mounting a laser to a flat heat sink

[TheTeslaWarrior]

I have a 808nm laser that i'm going to make into a laser cutter. It works now but i need a heat sink if im going to have it on longer than a second. I have a lot of big flat heat sinks but i have no way of mounting a module to them. is there any way of mounting my laser to than without drilling the heat sink?

thanks,

 

[hugo999999]

what form of diode is it?

 

[TheTeslaWarrior]

its a 9mm diode and im going to put it in a 15mm o-like housing
thanks

 

[lasersbee]

I would take aluminum bar stock the size of the Heat Sink
and the thickness of the O-Like module diameter plus 1/4" to
1/2" and drill a hole in the plate to insert the O-Like module...
That should give you good heat dissipation...

If the plate is massive enough you may not even need your
Heat Sink..

Jerry

 

[Benm]

Its the eternal round peg square hole problem with these things, and its frustrating at times.

There are some options if you dont want to machine them yourself: Andy sells some mounting blocks in the b/s/t board, which look really good - i have one here, not tested yet, but looks like it will do the job.

DX used to sell 100 mW red lasers that came with a decent rectangular heatsink and aixiz size hole in them, but those are out of stock - permanently i think.

 

[TheTeslaWarrior]

Thanks, i have a dx heat sink but it fits a 12mm module but i need it to fit a 15mm module

 

[Benm]

Too bad they never sold those...

I suppose you will have to get those custom built

 

[TheTeslaWarrior]

I have access to a cnc machine, too bad it doesn't work right now.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Tesla --

Your script is hard to read. The sentenances seem to never end.

HMike

 

[TheTeslaWarrior]

Sorry, i'll try to work on that. I tried cleaning up my posts in this thread so i hope that helps.

 

[HIMNL9]

If you have access to a CNC machine and don't mind to ruin a bit aesthetically your module, you can make flat sides on 2 opposite sides of your module, then place it in "sandwich" with 2 flat dissipators, and glue all the assembly with some thermally conductive silicone glue ..... like in the attacked sketches:

Just be sure to left the focusing part out from the dissipators, and to not tight too much the screws that keep the heatsinks together, for not bend them ..... and ofcourse, keeping them parallels .....

Then you can also use the heatsinks (making some fixing holes in them BEFORE assemble and glue all), for attack the laser assembly to your machine .....

 

[TheTeslaWarrior]

Thanks thats a great idea, i have two heat sinks that would be perfect. however i can not afford to loose one of the three bits we have. one problem is that the mill dose not work (broken cable) and when it dose no one is really sure how to use it 100%. not to mention mastercam is a pain to use. thats why im looking for a way with minimal machining. maybe i can use the silicone glue you were talking about to mount it without machining the sides off. do you know where i could buy some of that stuff?
:thanks:

 

[HIMNL9]

I have got it from dealextreme, it's this one ..... there's also other similar compounds, from Arctic Silver as example, that produces dual components permanent glues, but this one is the more cheap.

Also, yes, you can attack it just with the silicone, but the thermal exchange is not the better ..... if you can work "by hands", you can also try to shape the module in that way using a file and a bit of attention ..... no need to take away too much material, just to make a pair of "flat" and parallels zones, just going down a pair of millimeters, and paying attention in making them the more flat and parallel possible, going in little steps ..... ofcourse, using a machine and making them precises, the thermal exchange is more efficent, but also few can help improving it, anyway always more that the bare contact between an anodized cylinder and a flat surface .....