Just How Good Are Heat Pipes Anyway? - DIYson Lamp Build Log #10

[@TaintedCamper]

Countersink screws could be a good solution

[@Flumphinator]

With the screw held in compression, a set screw is better.

[@scruffy3121]

Could also shave some material off of the wheels.

[@SuperSulc]

@@scruffy3121 I would have changed the wheels holding the horizontal arm to grab it from the sides instead of top and bottom.

[@mvadu]

​@@Flumphinatorin the new way the screw is to pull towards the center and counter sink screw is the right choice

[@ADebbil]

I’d prefer counterbore holes. Countersink holes require higher precision in location and can over-constrain the assembly. When you don’t actually need the countersink to locate your part you’re better off with counterbore holes.

[@darrenconway8117]

Electronics Engineer here: Try using carbon motor brushes running on the pcb tracks. Much less wear. You could use strips of spring steel (like a clock spring) to hold the heat pipe against the AL. The strips can be placed across the slot, pushing the heat pipe deeper into the slot. No screw heads.

[@supermroz]

Glad to see the DIYson continue!

[@Haslercraft]

This series is such a goldmine. Hearing your thought processes along the way. It would have been easy for you to gloss over the tiny detail of the wheels not rolling smoothly with the first copper solution, but it was really powerful to see the iterations towards perfection. I can’t imagine how much time it takes you to put these videos together and I (at the very least) totally appreciate it. Can’t wait for more!

[@TheCyclingGuru]

Like all the previous videos, this is amazing content. Its clear, detailed and very approachable. Like good wine, it takes time to make good videos, I much prefer quality over quantity. Well done!

[@csokasgergo1042]

For the "copper heatspreader" I would have used just simple countersunk screws. Also for the heat pipe version I would look into a way, to be mounted such, that it directly comes into contact with the LED. In this way I think it would be even more efficient with it's heat transfer, therefor it wouldn't heat up the whole copper bracket. (If you look at a PCs heat sink with heat pipes you would see that the heat pipes directly come into contact with the CPU)

[@andrewjmark100]

Like other people I also dig this project. It’s focused in scope but highlights the engineering process as a whole well and is interesting as someone who takes on similar projects to see how you approach a problem. Good design is just damn hard.

[@andrewjmark100]

As a separate note you actually motivated me to buy a Dyson light cycle lol. The motion system that they developed and your diy version is pretty interesting I’ve been trying to come up with a secondary use for it. Maybe a video recording mount or magnifying glass for projects mounted to it?

[@JasonKnight]

One of the only channels I watch on KZbin at 1x speed because I want to soak up every aspect of these build logs. Great work so far!

[@StevenBennettMakes]

Wow, thanks!

[@gummiglas5571]

I can imagine the reason for the 200mm sensor beeing hotter, is because thats next to the screw that holds the heat pipe. Something I've learned from PC cooling is, that the contact means alot. If you could make the contact between the heat pipe and the aluminium even better by maybe more screws or something, it would be even better. But of course, that's just my guess! Anyways, great video!

[@Gebsfrom404]

Agreed, to confirm he only needs to measure temperature on the cold end of heat pipe, I'm sure a lot of thermal resistance is between heat pipe and aluminum extrusion. Also screw LED right to the heat pipe, 2 layers of thermopaste is just a waste. This helps because every 10° after 65° C on the chip cuts LED life in two.

[@weeveferrelaine6973]

I think brazing would be a good fit here, for thermal conductivity and mechanical connection - It could also be removed with heat, for repair. You can braze Copper and Aluminum together with just a regular torch

[@Gebsfrom404]

@@weeveferrelaine6973 I somehow think brazing with "just a regular torch" is not something done by anyone.

[@userPrehistoricman]

@@Gebsfrom404 Also, applying super high temperatures to a heat pipe will cause it to inflate and pop.

[@FullSpeed_only]

Copper Bar or Heatpipe could also make your Ground for the Power Delivery. If Nickel plating is available there should be no relevant Oxidation. Although bare Copper might be good enough. With this the PCB only needs one Trace that can be wider. (Same PCB with two Sides to match each Extrusion.) But like some other Commentators I think Aluminum from the Extrusion might be good enough, although thats also depending on the Alloy, if you can connect the LED directly to it. For DIY it would be okay in my Opinion to have to change the LED after a Year because it got cooked. Although less DIY friendly the End of the Extrusion could be milled down to give a Face for the LED Mounting. With some good thermal Paste or Pad it might work out.

[@Abhyuday_rai]

i have a question a bit irrelevent but can u please tell me how to you make these kind of graphics at 17:04

[@DanielHShead]

I love these videos. If it's possible to move the LED to directly under the rail, you could add a modest press fit aluminum part and a little thermal paste or a thermal pad to use the rail as a nearly direct heatsink. The issue then is finding space for the PCB around the end of the extrusion without making the housing look silly. Aluminum is a good enough conductor that the surface to surface contact resistance is most of the problem. Possibly just a heat pad directly to the rail would work. Polishing the end of the rail a bit and using a small clamp should get you the answer pretty quickly.

[@forked-lightning]

Is the biggest issue with this suggestion that the height of the extrusion is currently being used in the 3d printed enclosure?

[@ciano5475]

@@forked-lightning it's 3D printed so just change the model, and the aluminum bar can be cutted and filed if need space or more area of contact for the led

[@yngndrw.]

I fully agree, you could still slide a heat pipe into the rail slot under the LED for improved conductivity if needed. The entire top half of the rail (Within the housing) could be cut away to make space for the PCB, making the housing tiny.

[@foobar2285]

This is the way. The copper sheet solution is incredibly over engineered. Just screw the led onto the extrusion, it's easily enough thermal mass for 15W of load.

[@cloidless]

I just found your channel yesterday, and I could not stop watching your videos. It's really cool to see how other people create things and solve problems. I am very much looking forward to future videos.

[@mtwieg24]

Always cool to see people doing real quantitative comparison of thermal designs. Looking at your data, it seems like the dominant thermal resistance is that thermal paste on the LED, and also between the copper pieces. Soldering them together would probably make a huge improvement.

[@lesumsi]

The lamp and your work and how you document the process are just amazing. But can I just appreciate how aesthetic your Excel graphs are?

[@HaloWolf102]

25:10 I would love a video on how you converted your photos into numerical data points. As well as how you turned those points into a well designed, and important education tool as a line graph.

[@zero0834]

Damn that's some beautiful data visualization.

[@DevilZcall]

How about using small leaf springs bent to a concave arc to press the heat pipe or copper strip to your Aluminium extrusion?

[@spambot7110]

oops, you said this way more concisely than my comment, have a like

[@alexplorer]

So glad you discovered the heat pipe! They really are like the closest thing to magic or a teleporter (for heat anyway) that you can just buy off the shelf, no batteries required. I bought a bunch of them about a year ago. Put some on my fridge's compressor, keep them on external hard drives during major back-ups/transfers, have them on the motor housing on tools that run too hot or large Ah batteries while they charge, etc. I have some in the kitchen junk draw to help defrost food if it hasn't completely thawed. Thermodynamics is a big deal if you're Goldilocks. A few well-placed heat pipes would have solved many of her problems.

[@CamiloSperberg]

So yeah, I did search yesterday in the evening on youtube for what to look out for when using high power LEDs (which led me to the 4th episode) and binge-watched the whole thing until now! Please take your time -- as long as you need to -- in order to keep producing these high quality videos! You've won an extra subscriber which seems so little compared to the goldmine of information you're putting out there, for free! Thanks a ton!

[@Chaminox]

Could you flatten the profile of the counterweight using metal its very bulky

[@asmotaku]

The diameter of those 3 screw holes relative to the width of your heat sink is disturbingly large. What's the remaining section of copper at the thinnest point ? Half the original section, at best ? That's a huge heat break right there.

[@spambot7110]

if you wanna avoid the mess of thermal paste, you could try using thermal tape. it has lower thermal performance, so maybe still use paste in the high-heat-flux interface between the chip, bracket, and heatpipe, but use thermal tape to stick it down in the channel, where the thermal transfer is spread out over a much larger area. I'd also wonder about improving performance with some sort of super-slim spring clip that inserts into the channel and pushes the heatpipe against the aluminum (i'm imagining something kinda W shaped with a flat bit in the middle, so that it stays out of the way of the v-wheel)., the current setup looks like it would have uneven contact pressure along the length of the heatpipe (and i'm also a little worried about the screw at the end damaging the little sealing nubbin it's pushing on)

[@sdaverede]

Man I clicked as fast as I could! Great video, I'll watch it later

[@simonpauw]

This is my favorite series on KZbin. I love how you show us the entire design process.

[@_sica]

not just saying this because of the time of year, but when a video from this channel drops, it feels like christmas. genuinely love this channel and everything it stands for. keep it up :)

[@Guishan_Lingyou]

This looks like an amazing project! KZbin suggested this, the tenth video in the series, to me, so I jumped right into the middle of it. I'll go back to the beginning now.

[@Dave-DIY]

I will probably never build a lamp like that. But the explanation and the measurements with the heat pipe alone are worth watching the video. Thanks for sharing with us.

[@playludesc]

Great content. I have quite a bit of experience with long-term deployment of high power LEDs and also with heat pipes, but not together. My advice, though, is that absolutely anything you can do to keep the LED cooler must be done. The cooler you can keep it the higher it's output will remain over the life of the LED. Additionally, mounting pressure will drastically increase thermal transfer. The better you can clamp the LED to the heat pipe and the better you can clamp the heat pipe to the extrusion the better the whole system will perform. I might recommend a thin u-shaped shim that slides/wedges on top of the heat pipe and under the overhanging portions of the extrusion. With the "bowl" of the u facing upward, the wheels should glide right over it and the increased pressure will really help with thermals.

[@clomads]

Hey! Love this build series. I was thinking maybe countersink screws would work instead of the low profile screws. I think send cut send can do countersink operations on the holes and it’s not too hard to do it by hand after the fact. Especially in copper.

[@clomads]

Ope! I commented before the video ended and you decided to go with the heat pipe 😅

[@spambot7110]

@@clomads still good advice if something similar comes up in the future!

[@johnbrown7516]

As always, a surprisingly great quality video, about a surprisingly great quality project, from a, relatively, smaller creator. I absolutely love seeing this project progress, and your channel grow! This series has been a well-grounded look at the engineering process, and it has an appropriate scope; all of that makes it perfect for exploring your design decisions, the factors to consider when choosing constraints for a project, and how to go about solving them. I think this is important to give those interested the context needed if considering a project of their own. Keep up the good work; this content has been phenomenal... and super entertaining! Edit: Missed a comma.

[@johnbrown7516]

I also think your testing of the two solutions is hilarious because I find myself doing the same thing from time to time. The heat pipe was obviously going to be more efficient, but you liked the solid nature of the heat sink; as did I. I find that, whatever it is that makes me prefer the solid nature of the heatsink, would overpower my assumption it'd be less efficient and know I won't make that decision... So, you force yourself to run the data: now confronted by the fact that it would be outright illogical; to an extent you can't justify; all for the sake of unexplained preference; you can't illogically pick the heat sink. I do this literally all the time. Something about me is willing to compromise, until shown how little it makes sense; until seeing just how beneficial the obvious solution is. It seemed as though that was your motivation too. Maybe I'm wrong but it made me laugh all the same. Edit: Fat fingers and improperly placed commas.

[@BEdmonson85]

Why not try using countersunk flat head screws instead of the low-profile socket head cap screws? They would end up flush with the copper (or perhaps slightly below the surface). Not sure if the fab you're using could countersink them for you, but if not, countersinking 3 holes isn't that much work.

[@jaro6985]

Countersunk would definitely work. Other option is to avoid the screws and use a spring shim or press fit shim to wedge the heatpipe in place.

[@paintballercali]

Solid work. Well shot you didn't talk down to your audience. So glad i found this channel.

[@StevenBennettMakes]

Thank you :)

[@janbuck90]

Great to see you continue the series!!!

[@petervanelslander6206]

i am in awe at how good your video is, just stumbled on it by chance. I am trying to develop hulls with built in heat transfer components. I just learned so much. thank you!

[@BPTtech]

What if you put the heat sink/pipe on one of the sides and somehow had a 90° change at the end to be parallel with the ground? That way you don’t have to worry about the rollers at all!

[@hannesho6575]

why not go with counter-sunk screws with 3.18mm you should have enough meat to countersink the screws. and by btw i like the heat pipe solution more, just the cooler physics.😁

[@StevenBennettMakes]

Yup exactly, because the heat pipe is better anyway!

[@shinsoku9128]

Somehow, I am glad that it took so long. Amazing video. I look forward to seeing this project evolve.

[@Butcher9o9]

If you thread the copper bar and drill through holes in the extrusion you could attach it from the other side. Also I think the copper part is too long, heatpipes work over a longish distances but with solid metal you have diminishing returns the longer the part. If you go with the second option ( bent metal + heatpipe) I don't think copper would be required, Alu would be more than enough.

[@turnondatuna]

so glad this project is still going strong

[@ventilator_]

What is the cost difference between a off the shelf heat pipe + custom brackets and the custom made copper part?

[@eslmatt811]

My guess is the heat pipe is 1/10 the cost. Copper is expensive.

[@amogusenjoyer]

Heat pipe is an off-the-shelf, super easy to get part. So I'd guess it's a much cheaper solution, and imo fits better with the original goal of easy to access parts anyways

[@ventilator_]

@@eslmatt811 you still need to get the custom bracket to attach the heatpipe

[@marchshift]

I love the thermal cat!

[@killymxi]

Screw holes talking most of the copper cross section - don't help with heat transfer. Would be curious to have this data compared to a modification where the heat pipe is replaced with a similar size copper bar (no screw holes, same mounting as heat pipe).

[@HomeDistiller]

Can I ask why you didn't use the heat pipe in the side of the arm, away from the rollers. Instead of on the top or bottom, under the rollers?

[@kesor6]

Science! also ... Engineering! This is an excellent example of "hypothesis meets experiment" type of workflow, everyone should be doing it, and talking about it more.

[@KevCoLabs]

The algorithm brought me to your video (I've not seen your channel before) and I was very pleasantly surprised. I have been working on a rudimentary animatronic character and I'm attempting to put a 3W LED inside each of his 3D printed eyes, but I've never dealt with LED heat dissipation before. I greatly appreciate the "thorough yet concise" nature of your video. I haven't found any good info out there and was flying quite blindly. From your video, I learned that while not ideal, my solid sheet of cut copper solution will likely be adequate. Before watching this, I always just assumed a heat pipe was just a thick piece of copper. (Glad I didn't cut into one thinking I could just trim it that way, lol). Also - thank you for including video of the seemingly straightforward steps of prepping the surfaces and applying thermal compound. In my mind I knew it SHOULD work (I've built dozens of PCs over the years and applied thermal compound to CPUs countless times). Seeing someone else do it in this sort of LED heat-dissipation application makes me feel a lot more confident that I'm not wasting my time (which is honestly a major barrier in moving forward on a project more often than I'd like to admit). Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I know it takes a ton of time, effort, focus, and drive to make a video this cohesive ON TOP OF doing the actual experiment your working on. Your efforts are very much appreciated.

[@stratos2]

Awesome to see you back! I was looking for you the other day and was sad to see the channel seemed dead. Glad to see you again!

[@FAB1150]

I'm a bit worried about the wheels being perfectly 0.1mm off the screws at the start, but then they wear out after a while and start catching again. Maybe countersunk screws would work better? I also think that if you put a bit of thermal compound under the sheet you can make the piece a lot shorter as the heat would dissipate into the rail before "reaching" the end with the current design. I love the heat pipe but I'm a bit worried about needing to glue it down, something simple to fix would become a whole redo and replace afterwards. Ah I didn't notice I was just halfway into the video. Looks like my prediction was accurate haha

[@swecreations]

I like the high quality you keep on these videos! Quality over quantity!

[@AncienNeo]

Why not using tubular (6mm OD) heatpipe inside the central aluminium extension hole? Or one flat heat pipe on the side of the bar, where wheels are not.

[@benji376]

watching you strive for perfection is really satisfying

[@tonyb9785]

Very cool, as usual! Adding to the comment about people cranking out videos. I have to go one step further and say, I don't understand how people can do these complex prototypes and produce videos. It is a ton of work. I've got a partially open source smart vent project and I can't bring myself to make videos. I also have a few too many hobbies and other interests. But in any case, props to you!

[@brynyard]

A bit paradoxical that one of YT's strong contenders for overengineered project of the year will be as a DIY kit :P

[@ChriFux]

My guess is that the strange temp distribution from the heat pipe is just because the only point it actually is in close contact to the extrusion is at the end, where you screwed it in.

[@professor7457]

Are you not worried about shorting issues? To me it looks like those power rails are a hazard waiting to happen especially in a workshop environment

[@andrewn7365]

Why does the heat pipe need to be in the same slot the wheels use? Why not have a heat pipe in a slot on the front slot (side opposite from the vertical mast extrusion). That would remove the height restriction on your design.

[@devingyarak]

Finally another vid! Missed this series!

[@AaronALAI]

Can't you use the extruded aluminum as the heatsink? Like mount the led backing directly to the extruded aluminum.

[@Moist_yet_Crispy]

Newbie to the channel here. Great video! A new subscriber was born ;) Looking forward to more.

[@BeefIngot]

I really liked this, the creativity and learning heat pipes really do the piping. I dont have any current use for that information but boy is it cool.

[@jooch_exe]

Man this project is epic. This really shows what engineering is about.

[@snik2pl]

You can find round heatpipes it depends what is diameter of center hole in aluminium profile? And you dont use groves on sides

[@alanjrobertson]

Fantastic video, great to see the thought process and impressive level of data collection with very clear communication of the results. I thought the detail (and result) re heatsink was fascinating.

[@ben_b_blake]

22:40 And If you improve on the heat dissipation on the cool end of the pipe you should be able to keep the temperature even lower (think of summer and 35°C). You could use SMD soldering paste or metallic thermal paste and maybe design a heatsink that fits into the rail?

[@stormbreaker932]

No way! I was just thinking the other day I should ask if this series was dead 😅 I'm so happy to have a new video!

[@pabloeskibar8076]

been waiting for this for a while now

[@lolapplesauce]

Wow those findings on the heatpipe performance blew my mind. I guessed it would perform better, but it throwing all the heat away to the farthest point makes so much sense but is unintuitive for heat transfer though a material. Super cool. Makes me want to make a project that needs heat disapation just to get to use that information! Btw I check for a new video from you periodically, thanks for sharing your design process with us!

[@weeveferrelaine6973]

I've been getting into microcontrollers recently, and I want to build my own 12vDC to 120VAC power inverter. I was just planning on a giant heatsink, but this had me wondering about moving heat away from the board, to get the space for a higher tech radiator/fin setup for cooling - Since for the MOSFETs, everything seems to be about how cool you can keep them, for how many amps you can pull.

[@Kyouske_42]

What a nice and detailed video! While comparing bare copper and the heatpipe I saw that you secured the heatpipe only with one screw at its end, which looks like too little mounting pressure from the middle to the led end. The copper piece had multiple screws over the whole lengh, giving it an advantage with heat transfer to the aluminium channel. If you could somehow get enough even mounting pressure on the heatpipe I feel like it can perform a lot better.

[@josephcorteo]

Steven love your content. Such well thought out and concise videos that cover well thought out projects. Take care.

[@forked-lightning]

Is active cooling, like a fan, an option here? What about using the hole in the center of the extrusion to run a rod into the aluminum? While I agree with your assessment that the heat pipe test has the more gradual curve - because it heats the whole system - I don’t know if I like the idea of the arm being warm. The data does suggest that the LED would be cooler with this heat pipe setup, but does the arm stay cooler than with the copper plate?

[@klave8511]

I like the idea, pipe air down the rail, either using a tube or under the pcb. Could use both or all 4 slots depending on what’s attached. Could use liquid cooling too.

[@Chris-bg8mk]

Love this project, and really like my Diyson express! I’m going to make my next one with 750mm rails to better reach my work surface. I use tungsten shot in the counterbalance so no problem balancing the larger weight. Thanks!

[@stefansynths]

The graph for the copper bracket looks exactly like a 1st order differential equation, which is exactly what I would expect. The heat pipe is clearly nonlinear, which I would also expect. Good experiment!

[@chasealex2496]

god i love seeing these videos, makes me want to pick up all the projects i half finished weeks ago and finish them

[@bregbarega3717]

Great progress, and very cool (pun intended) seeing how heatpipes work in practice.

[@RJ_Eckie]

Really loving this style of video! It's both very educational and incredibly satisfying to watch

[@JDS042]

This was awesome. The effort and care is inspiring AF

[@lewsdiod]

Love to see it! Very interesting and unexpected with the heat distribution there, would never have guessed. Excellent production btw, really polished. Keep it up and merry holidays

[@MichaelRainabbaRichardson]

Thank you so much for the production work it took too so this and your choice to share with us! Great video and I'm going to go price this out now (Jan '24) and look forward to building it and having an awesome lamp at my desk! I may do an RGBIC circle though for color control with subtle animation!

[@TheThetobias1997]

Great video, really like how you present the results. What did you use for the interactive graphs?

[@ivovass195]

Glad to see an update on the lamp and as usual very interesting to see the development and testing process. Can't remember if you have mentioned or considered the aluminium to copper corrosion risk. Looking forward to seeing the next steps. Happy holiday season

[@Niels_Dn]

Why don’t you use a PCB? They are also 1.6mm thick and when designed properly can conduct a lot of heat. Plus you can solder the LED onto that directly.

[@Niels_Dn]

It might also solve the wheel riding issue since you can plate the edges with thick copper (35um, don’t know if that is enough though) and leave the inner part unplated.

[@igor.kuzmenko]

Will watch later, but just wanted to drop by, like the video, leave a comment and say I'm glad you're back :)

[@Positroni]

Totally random idea with no planning at all, but would it be possible to create bracket such that the heat pipe is in direct contact with the led module? so that the bracket pushed the led against the heat pipe? Not sure if that would change the temperatures at all but just something that might be possible, might required two part bracket to create the space for the heat pipe.

[@LoneWolf0648]

i wonder what difference one of the tiny noctua 40mm fans would do for thermals in the housing its a quiet fan and any air flow would make the whole unit a lot cooler.

[@_IanOfEarth]

Stoked this is back!! Still loving my new monitor mount too.

[@TouchWorld3G]

I think you made a huge mistake with the copper heat sink. you made it quite long, but penetrated the material with the mounting holes. the cutting surface are is drasticly decreased by the holes. the material after the 1st hole basicly doesnt do anything. maybe try the heatsink version again with another mounting system? I think it might outperfom the heatpipe because of better contact to the aluminium rail. just my 2 cents :)

[@forked-lightning]

This is a great point - but if the holes are filled with the brass set screw does this mitigate the holes to a significant degree? If they are left empty, you’re probably right that these holes render the length effectively useless.

[@karlosss1868]

Awesome video. I totally respect the time you must have spent not just on the project but your videos.

[@mewmew32]

19:20 need to test a version of the bent bracket with no heat pipe, coupled directly to the end of extrusion with thermal paste

[@gorgonbert]

15:09 countersunk screws?

[@alanstarkie2001]

Really interesting. This is the first video I've seen of yours. I used to work for Dyson and in the early days, I attended a talk by Jake Dyson. He felt that the future of lighting was LED but all commercial products are flawed because the LED deteriorates over time, reducing light output and changing colour. That is certainly my own experience. They start great but just fade away! Most, if not all LED lighting pays little or no attention to cooling. They last long enough to cover the guarantee. Apparently, if the LED is cooled to the correct temperature range, the performance and reliability of the LED could be boosted to years, rather than weeks or months and the colour will not change.

[@Vaasref]

I think that comparison also needs active cooling. Passive cooling may be good enough and even more more elegant than active cooling but if a micro fan and a slightly bigger housing can cool the LED to less than 50 or something it would still be a better solution for the longevity of the LED. And such fan could cost you even less than one of those screws you used.

[@proactive_studio]

Noise might be an issue though. I wouldn’t want my lamp making a sound

[@johnsmith-000]

I'd suggest trying any kind of screws which are flush or below the bracket surface, and using bare non-sealed ball bearings. I admit I just dropped in the middle of this video without prior knowledge about the project, so I may be completely wrong. I'll watch the previous videos because it seems an interesting project. Black matte anodized profile, and maybe also sand blasted and painted black bracket should also radiate more heat away if one of the goals is cooling the LED as efficiently as possible...

[@kailuasurfing]

Supertrack question: if you inadvertently place your finger across the + and - of the track while adjusting the lamp, will you get a little DC current wake up jolt to your fingers?

[@testing2517]

Would be cool to have the LED in the carriage area with a nice low profile heatsink and use fiber optic to send the light to the head.

[@Ziraya0]

Annealed copper is very soft and easy to work with, and you can anneal copper very easily with a basic torch, perhaps even a gas range if you're feeling spicy. There's tons of videos on it but you get everywhere on the copper that you want to bend up to cherry red heat, it doesn't need to get there all at once, just everywhere at least once. Once it's annealed you can absolutely bend this copper with a 3D printed bending tool; and bend it into a ( shape, or {, maybe C, I'd go with a 5 sided C that follows the bottom of the slot. In an ideal build I'd want the copper to push itself against the the extrusion, staying far away from the V-groove. Hopefully this gets close enough to the extrusion that you can pack in a little thermal grease and get it all thermally bonded. In this ideal, no screws are necessary. For the design of the tool, I'd go with a pair of form rollers that bolt on the end of some extrusion so that after the rollers the copper gets guided into the slot. I don't know that you'll be able to get all the way there in one pass through the rollers, so you might want a way to hold the form tool, that will help you keep it reasonably straight until you can mount it on the extrusion to force it straight. If it takes multiple passes through the form rollers, you'll need one of them to be adjustable, and you may need to re-anneal the copper part way through. Working copper in this way is very likely to distort any holes near the bend. Any parts you don't anneal will remain the hardness they arrived at so avoid annealing near the LED mount area and it will keep it's shape, but also, the formed portion of the stick part, may be stronger than the flat stick, because of gaussian curvature, so you may want to curve it closer to the LED mount than you need to. Just, avoid any plans for forming the LED mount area in any way, unless you want to drill the holes later. That said, working copper is really easy and only takes a coping saw or dremel, a file, and the form tools; since it's a one-off part in the lamp I think it's totally reasonable to make this out of some copper sheet, by hand, as someone who isn't you and won't be doing the prototyping. I should only have to make this part once, and I'm willing to.

[@Ziraya0]

Should have had less faith in the copper. I could still make the heatpipe copper sheet bracket, I could probably make it more easily, and the 3D printed form tool would be simpler, either a buck I hammer the sheet against, or a sandwich to crush it into place

[@olivierhalfman]

Love your build logs and how jou walk the viewer throughout your design proces and train of thought. It is a shame you’re not able push out more content faster. But it is such great content that it is worth waiting for.

[@Tidges01]

Lets gooo. Been waiting for the next vid!

[@zolamou]

If you want to further lower your LED temp here is something you can do : raise the thermal emissivity of your system . your aluminium profile is good at conducting heat, but aluminium radiates it poorly. in your setup, heat would be mostly evacuated by thermal conduction to air. You can increase radiation by painting your profile. the paint will radiate the heat. (for aesthetics reasons it could be varnish also, and maybe not on all faces nor tracks) might worth a try ! in all cases, great job !

[@DanelonNicolas]

good stuff man 👍🏼 Keep posting with this quality

[@douwepausma]

Amazing video Steven it was worth the wait! I watch your videos for the process not the progress. And once again this one had a wonderful process!