shaggy wrote:
I'm just doing some thinking..... Psl's are notorious for barrels heating up too fast
I bought a PSL parts kit when they were cheap and planned on a heavy barrel milled PSL... But i'm rethinking some stuff
Now what if i was to take a stock PSL barrel, machine up fluted aluminum heat sinks to float on the barrel with some high temp heat sink paste? (i've seen some 700 degree stuff online) It kinda seems like the best of all worlds, light, but also increased thermal conductivity and heat dissipation. I should also probably look at windowing the front handguard until it almost falls apart for breathing.
That could definitely be effective, if done right. The challenge will be matching the heat sink to the barrel contour; you need very close contact, even with heat sink paste, for it to be effective.
And yes, while moving air like a fan or wind will carry off a lot more heat, a good heat sink can still be very effective in still air.
A note on heat sink design - you don't need, or necessarily want, huge long fins on a heat sink. A lot of common heat sinks are poorly designed, so I suggest studying good heat sink design before diving into this too far. There are some well established formulas for the relationships between the height, width, and spacing of the fins to make your heat sink efficient.