Solid gold heatsink?

[Lazer Envy]

I know this would be incredibly expensive, but has anyone every attempted a solid gold or silver heatsink?

lol probably not

 

[rangedunits]

it not worth it.

 

[jamiphar]

Not sure about a heatsink, but StridAst has made some sterling silver hosts: Updated: Sterling Silver host. single 10440

 

[Lazer Envy]

it not worth it.

Your right, but If I was rich enough I would do it just for the heck of it. lol

sorry if this ends up being a pointless thread..

 

[rangedunits]

too hard to machine, cost alot... etcs

 

[StridAst]

Can be cast. Silver works better then gold. I've made a couple silver hosts. (3 total so far) in each piece the entire host then makes up the heatsink. although the smaller lasers it's less of a heatsink.

I've also cast up a heatsink for my dorcy in silver. Works well. it does cost more though.

 

[qumefox]

Forget gold. If you really want the best thermal conductor. It's diamond all the way, buddy. Good luck machining that though. :eg:

 

[Xplorer877]

too hard to machine, cost alot... etcs

Too hard to machine? Pure Gold is a very soft metal. If it ever needed to be, it'll probably be one of the easiest metals to machine.
It's also way too heavy. Even a small gold heatsink will be far heavier than aluminum.

Besides copper has better heat conductivity and a higher specific heat than pure gold, and it's 10,000 times cheaper.

-Tony

 

[qumefox]

Too hard to machine? Pure Gold is a very soft metal. If it ever needed to be, it'll probably be one of the easiest metals to machine.
It's also way too heavy. Even a small gold heatsink will be far heavier than aluminum.

Besides copper has better heat conductivity and a higher specific heat than pure gold, and it's 10,000 times cheaper.

-Tony

It's the softness that would make it hard to machine. Similar to pure copper. It doesn't 'cut', it 'smears' when you try to machine it unless your really good. Copper alloys (C145, etc) are usually easier to machine because they are harder.

 

[StridAst]

Yep. When working with gold, the higher the carat the more pure it is and the easier it is to see that smearing. When you get pits in an gold ring, you "burnish" them. This is either done by hand with a smooth thick ended tool, or with a rotary burnisher in a flex-shaft. Either way the purpose is to smear gold from the sides into and over the pit to eliminate it. Gold it's soft enough to smear it over by hand quite easily. Silver this is easily done too. Platinum you can, but its much more resistant. The soft metals deform easily. In machining this could work against you.