Best place to buy heatsink online(or locally?)

B

Bwidner

New member
Anyone have any suggestions on somewhere local(in the city or close burbs) that sells heatsinks? They are cheap online of course but shipping is not so much.
 
For a DIY led build? Just use 1/8" thick aluminum angle/channel and build a frame to size for what you need. There were independent tests done that showed the angle/channel was just as efficient as blocks of heatsinks, plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper!
 
Thought about that, although do they make different thickness? Or would I need to cut peices to length and attach them? Was going to lowes this weekend to look into that idea.
 
I think you can get 3' 4' 6' and 8' lengths. It's very easy to cut and drill. Yes there are different thicknesses but less than 1/8" gets flimsy, and thicker is a waste of money. I use the thinner stuff to tie the structure together to save cost. I'll have pics of my current project up this weekend. Building a full spectrum fixture for a 40 breeder soft/Lps reef, used 7 different color LEDs (woulda been 8 but the cyan was out of stock at RapidLED) including UV and the newer red/orange cree chips to see if they can replicate a Fiji purple or not.
 
it depends on how many LEDs you plan on running; you need to keep your temperature low enough so you don't do any damage to the diodes. I wouldn't run them any hotter than 140F. above that and you're talking about a dropoff in efficiency... which would defeat the purpose of investing in LEDs in the first place. the cooler you run them, the better.

heatsinkusa.com is great and ledgroupbuy.com is doing preorders on their makersled heatsinks which are an interesting new design...
 
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