Hi everyone, this is my first ever post here since I joined yesterday so I apologize in advance if I say/ask something that should probably be common knowledge, I'm working on getting up to speed with the lingo and whatnot. I've been into electronics since I was a kid but the whole area of lasers is new to me. I'd been doing some researching here in the forums for a couple weeks now on the different aspects of DIY lasers and also found some reputable websites and people to buy from, so I went ahead and spent some cash on components for my first home built laser.
I had some time today to sketch up an idea for a heatsink that I could fabricate at home without a lathe or mill, since I neither at the moment. Would anyone be willing to give me feedback as to whether this idea sucks, has a design flaw because of something I am naive to at the moment in the area of LD's and heat dissipation, or just straight up not be worth the hassle of making.
Of all the things I purchased, the first I intend to work with first are the SF-AW210 Blu-ray diode in an Aixiz housing powered by a Rckstr driver.
This picture is a sketch I made today in my spare time with Google Sketchup. Even though I know how to, I have no lathe to machine a custom piece with tolerances close enough to really be worth a damn when it comes to heat dissipation. It will probably have to be aluminum since copper is hella expensive especially in thick bar form, even though it'd be a way better conductor of heat. I'm thinking with this split design I can also dab some thermal grease meant for a CPU or GPU heatsink in the slots for the LD housing and then tighten the two halves together so it's snug and makes a good connection but doesn't crush the thing.
Since you all here know a lot more about lasers and all of the helpful things to know when building a laser for the first time, I would really appreciate your input. Thanks for checking this thread out and I am sure I'll be back many, many more times for advice when I jack something up and kill my first LD.
I had some time today to sketch up an idea for a heatsink that I could fabricate at home without a lathe or mill, since I neither at the moment. Would anyone be willing to give me feedback as to whether this idea sucks, has a design flaw because of something I am naive to at the moment in the area of LD's and heat dissipation, or just straight up not be worth the hassle of making.
Of all the things I purchased, the first I intend to work with first are the SF-AW210 Blu-ray diode in an Aixiz housing powered by a Rckstr driver.
This picture is a sketch I made today in my spare time with Google Sketchup. Even though I know how to, I have no lathe to machine a custom piece with tolerances close enough to really be worth a damn when it comes to heat dissipation. It will probably have to be aluminum since copper is hella expensive especially in thick bar form, even though it'd be a way better conductor of heat. I'm thinking with this split design I can also dab some thermal grease meant for a CPU or GPU heatsink in the slots for the LD housing and then tighten the two halves together so it's snug and makes a good connection but doesn't crush the thing.
Since you all here know a lot more about lasers and all of the helpful things to know when building a laser for the first time, I would really appreciate your input. Thanks for checking this thread out and I am sure I'll be back many, many more times for advice when I jack something up and kill my first LD.