Painting heat sinks?

[GBD]

Hey Jake,
Do they make matte black paint from the same brand of your can? If so what is the company's name?
Thanks.

I want to paint the host im gonna make matte black, the heat wont really matter, the head is 2.5" X 3" of finned aluminum. (and a lower powered laser).

 

[jakeGT]

I don't recall if they do, the company is rustoleum, and it's in the automotive department at wally world, and is just called black gloss enamel

 

[GBD]

Ah rustoleum. they are a good company.. how the hell did I miss the fact that they had matte black is beyond me.

Okay, thank you.

 

[jakeGT]

really easy, pulled the diode module/driver out, tape off the rest, and take one pass at the face of the HS with the spray can, dry, and boom, done.

Except for my saik, where the two drivers, I thermally adhered to the other side of the heatsink.... put a plastic bag around them and taped it off, haha

 

[Benm]

I would recommend against painting heatsinks performacewise in virtually all cases.

If you must paint your heatsink, choose a paint that is aslo black in the far infrared range. Something intened for heating radiators should be pretty good.

The color doesnt matter much though, you might just as well paint it with optically white radiator paint - the key is the IR albedo of the paint, not its visual performance.

 

[lazeerer]

You could have just panted the front.

Witch is the only part that is exposed then you would still have good contact with the host.

 

[jakeGT]

that's exactly what I did, no need to paint the rest of them, I taped off the rest of the sinks and just painted the front
was really easy and quick, and now, just like all things I love, like my car, I have black on black lasers too!

 

[lazeerer]

:gj: Yes i also like my black out Red Cree C3 but Never thought of Painting the Heatsink Black to have it completely black.

 

[jakeGT]

Do it do it do it!

 

[shgoan1988]

yeah, I just wanna get a good coat or two on it to make it look good and black, driver at 1.8A outputting 1.74W in my saik host

ohhh baby i cant wait to get this monster in the morning. lol

 

[Flaminpyro]

All you need is some acetone to clean any grease or oil from the part and then get a spray can of KRYLON flat black and go for it.
Here's what you can expect.
from this

to this

from this

to this

Peace All...

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

anodize increases surface area, and doesn't coat the aluminum with paint, so heat emission is easier.

An interesting read, only type I or II though.
Anodizing Aluminum