Cutting a Heatpipe Heatsink!

I made a Peltier based cooler for food to use in my car.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-Beefy-Pel...

It works very well but the inside cold heatsink is too big. I want to be to store my food. Here is how I did that.

Step 1: Getting to Cutting.

Using just a hacksaw blade I went ahead and cut all 8 heatpipes. Some small volume of liquid came out. The cutting was easy enough to do.

Step 2: Separation!

Here the insides of the heatpipes are seen. What a waste of the now unused heatsink!

Step 3: Cleaning Up.

Using damp paper towels I cleaned up the debris from cutting. Now the cooler is ready for service.

Step 4: Testing!

Using the 12volt 10amp power supply adapter, I powered up the modded cooler and let it run for 15mins. A delta T of 10C. That works for me!

Comments

[VincentC26]

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of heatpipes? Aren't they pressurized?

[Mjtrinihobby]

Nope.

[rafununu]

Wrong

[willb107]

Hi, what do you think of a peltier device attached directly to a stainless steal box (insulated) instead of a cold heat sink. Do you think that would work effeciently?

[capturedfire]

at room temperature they're at close enough to atmospheric pressure that it makes no difference, but they become pressurised when heated during use on a computer, because the liquid that dripped out boils at fairly low temperatures and its phase changes and flow around the pipes helps to distribute heat more evenly along them, which also means the heat to be removed is shared more evenly between the fins, if you're not hitting the temperature the liquids phase change happens they're effectively just metal tubes and a solid metal rod instead of the pipe would be a bit more efficient.

[Mjtrinihobby]

very well said!