You want to use thermal paste for what?

[Cobaltrod]

Hi Again.
I have an *24V Onyx hotbed from seemecnc. I have an aluminum heat spreader for the Onyx that I got from trick laser.
I have a large tube of really good thermal paste I want to put between the two.
I'm hoping it would help keep it secured in place and transfer heat between the two.

What are your thoughts Safe to try?

Thanks, Rod

[Eaglezsoar]

I certainly think it is worth a try.
Your intent is to increase the heat transfer between the bed and the aluminum and I see nothing wrong with that.
I do not believe that the paste will help as an adhesive although there are ceramic based pastes that set hard and
act as an adhesive. Let us know the results of your work.

[Cobaltrod]

Ya, I think it will work, perhaps help even, with more even heat dissipation. With paste over the entire surface area, I think it would stay in place, not by adhesion, but suction. I'm more concerned with the possibility of damage resulting from heating up, liquefying from being too hot, dripping, shorting out something ect.. I'll go ahead and try this. Perhaps not right away. I'll use a methodical approach to see if I can gauge heat up and heat dissipation without it first, and then with to see if it makes any measurable difference. Thanks!

[JFettig]

Thermal paste - even Arctic Silver usually doesn't conduct electricity. Its a good idea however I think that it might get messy, as it gets warm, viscosity goes down and it could drip like you say.

That said, it would definitely help significantly with heat transfer.

[Jrjones]

Most thermal grease or paste should be able to handle 100°C easily. Artic silver's site says that the long term range is -50°-130° C.

I don't think it would drip, since a CPU can reach internal temps near 90° in some applications and I haven't seen any sign (in my experience, which is limited to my personal computers) that the thermal grease dripped or became semi liquid.

It will probably be a pain to clean up if you ever need to though.

[drunkenmugsy]

Built dozens of PCs. Worked on hundreds. I think this would be fine as long as you are sure it wont damage the materials being used. The aluminum? Yeah no problem. Maybe do a test patch on the heat pad/plate? What is the heater made of? I dont think it would damage it but test it for several days on a small unobtrusive part. See what happens before you do the whole thing. This is exactly the type of application arctic silver was made for. Well ok in reverse but you get the gist.