Lapping Supplies

1kiwi

1kiwi

1kiwi

Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2007
Posts
6,911
Location
Los Angeles
Simple question really. I'm lapping my TT and Q6600 this weekend and im looking for the best place in London to get a cheep wet n dry set (preferably buying in singles) + a sheet of glass.

I've heard picture frames are often used, however i'm a little scared that i might smash the thin glass with my huge man-power :p

Any ideas guys?
 
Any decent car spares place should have wet and dry, should cost around 50p a sheet. Glass you can pick up a small piece from any glass supplier. If you already have a piece then just place that on a piece of wood which stop it from breaking.
 
I've only been in the country for 8 months (moved from NZ) so im not really familiar with car spares shops / DIY centers. Can you be more specific?
 
B&Q, Focus or any other large DIY store should be fine, Halfords (car parts) is also a good option.

You should also be able to pick up the glass from the above DIY centres too.
 
Thanks for your suggestions all! I'm going to check out homebase and Halfords. Hopefully between the two i should get some results.
 
In my area and surrounding, I found it impossible to get all the Paper, peeps must all use garages and insurance for bumps now as when I was a kid all did they own work.

I ended up buying a kit of an Auction Site, the 1st kit inc Glass and you can order later kits without Glass.
 
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Homebase should do 1200 grit, i used that and only that. As for the mirror/glass that everyone recommends, you want it flat, not to the atom. I think a computer desk is flat enough for this, seeing as you are sitll using your not flat arm to move the chip.
 
Hopefully homebase can do a little better than 1200. In terms of the glass, i found a glazier just down the road from me. He said that he would cut me out an A4 sized piece for a £5!. I agree that it might be easier to do it with a kit, but i kind of like putting everything together myself :)
 
From my Engineering backgrund a desk is nowhere near flat enough.

I used to use a Surface Table at work (not for lapping heasinks BTW) but in home I used thick Glass and also Marble would work.

Nearly every review shows this.

The fact your using your arm does not mean it cant be fat if you make sure its not coggled when you push it across the Paper.

The fact its not done on a machine means little, infact lots of work is finished by hand and Lapping paste.

Lapping is one of the oldest skills out and it was not invented by some geeky 18year old PC kid, but that many have done it it has been shown to work but none I read of used a desktop.
 
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helmutcheese said:
From my Engineering backgrund a desk is nowhere near flat enough.

I used to use a Surface Table at work (not for lapping heasinks BTW) but in home I used thick Glass and also Marble would work.

Nearly every review shows this.
Click to expand...

You are still moving the chip with your arm though and few people can move perfectly laterally, so as long as the desk is very level, there isn't a problem. The glass being smooth makes no difference as it has sandpaper on it, you'd need pebbles under it to feel a bump. The indents on a laminated desk are so minute, i highly doubt they'd trasnfer through the sandpaper and effect a flat finish on the chip.
 
Has nothing to do with it, you really do not have a clue m8.

Jesus now we AINT to use our arms or use Glass as the Paper makes the Glass worthless BUT your Desk is so level ? lol.

I was probably lapping with machines and hand before you were in puberty or even born.

I stongly advise you go read some guides as the above info is not helping anyone

Anyone can do it if they take there time, some do it longways, some in Circles.

Nobody says the Desktop aint smooth but its not flat enough, a Steel Ballbearing is smooth but its curved same as your desktop will be slightly.
 
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OK, thanks for everyones replys. I now have a new question! I plan to use the 'wet method' as explained here but i also thought it wise to use w3bbo's tape method to protect the CPU.

Now, how wet do you get the sandpaper, and, typically, if i was to start out with 200, how many sheets would i expect to go through. From what i can tell, people typically just keep going until it's flat - and then move on to another grade. I'm going to be lapping my TT as well so im just trying to get an idea of how many sheets i will need.

I'm off to homebase now with my girlfriend. She's very supportive lol.
 
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@ beh, if doing wet (paper gets less clogged but its messy), make sure you plug that little air hole at 1 side of the Intel IHS.

I simply forced some Blutac in it and removed when done.
 
You only need a few drops of water. If the CPU/HSF jumps/skips you can also add a drop of washing up liquid to act as a lube. I also use masking tape to tape over everything except the surface to be lapped, taping over also makes cleaning when finished much simpler and easier.

@helmutcheese - what air hole? I remember these on a P4 but don't recall seeing 1 on a C2D?
 
Its not on top of the IHS and its more larger GAP at 1 side of the IHS where it meets PCB.

If doing wet you will get grime in there (Yes you can stick a pin in there and Touch the Cores).


X6800_arrived_06.JPG
 
Hi Guys,

Both the TT and the Q6600 are now lapped! I took all you comments on board in terms of the masking tape and the blue tack trick. My CPU was well sealed off!

I started at 400 and worked away until the copper was completely exposed. For the most part, 90% of the exposed CPU came easy. It was the front two edges that took ages!!!! I was probably going for 35 mins using the front and back method, wet n dry. I then used 600, 800 and 1200 to get a dull shine.

What product do you use to clean both the CPU and the HS?

Anyway, my arm is about to fall off and its now done. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone that helped!
 
helmutcheese said:
Its not on top of the IHS and its more larger GAP at 1 side of the IHS where it meets PCB.

If doing wet you will get grime in there (Yes you can stick a pin in there and Touch the Cores).


X6800_arrived_06.JPG
Click to expand...

Oh right, I never noticed that slot as I taped over it with masking tape.
 
OK, as promised, here are my pics.



This is after one full rotation. Some high points there but otherwise not that bad. Could have prob started with 400.



This is after 30 mins of 200. I got it as flat as i could but there was still a little bit of light coming through.



Ok, this is where I am at the moment. Not exactly a mirror finish but I think I achieved what I set out to do, get it flat and relatively smooth. I found that when doing the back and forth, often one way would sometimes 'bite'. This unfortunately cause some surface scratching.




Protected with blue-tac and tape.





The toughtest thing about sanding this CPU was getting those outer ridges down!

 
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