If I'm not mistaken JB Weld has bits of metal dust in the epoxy mix. What with you being a machinist and all, if you don't already have metal dust, you could whip some up pretty quick.

I bet aluminum dust would be superb.

-AC

Barrels & barrels of aluminum chips, But no aluminum dust.

Gary Gary had experimented with the interface of the copper riser tubes and the aluminum absorber fins of a flat plate solar collector. He concluded the household type silicon caulking had performed admirably.

I'd bet the silicon sealant would bond the two mating surfaces for the expected life of 20+ years were I have seen epoxy dry and the bond fail after a number of years.

Randen

When I used to build electronic stuff for the Man,
I used Heat conducting/insulating epoxy,
to stick heat sinks on top of chips and 'canned' ICs that needed cooling.

It was great stuff, but when I needed some, the adhesives shop had to make it special for me.
When I picked it up, I had 2 hours to apply it, and then board had to be baked of hours in an oven, to cure the epoxy.
After cooling overnight, it would take dynamite to remove those heat sinks..

That was great stuff, but I only used it because I wanted insulation too.
If you don't mine electrical conduction, there is cheaper stuff around.
Some is sold in syringes for use by CPU hackers. But some of that isn't real cheap.

I've used JB Weld on heat sinks and had it fail after long 180F runs..

Xringer

I realize that the best option of a lab making up some bullet-proof stuff is just not I the cards. And to buy something on line is something I don't want to wait for and its going to be expensive. On the Randen shelf I do have some 5 min epoxy and regular slow set. On the aviation shelf I do have some fuel tank epoxy. (expensive and extremely slow but bullet proof).

I think I'm going to use the silicon route. The back of the LED modual is quite large and a thin coat of silicon over the large area should do the trick.


Randen

I use GE silicon on a lot of stuff and have even fully encapsulated electronics in the stuff.
I assume it conducts heat to some degree, or active parts in the 'capsule' would over-heat..

If the rate of heat transfer is fast enough to keep the LED module from over-heating, you're good..

Some of the old Intel CPU chips had such fast heat rise times,
you couldn't turn them on with a badly installed heat-sink for even 30 seconds..
Those heat sinks had to act quickly..

48" LED replacement of fluorescent lamps
 

Slowly and surely all is being changed out to LED tech. Although the garage lights don't get much use the reduction of energy will never make a ROI.

Three of the six fixtures the ballasts had died. So what's one to do. Order new LEDs and replace them all.

$150.00 for 12 LED tubes. Quick calculations puts the ROI at 50 yrs for the amount their used.

We did confirm the current draw between the old fluorescent and new LEDs.
The reduction was 12%

The plus side the garage is now extremely well lite with 6000K (daylight) light.

Randen


http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...s-sam_3046-jpg

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...s-sam_3048-jpg

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...s-sam_3049-jpg

Jeez Luiz, $150! Lemme take a pic of what I rigged up and post it.

12V wall wart, rigged to side outlet of dead fixture: free (old ballast disconnected)
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/...psjypmkgjz.jpg


LED light strips, 7W 50cm 36 SMD5050, 5000K $3 each
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5nmua3b7.jpg

Sink view from below: (Yes, I know it's not straight... Ur not supposed to look directly at them cuz they're BRIIIGHHTTT!)
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/...psoafqruqb.jpg

Comparison to 23W 3000K Sylvania CCFL in ceiling fan:
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/...psw7hisvif.jpg

By itself at night:
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/...pstqus7t3h.jpg

Just don't let an electrical inspector see what you did there. Wire nuts should be inside a junction box. There might be an issue with non-temporary lightning not being hard wired but I'm not too certain about that part.

I live in Kentucky, the land of no codes...

If I had to, I could hide the whole thing in a box. The low voltage wire is the only thing that would be outside the box.

My point is that the strip lighting is not expensive and easy to rig up to what have you. It runs off 12 volts, no matter how much gets installed. I wired this one up to the existing switch, so it draws no parasitic power when shut off.

It's not clear how you are current-limiting the power to your light(s).

-AC