Hey guys I reflowed my led to a copper board and was wondering what’s the best method to Attach it to a heatsink
Do u use Epoxy/artic silver
Or do u tap it for screws ? OR ?
Both thermal compound and tap the heatsink and screw it down would be the best method
Not that I have any room to talk, I’m planing on just using thermal adhesive lol
Well I hate taps because they break to darn easy, but I was seeing if glueing it would be 2nd best
PS: I tried a tap just 20min ago and it broke half way down 
How do I mount my stars?
I usually stalk them for a bit, then grab em, throw em over the sofa and take em from behind……
Oh, you meant led’s? 0:)
Haha yea your LEDs that’s on a star
You may be trying to tap too much material. You could try a smaller tap. As long as you don’t torque it down too much, you don’t need real deep threads. And I may be stating the obvious to you, and sorry if I am
I just spit Red Bull all over the keyboard.
Technically the best option would be lap both of the surfaces and then a tiny amount of grease, but I generally just use the adhesive.
Any advice helps a lot, at least my 20mm star/ compound covered up the broken bit
Sorry, couldn’t resist when I saw the title.
So, I tried it, one drop of Future Glue on the backside of the star, right under the emitter, eye-ball the center, press. and make sure you do not leave your fingerprints behind.
I just use Arctic Alumina Adhesive. The only led I have screwed down was an SST-90 (i believe). I think screwing them down is good, but I also just HATE those darned tiny taps. They break themselves when they see me reaching for them. I guess they figure suicide is better than the abuse.
I use the following method:
1. Apply a small amount of arctic silver thermal epoxy in the center of the star directly below the LED.
2. Surround the thermal epoxy with thermal compound (for computer CPU heatsinks).
The epoxy keeps the star from moving while the thermal compound provides most of the heat transfer. Also, the star is removable. To remove the star, use needle nose pliers and rotate the star. The small amount of thermal epoxy in the center will break and the star will come right off.
ahem, I’m not sure it’s safe to use the word screw anymore, so I shall henceforth be referring to them as “threaded retention devices”. I generally hold my stars down with “threaded retention devices” as I’m too tight to buy some arctic adhesive plus I like to replace LEDs in my lights as it’s more of a pain making the housing (bike lights) than upgrading the LEDs when new ones come out.
I’ve never (tap head) broken a tap, but you have to make life easier for them.
First, make sure you’re using the correct sized drill bit (there are plenty of drill>tap charts online, I think). If you’re really having to whale on the tap, chances are the hole is too small.
Second, drill a hole deeper than the screw. Most taps are through hole rather than blind hole, so they’ll gum up and snap if the chips at the tip of the tap don’t have any where to go.
Third, never try and tap a hole in one go. Thread in a bit, then remove, blow out crap and clean tap. Repeat. Thread cutting fluid helps I’m told, although I always use WD40 as I bought a huge box of the stuff ages ago.
I think that’s about it. Run the tap in and out a few times (yeah yeah, you dirty minded old men) to make sure the threads are clean, test with your choice of threaded retention device and you’re done.
AA is most likely fine for pretty much all applications, I’d imagine, but this way should get more consistent results more easily. I figure that’s probably more important on the high power bike lights I use than the low power torch I keep in the car, but plenty of peeps make monster bike lights using AA I’m probably being a bit OCD about it 
You can buy tap fluid for aluminum. It is worth it. It works great. Used to use it in the machine shops and it's good stuff. I'm just too cheap to buy it and too lazy to go get it.
Great tips guys,as for know with this build ill pass on trying it again lol
Do they show pleasant enthusiasm when you mount them?
Just as a thought... remember, when you use a normal tap/ drill size chart, those combinations are for a standard 75% thread depth. For things like mounting your heatsink with a screw, you can use a 60 to 65% and have more than a plenty of thread strength to do the job. So, just get out the calculator and scoot the drill size up a tad.... or SWAG IT!
Thus, those tiny taps won't commit suicide! I swear Justin.... you make my sides sore on a regular basis from laughing!!! 
AND... Justin is right... a little threading fluid can save a lot of bad words and spoiled parts!!!
Dan.
The tap I bought came as a lil kit tap/bit so it was the right one, ill have a look at better fluid
I glue them with arctic alumnia and while it is drying I bench press it. I use a ratchet nut which fits over the LED to press the star to the pill.