Heatsink mod for stepper driver

A4988 and DRV8825 heat sink mod ,The surface area of the chip is actually lot less than the heat sink available in the market,You have to be very careful while installing coz it is very much possible that it will touch the surface mounted parts or the legs of the drivers.I myself lost few drivers when the heatsink got in touch with the pins and phew ! Magic smoke ,So I found a way just using a filer or some dermel grinding tool I did this (see the pics)

Sadly these chips are designed to dissipate heat threw the PCB

Ideally the board should be upside down and if you want heat-sinks put it on then

Like what TMC2100 have done [reprap.org]

You could use a socket header with a long lead, like what they use for an Arduino shield, to make a space for a heatsink underneath the driver board.

Very good idea . In fact the best idea by which you won't loose the pot trimming option.

I remembered that I have a set of those shield headers and gave them a try. It raised them up 10.5mm. They give plenty of room for air to blow over a heatsink placed underneath. You do need to change how the fan is mounted if you have one blowing down onto the drivers.

Worth trying.