Fixing up a Thermalright True 120 & Lapping

[skier]

managed to get this guy for the price of shipping, and the extremely curious being that I am, plan to use it.

From the guy:

I washed the thing in water, then put it in a bag for a few days without thinking about drying it. You can always sand down the mounting bracket or get a new one, the problem is that the nickel plating started to come off, and has relocated itself inside the fins. This plating seems to be subject to flaking. I'm not really sure if there's a way to fix it, I've already soaked it in paint thinner for a week. In other words, I'm too scared to try it in a computer

this is how it showed up, I was actually expecting it to be much worse






i'm thinking pressurized water, 3200 PSI of love to blast it clean
was considering sand blasting, but don't expect that to end too well, so i'm holding off on that ;)

[skier]

also, I plan on giving it + the bracket some gloss Black spray paint when all is said and done

and OF COURSE lapping it, very, very heavily.

[skier]

Part 1 lapping, 150grit part 1 because its so convex (what can I say, I want a flat base regardless of its intended design)

light edge sanding

[bubba]

what the hell made him soak it in paint thinner, its not paint its NICKLE PLATING..

all he did was jack up the plating, no real good way to get it all off at home with out jacking up the fins. Might check with a chrome shop, be cheaper to buy the cooler new though... waste of a good cooler.

[skier]

yeah, not sure about that, just wore some of the black paint off

there actually isnt much rust built up around the pipes going through the fins, i'm thinking water @3200psi will do the trick for that then its just getting it to look nice, the fins are really strong so they don't mind sand paper

the silver brackets cleaned up mostly, but had one spot on of them that had a bit too much damage for me to leave silver, so i painted it (Gloss Black)

[skier]

okay got some facetime with the power washer :D




it actually worked really well to remove the calcium and whatever was built up around the pipes in the fins, so it looks like its almost ready for paint! just have to sand the sides of the base some since the paint is chipped

since the fins are clean now, i'm going to paint it, then once its dry i will wrap the bulk of it in saran wrap while i finish lapping it

edit: hmm theres some paint flaking off on the outer parts of the fins (on the flat sides of the fins, not the actual edge)

[bubba]

But its not paint, unless he painted a standard TRUE or Ultra 120. The Black editions were black nickel plated, what ever was done to it is making the plating flake off.

[skier]

yes it's black nickel plating, and i ordered the AM2/3 mounting bracket as an option for my AMD system(s) if it works as well as i expect

it looks like mounting 120mm fans will be easy without getting new mounts. paper clips will do the job nicely i think

also, air can pass through the fins easily now, even around the pipes, so the paint(OKAY PLATING) is just aesthetic and i'm removing a ton of metal from the base- so stop sounding so negative bubba!

[bubba]

bah... just me being anal about the look of the cooler. I have seen the black nickel on those and they are sharp looking. Trying to figure out what the guy you got it from was trying to do to it that he got it all jacked up in the first place LOL

[Sporg]

Nice power washer! lol

[skier]

this is what happened with the bracket (yes, i know it was not smart as it WILL come off through use)

starting to get back in with the 150grit on the base

roughly how much i've sanded off (i blew a lot of shavings off the paper onto the floor)

the middle section of the fins is clean and not peeled up anywhere, three corners are like this:

with one like:





base still has a ways to go

[skier]

never expected a shine with 150 grit, i've always started lapping with 320 lol

figured i'd toss a coat of Gloss Black on

[skier]

Got the AM3 bracketry and some new compound from frozencpu

how it looked after initial paint mmmmmmm getting excited now

after dry 2,000 grit - stopped once there was an even amount untouched on all 4 corners as any CPU will be more than covered by what i have already finished

sandpaper used (10 sheets of that 150grit were used, one sheet of the rest, 'get a clean sheet-> rotate and sand with same used sheet->rotate for next grit' -only rotating once the previous round's scratch marks are gone)

[lordvic]

Got the AM3 bracketry and some new compound from frozencpu
/img
how it looked after initial paint mmmmmmm getting excited now
/img
after dry 2,000 grit - stopped once there was an even amount untouched on all 4 corners as any CPU will be more than covered by what i have already finished

sandpaper used (10 sheets of that 150grit were used, one sheet of the rest, 'get a clean sheet-> rotate and sand with same used sheet->rotate for next grit' -only rotating once the previous round's scratch marks are gone)
/img

WOW! look at that base shine!!

[skier]

most of it is a little worse than new but still good, and the base is way better than new :D

got some clear on it now

[skier]

any guesses as to the temps?

1055T 3.9GHz 1.5v
48C load 27C idle with the dual-fan, lapped H50

dual fan on the lapped TRUE, fans on fan controller set pretty quiet

[skier]

any guesses as to the temps?

1055T 3.9GHz 1.5v
48C load 27C idle with the dual-fan, lapped H50

dual fan on the lapped TRUE, fans on fan controller set pretty quiet

I rather like my paperclip mounts, but mounting the thing is next to impossible

[skier]

no guesses? alright, the true loads at 42C with a moderate fan profile, 38 or so at max fan speeds, idles at 20-22C

i'd say a very nice improvement, it runs colder and a lot quieter than the H50


with the window cracked last night:

[lordvic]

no guesses? alright, the true loads at 42C with a moderate fan profile, 38 or so at max fan speeds, idles at 20-22C

i'd say a very nice improvement, it runs colder and a lot quieter than the H50


with the window cracked last night:

purty.jpg

Haha!! That is pretty impressive skier. Well done