to go pretty overboard.

i know, i read you post.
I read that you have a lot of heatsink cpu, that's why I said. it is better to use a large passive heatsink and make it active by adding fans. if a cpucooler is not enough I do not see alternatives:dunno:
 

Klompen

Active member
I'm going to build an oversized heat sink. I think basically what I am planning to do right now is put 3 cobs on each fixture(2 purple and 1 daylight). My current plan is to mount them on copper plates that are silver soldered to a large aluminum heatsink structure with fans mounted on it. I might eventually consider water cooling since these COBs are capable of being waterproofed and used in wet environments. The COBs themselves are sealed in silicone and I can seal the leads too.
 
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