Heat Sink for Atwood Mobile

[DanBlock]

I was reading some other posts where heat sinks for the drill motors were talked about. I was wondering if someone can point me in the right direction, for where I could purchase some heat sink for the chiapua.

Thanks,
Dan

[Matt Reiland]

The heat sinks I posted were from towerhobbies but they are all for hobby size motors. I have not found anything yet for the Atwoot, however the little guys we got from tower could probably be bent to fit 1/2 way around the atwood. Check tower to see the different ones availalble

[junkyarddawg]

Last year we made our own heat sinks for the F.P. Motors. There are 4 things to keep in mind: 1. Maximum surface area of the aluminum in contact with the hottest surface area of the motor, 2. Maximum surface area of the aluminum exposed to the air, 3. A pattern that aids natural convection or a muffin fan to remove the heated air as quickly as possible and a source of cooler air, preferably from underneath the robot chassis, 4. Surface area in contact with the motor as tight as possible to insure good thermal conductivity.
We machine ours out of aluminum stock, This required milling a circle in the middle of the stock the diameter of the motor and then milling fins radially from the center. We then cut through one edge of the peice to allow expansion to silde over the motor and you can drill and tap a hole to tighten it against the motor
We are using the chipewa motors and they are not getting hot enough to need a sink within two minutes of running.

We also manufactured our own out of extruded aluminum but again I agree with previous post we ran our atwood motors for an hour and had no noticable change in temp so I think you could get away without one.