Easy PC Kits Premium Heatsink Lapping Kit - Beginning the Finishing process
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Before you begin sanding down with your micron papers, you may want to clean off the glass and reapply the drops of water. Now lapping with the finishing papers will be a little different than lapping with the rough grit paper. You don’t really need to lap in a random pattern. Since the heatsink is now flat, you can focus more on removing the small imperfections. The best pattern for sanding with the finishing paper is a small circular motion, which works the fine paper very fast and will get that base looking more and more like a mirror at each step.
When using the finishing papers, you should set up the same way you did before. Apply a few drops of water under the paper, and a drop on the paper and begin sanding in a small circle. The finer grits of paper require that the previous finish be nearly perfect. This may take a great deal of time to achieve, since very little material will be removed from the heatsink.
After the finishing step, the heatsink may be left a little hazy around the corners. This surface area is not flat because of the larger grit papers. Taking longer at the other sanding stages can prevent this from happening, but the IHS does not make contact in those areas.
Polishing
An optional step in the lapping process is to polish the base of the heatsink. This is really an unnecessary step, but it provides an even better finish to the base of the heatsink. With proper tools such as a rotary polishing pad (this step can also be done using a fine cloth), it will just take a lot of time.
Apply a small amount of the polishing compound to the base of the heatsink or into the last grit of sand paper and sand in small circles. Make sure not to sand outside of where you put the compound. You can also apply polish on a damp cloth to rub in the compound. As the compound cuts into the heatsink, a black residue will appear once you have polished the base sufficiently. Use a clean paper towel to remove any residue. You may want to clean the base with isophoil alcohol to remove anything that may be left behind.
The base, after polishing, shows a beautiful mirror finish on the base of the heatsink, which allows for optimal contact with the CPU.
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