Originally Posted by
spanko
http:///forum/post/3295833
Just a thought here, could you have drilled the holes then used self tapping metal screws instead of hand tapping all of the holes? I mean it is just aluminum right?
I think thats an exceellent questions. If I remember right, I went to several hardware stores. They didnt have self tapping screws that small. The screws have to be a 40 size or less, otherwise the head is too big and touches a stud, creating a short. RapidLED now has heatsinks predrilled/tapped. They are actually only a couple dollars more than a similar sized unit from Heatsinks usa. The heatsinks they have arent as big as mine, but they will do custom orders based off what dimensions you ask for. The pricing varies, but Mike told me to count on adding $10+the price differance of the new size.
My dad ordered enough to do his nano. $225 was the bill. He got a 6x9 drilled/tapped heatsink, 9 XPG-Q5 whites, 9 XRE blues, 2 dimmable drivers, premium thermal paste, screws, wires, AC adapter, 18x80degre optics. Shipped.
The heatsink was drilled in uniform with prescision, aluminum but with a slight gritty finish...not galvanized, but similar finish.
The holes were closer to the edge than my mounting L brackets would allow, so take that into consideration. Your L brackets arent going to fit super tight like mine if you went with the pre drilled.
A way around this is to let them know when your doing your order, that you want the drill/tapp process on your custom heatsink to be 2" from the outside edges.