Heat Sink Lapping - How Do I Lap My Heat Sink?
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Unlike other modding projects lapping a heat sink requires very little in the way of tools and materials. For this project our first piece of materials, naturally, is the heat sink itself.
This is a standard heat sink from an AMD processor that comes with the CPU. Before you start lapping the processor, be sure to remove all the components of the heat sink and fan assembly. Be sure to put these pieces in a safe place as the screws used to hold the fan in place are not found on any other component in a typical computer and are a hassle to find suitable replacements for.
Once the heat sink and fan assembly was disassembled into its components pieces I made sure to place them in a safe place. As you can see I’ve removed the fan and plastic fan tray with its four screws and the retaining clip. The only thing we would be working with on this project was the heat sink itself, so running the chance of damaging any of these other components inadvertently just wasn’t necessary. Once they were safely stored we could start lapping the heat sink.
The first step before I could lap the heat sink was to remove the thermal grease from the aluminum. Thermal grease is most easily removed with rubbing alcohol (isopropylic) and a soft cloth. I applied a small amount to the towel and with a gentle back and forth motion started to remove the thermal grease. After a minute, nearly all the grease was removed but there were some dried out patches that required using a flat head screw driver to remove. The thermal grease flaked off easily, but be careful not to apply too much pressure to remove these dried out areas as the aluminum of the heat sink is rather soft and prone to developing deeper gouges that you will have to remove while you lap it.
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