Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

There's a pretty good picture of a skived heatsink here:

http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=1875

And some closeups of a skived copper heatsink:

http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2009/06...g-and-skiving/

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

Theres a picture on this page displaying the skiving process at work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiving_machine

Maybe that will give people a better idea of how it was made.

-Brando

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

The closeup on the psychopath website shows a similar rough texture, so I'm convinced. I'd like to change my vote to skived as well. My new riddle is whether the texture is a feature, or a side effect of the process. Do they stamp the billet between each skive pass to increase surface area, or where does it come from?

Greg McKaskle

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

From Wikipedia, not the best source, but it does mention the roughness:

-Brando

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

I'll venture that the rough texture is simply a byproduct of the planing process. Machining is not so much "cutting" metal as it is plowing and crushing the material ahead of the cutter such that it yields. The upper surface is more deformed than the lower as it is on the inside of the curve and also cannot be burnished by the cutting tool. (I have an old 3rd edition of Materials and Processes in Manufacturing by DeGarmo that has some interesting closeup photos.)

I just looked at a long, continuous chip that came from drilling a hole in Aluminum. The lower surface is very shiny. The upper surface is a dull, matte finish. It is not as pronounced as the heatsink, but definitely noticeable. And that's just a thin chip.

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

they appear to me to be too thin for that,unless they used abrasive cutters, like what's on a chop saw, but not the brute force your describing

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

Here's a picture of an old shaper taking off a 2" x 1/32" chip from a piece of steel.

And a video of a fairly large cut, again in steel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEIzbCD8qWc

Seems easy enough on Copper or Aluminum.

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

problem isn't whether it can cut or not, the fins are too thin, and would have been destroyed in the process.

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

The links providing for the process clearly show it making fins that thin.

Re: How was this made? (Aluminum Heat Sink - Mystery Manufacturing Method)
 

The second picture in post #22 shows a copper heat sink being skived. Skiving is also used to make long, continuous ribbons of metal from a large, round blank. I wish I could find a good video of the process.