PS3 Delidding: Tutorial with a mix of different ideas (easy, safe and fast!)

[DoublesAdvocate]

would it be possible to carefully using a drillpress to drill say a 1.5mm kole thru the ihs (clear from the die etc underneath )then inject heatsing compound under it ?

I don't know why you would bother doing that since there's already a hole...

 

[m3vuv]

there isnt any holes that i can see,

 

[DoublesAdvocate]

there isnt any holes that i can see,

On the side of the IHS there's a pretty clear hole.

 

[Mello_1993]

Hi, this is my mini tutorial of how to do a nice delid without killing your beloved and sacred PS3 and give it many decades (? of good use

First of all, to perform this method, you'll need these tools:

*Custom made metalic no-sharp cutter.
*Heatgun. Better if you have those chinese ones used in electronics, but if you have those big pistols, it's ok too. Just make sure you can set the temperature.
*Cutting wire used in cellphone repairing (for removing broken glass). It's chinese and very easy to find, i.e:
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32826321643.html
*A platform made of cardboard or expanded polystyrene.
*Plastic or metalic spatula to clean the rest of silicone that's on the CELL pcb.
*That's all.

First of all, you need the cutter, in this case you can use an aluminum strip, very very thin, and there's no need to sharp it, it's safer if it's not. The strip has to be maleable with your fingers, that's very important when going side by side, 'cause sometimes you'll need to go over some capacitors that are near the CELL IHS. The strip being maleable also will avoid going directly to the PCB and damage it.

In this case I used this awesome "tool" that can be found in some old style calendars. It has a limit of uses, so use it wisely.

The goal here is to get a custom tool similar to this. The fat side will avoid going further and DAMAGED THE DAMN DIE. That's the safety this tool has, awesome huh? I don't like using paiting spatulas and doing this in one shot like some people do, this has to be with precision and calm, and once you're in in one side, you can remove the cutter without any problem. Using spatulas could provoke a die damage if you lose control of the spatula. Very probable.

For this you can also use a custom tool like the one used by NSC, but that's your call.

Step 1: Use the heatgun for 20 seconds at 200ºC-300ºC to warm the IHS and be able to cut the silicone as butter. Once the IHS is warmed enough that you can't touch it, means you are ready to go.

Step 2: Use the cutting wire to cut the 4 corners of the IHS and create an entrance for the cutter, like this:

You can also do it without heating the IHS, that depends of your time. As you can see, it's pretty easy to cut the four corners, but cutting the 4 remaining sides are a pain in the butt, that's why I use the cutter. I couldn't finished it using only the wire, I didn't know if I was cutting the side at all, so instead of losing some time, you can now go to the next step.

P/S: Use some gloves to protect your hands, like Agent 47 does.

Step 3: Once the four corners are done, take the heatgun, warm the IHS as mentioned, and then, with no fear, introduce the thinnest strip you could get, in the top right corner of the IHS. You'll have to apply so force 'cause the silicione is making too much pressure on the PCB, so once you are seeing the cutter going inside, it's done.

The rest is history. Just take extreme care with the smd components near the IHS.

Apply heat if you see things are getting complicated, and grab the IHS with your left hand when introducing the cutter, ALWAYS. Doing it like that you'll avoid breaking some bgas, which means GLOD at best.

You can change sides easily by using the platform I mentioned, and I recommend you to work over your lap, it's easier for me.

For cleaning the rest of the silicone over the pcb, you can use a small spatula like this one:

BE CAREFUL.

Finished.

I highly recommend to watch NSC videos about delidding before doing it. Maybe you could be the one that didn't kill his PS3 in his first attemp hahaha

https://www.youtube.com/user/UltraNSC/videos

Thanks for this post, I managed to remove the IHS from the CPU just using the cutting wire and a product here known as WD40 to facilitate cutting and prevent me from using too much force. My PS3 CECHA12

 

[DTH]

Just thought I'd post my method for removing the CPU IHS, not sure if anyone has tried this one before.
I couldn't get hold of anything thin enough to fit under the IHS on my, recently acquired, UK 60GB BC Fat, (Still Sealed!), the temps were already ok'ish.

CECHC03
Webman Mod - Max Temp set to 65°
Room Temperature is 20°
(Before Delid)
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 53° / Fan 36%

I cut strips of thin plastic from a coke bottle - kind of like a see-through feeler-gauge. These were thin enough but not sharp or sturdy enough to cut the sealant... So I got my better half's Zig-zag scissors and cut along the edge of the strips making a rudimentary plastic 'saw'.

I tried it out 1st on a YLOD PS3 I have - worked great - not a mark on the substrate - emboldened, (and being careful not to put too much pressure on it to minimise the risk of damaging the BGA ) off I went!

Anyhow - took me about 30 minutes to carefully remove the CPU IHS on my working BC PS3 - same end result - not a mark on it after the IHS plopped off .

Clean up, apply MX4 reassemble and.....

(After CPU Delid)
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 53° / Fan 26% (After CPU Delid)
In Game - CPU 64° / RSX 59° / Fan 30% (Sat for over 2 hours) (TLOU - same location for each test)

Webman Mod - Fan speed set to Minimum 40% (Same as the setting for PS2 Games - Just thought I'd see how low it would go)
XMB - CPU 45° / RSX 35° / Fan 40%

I didn't feel the need to do the RSX as it's already being kept well in the safety zone and appears to be in good order - for now.

Yes - I used a saw to delid my PS3 - and it worked

What you reckon? Genius or a dickhead of an idea?

(Also - a quick thank you to everyone on this forum - I've learned an awful lot on here)

Apologies for the long post or if it's in the wrong place!

EDIT...

Weird - it appears to be getting cooler the longer I leave it on - just checked it again
Now it's
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 52° / Fan 23% (Minimum fan speed is set to 21%)

This is nuts - its running way cooler than my Slim PS3 with an RSX Delid! (2005B)

 

[ElGris]

Just thought I'd post my method for removing the CPU IHS, not sure if anyone has tried this one before.
I couldn't get hold of anything thin enough to fit under the IHS on my, recently acquired, UK 60GB BC Fat, (Still Sealed!), the temps were already ok'ish.

CECHC03
Webman Mod - Max Temp set to 65°
Room Temperature is 20°
(Before Delid)
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 53° / Fan 36%

I cut strips of thin plastic from a coke bottle - kind of like a see-through feeler-gauge. These were thin enough but not sharp or sturdy enough to cut the sealant... So I got my better half's Zig-zag scissors and cut along the edge of the strips making a rudimentary plastic 'saw'.

I tried it out 1st on a YLOD PS3 I have - worked great - not a mark on the substrate - emboldened, (and being careful not to put too much pressure on it to minimise the risk of damaging the BGA ) off I went!

Anyhow - took me about 30 minutes to carefully remove the CPU IHS on my working BC PS3 - same end result - not a mark on it after the IHS plopped off .

Clean up, apply MX4 reassemble and.....

(After CPU Delid)
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 53° / Fan 26% (After CPU Delid)
In Game - CPU 64° / RSX 59° / Fan 30% (Sat for over 2 hours) (TLOU - same location for each test)

Webman Mod - Fan speed set to Minimum 40% (Same as the setting for PS2 Games - Just thought I'd see how low it would go)
XMB - CPU 45° / RSX 35° / Fan 40%

I didn't feel the need to do the RSX as it's already being kept well in the safety zone and appears to be in good order - for now.

Yes - I used a saw to delid my PS3 - and it worked

What you reckon? Genius or a dickhead of an idea?

(Also - a quick thank you to everyone on this forum - I've learned an awful lot on here)

Apologies for the long post or if it's in the wrong place!

EDIT...

Weird - it appears to be getting cooler the longer I leave it on - just checked it again
Now it's
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 52° / Fan 23% (Minimum fan speed is set to 21%)

This is nuts - its running way cooler than my Slim PS3 with an RSX Delid! (2005B)

Are you telling me that you delidded your CELL with that piece of plastic? Hahaha, nice! Clever indeed, but I wouldn't imagine me grabbing a piece of plastic and cutting that silicone, great work. Sadly I killed my first console like 10 years ago or so, and never came with an idea like this. The safer, the better.

Your temps are pretty cool, but I'd suggest increasing the fan a little bit, is important to maintain the temps the lowest for these old consoles, even more if bgas are originals. RSX is just fine, CELL is a bit hotter due the PSU.

Also, you didn't post your ambient temperature. I guess is winter over there?

 

[DTH]

Are you telling me that you delidded your CELL with that piece of plastic?

Yes! - Well I used 2 strips in total - they round off as you go

The safer, the better.

Agreed - I reckon it would be reasonably hard to damage the substrate using plastic this thin and soft -
(DISCLAIMER - it's possible though! - YMMV)

Your temps are pretty cool, but I'd suggest increasing the fan a little bit, is important to maintain the temps the lowest for these old consoles, even more if bgas are originals. RSX is just fine, CELL is a bit hotter due the PSU.

Indeed - I may not even use this one - just stare at it in all it's loveliness!
I'm also going to test which PSU contributes the least heat to the system - I have 2 different versions for the 60GB BC - I have a feeling the more powerful one should run cooler as it's less stressed? I'll give it a go and see

Also, you didn't post your ambient temperature. I guess is winter over there?

Room is at a steady 20°C

CECHC03
Webman Mod - Max Temp set to 65°
Room Temperature is 20°
(Before Delid)
XMB - CPU 64° / RSX 53° / Fan 36%

Watch the bloody thing YLOD on me now... ‍

 

[ElGris]

Watch the bloody thing YLOD on me now... ‍

Well, we celebrated too early, too bad. It could be that the bgas were already weak/damaged, or you have some tokins problems, which it wouldn't be so bad.

How's behaving now? I mean, It needs some time to boot (after many power-on tries), it ylod when you play a game or just during xmb?

 

[DoublesAdvocate]

Well, we celebrated too early, too bad. It could be that the bgas were already weak/damaged, or you have some tokins problems, which it wouldn't be so bad.

How's behaving now? I mean, It needs some time to boot (after many power-on tries), it ylod when you play a game or just during xmb?

I think that was him just saying he didn't want to jinx it.

 

[ElGris]

I think that was him just saying he didn't want to jinx it.

And this is another example of bad english understanding

 

[DTH]

I think that was him just saying he didn't want to jinx it.

Indeedy!

And this is another example of bad english understanding

Nah m8 just my poor sense of UK humor! ‍

It's all working fine BTW

I've now gone one step further and drilled some ventilation holes in a 'spare' case I had - the temperature difference is, well, more than I expected.

However - Having the airflow now enter through the bottom has effectively taken all the 'active' cooling from the PSU which now gets VERY hot - even when vertical to allow 'passive psu cooling' - I have a feeling that the fix would be to still keep a fairly small gap underneath the PS3 to force the fan to pull some air through the PSU as well as through the holes in the base and cool it down.

Damn.

Also just realised I may be hijacking the op's thread, (apologies!) - should I have created another thread?

 

[ElGris]

I think the PSU hasn't any airflow from the fan in normal condition. Everything happen in the bottom part of the console, where the heatsinks are. If you want to ensure there's nothing overheating inside and provoking extra heat, you could do a external psu mod, which is only adding some wires out the console. I recommend using the fan over 35%, even on winter, less heat is always better. Also, I woulnd't use this console everyday and for so many hours, they're something to collect right now. If you want to play a lot, use a super slim, those has better reliability for the RSX and CELL, were fats are weak.

 

[DTH]

I think the PSU hasn't any airflow from the fan in normal condition.

There is a cutout on the underside of the PSU - this allows the fan to pull air through the PSU to cool it and the top of the motherboard.

The PSU gets SCORCHING hot within a few minutes in the drilled case.

I've now put the PS3 back into the undrilled base - the PSU is barely warm!

The PSU definitely needs airflow. Unless I modify the PSU with a fan, (Like NSC did), a drilled case is a no-go. (IMHO)

 

[ElGris]

There is a cutout on the underside of the PSU - this allows the fan to pull air through the PSU to cool it and the top of the motherboard.

The PSU gets SCORCHING hot within a few minutes in the drilled case.

I've now put the PS3 back into the undrilled base - the PSU is barely warm!

The PSU definitely needs airflow. Unless I modify the PSU with a fan, (Like NSC did), a drilled case is a no-go. (IMHO)

Yeah, I saw that mod made by NSC, but I don't think that would pull off the hot air completely, so It would better to take away the PSU. This will decrease a lot the temperatures, mostly on the CELL side that's under the PSU. CELL's always under PSU, no wonder why these one always needs a delid first.

Without the PSU you can even add a fan to take air from the outside and make it go through the whole upper part of the console. I believe the best option would be to use an extra PSU just for the new fans.

 

[sandungas]

@ElGris you forgot to mention the diameter of the "cutting wire"
And i would like to read about your experience while doing this delidding with the wire (it depends of the material of the wire, its strenght, fragility etc...), it was breaking too much ?, do you still have some of that wire to see the diameter it had ?

Im searching in aliexpress to see how much products of this category exists, as far i see usually are named "diamond wire" (i guess is a generic name, i dont think it have anything to do with diamonds)
Sometimes the announce mentions "molybdenum"
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...8f-1&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000017823716092"}
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/328...7ea13b3-38&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"65790602328"}

And "tungsten"
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/330...fb4698f-10&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"67303415425"}

About the diameter... time ago i was meassuring the gap in between CELL IHS (metal) and the substrate (fiberglass) in a CECH-25xx and im confident it was exactly 1.2mm
Thats the max diameter we can use, but in the practise the wire diameter should be smaller because when we "insert" the wire in the gap we are not removing 100% of the silicone
So lets say... the wire needs to have a diameter of 1mm or smaller

If we use a wire with diameter smaller than 0.8mm is going to cut easyer, but is going to break easyer too (and this depends of the material), so is needed to find a ballance in between the wire diameter and the wire material
I see to remove smartphone screens are used wires with very small diameters (down to 0.05mm that sounds ridicully small for a delidding and very fragile)

So by now i think the way to go is around 0.8mm and the announce (or the product label) NEEDS to mention the magic word "LCD" (or smarphone screen removal)... and the composition of the wire material needs to mention either "molybdenum", "tungsten", or some others exotic metals, lol
Someone have experience with this wires ?

 

[Mello_1993]

@ElGris you forgot to mention the diameter of the "cutting wire"
And i would like to read about your experience while doing this delidding with the wire (it depends of the material of the wire, its strenght, fragility etc...), it was breaking too much ?, do you still have some of that wire to see the diameter it had ?

Im searching in aliexpress to see how much products of this category exists, as far i see usually are named "diamond wire" (i guess is a generic name, i dont think it have anything to do with diamonds)
Sometimes the announce mentions "molybdenum"
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001844128771.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.63121d5aVLbk1w&algo_pvid=056f7975-15bb-41de-b041-c2f53fb4698f&algo_exp_id=056f7975-15bb-41de-b041-c2f53fb4698f-1&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000017823716092"}
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32869184606.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.228e565aZXIgk5&algo_pvid=34c4aac6-ae67-4d2b-8b3a-e008b7ea13b3&algo_exp_id=34c4aac6-ae67-4d2b-8b3a-e008b7ea13b3-38&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"65790602328"}

And "tungsten"
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33042927780.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.63121d5aVLbk1w&algo_pvid=056f7975-15bb-41de-b041-c2f53fb4698f&algo_exp_id=056f7975-15bb-41de-b041-c2f53fb4698f-10&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"67303415425"}

About the diameter... time ago i was meassuring the gap in between CELL IHS (metal) and the substrate (fiberglass) in a CECH-25xx and im confident it was exactly 1.2mm
Thats the max diameter we can use, but in the practise the wire diameter should be smaller because when we "insert" the wire in the gap we are not removing 100% of the silicone
So lets say... the wire needs to have a diameter of 1mm or smaller

If we use a wire with diameter smaller than 0.8mm is going to cut easyer, but is going to break easyer too (and this depends of the material), so is needed to find a ballance in between the wire diameter and the wire material
I see to remove smartphone screens are used wires with very small diameters (down to 0.05mm that sounds ridicully small for a delidding and very fragile)

So by now i think the way to go is around 0.8mm and the announce (or the product label) NEEDS to mention the magic word "LCD" (or smarphone screen removal)... and the composition of the wire material needs to mention either "molybdenum", "tungsten", or some others exotic metals, lol
Someone have experience with this wires ?

I used the 0.8mm cutting wire, it broke a few times, I used a product to help, here in Brazil we call it WD40, it is a lubricant. It really helped the thread to slide without breaking.
Below I will leave the link where I bought the cutting wire and a similar link for the lubricant.

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/32901056260.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dcd4b90aDzVVg7

https://www.amazon.com.br/Oleo-Lubrificante-300ml-912069-WD-40/dp/B07CV2JXNH

 

[sandungas]

I used the 0.8mm cutting wire, it broke a few times, I used a product to help, here in Brazil we call it WD40, it is a lubricant. It really helped the thread to slide without breaking.
Below I will leave the link where I bought the cutting wire and a similar link for the lubricant.

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/32901056260.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dcd4b90aDzVVg7

https://www.amazon.com.br/Oleo-Lubrificante-300ml-912069-WD-40/dp/B07CV2JXNH

Thx, thats a good reference, so with 0.8mm it was breaking a few times (i guess you mean the number of times was aceptable)
Just to throw some numbers... i consider is aceptable if your wire of diameter 0.8mm broke 5 or 10 times while doing a CELL delidding
Because i dont expect the wire to be 100% "unbreakable", thats imposible

Btw, dont get confused with the decimals of the diameter, the link you posted is a wire with diameter 0.08mm (this is a bit smaller than 0.1mm)
The first time i was looking at this i was a bit confused with the decimals too because are very small values
The problem i see with this wires specifically designed to remove smartphone screens is that there are a few manufacturers with good reputation because they are labeling his product explicitelly to be used for LCD screen removals, and also they are giving technical info about diameters, composition of the metal alloy (using exotic metals), etc... This makes me confident too
But the problem is all this manufacturers with some reputation seems to sell only wires with max diameter 0.1mm. I could not find anything bigger than 0.1mm. In lot of them the only diameters availables are (from smaller to bigger)
0.05mm --> 0.06mm --> 0.08mm --> 0.1mm

But the gap in the CELL is way bigger... 0.5mm would fit without problems (five times bigger than the biggest wire used to remove smartphone screens). So im wondering if....

Taking one of those wires to remove smarpthone screens of 0.1mm and "twist" it over itself to duplicate the diameter
The result would be around 0.25mm and the surface would have like "bumps" that would have a similar effect than the edge of a saw

Or just forget about that wires specifically designed for smartphone screen removals and go directly to a "stainless stell" wire of around 0.3mm (or maybe a bit more... 0.4mm ?)
It would be like a electric guitar cord but way thinner, and i guess the "exotic metals" of the alloy doesnt matters much because the diameter is making it way stronger than the other wires for smartphone screen removals
Ive seen some announces in aliexpress of this kind of wires, are available in very precise diameters too
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005...e-28&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000021926369026"}

------------
I did read some comments before about using some kind of lubricant with this delidding method (i guess it was you, i dont remember sorry), but i didnt considered it much important, mostly because i dont see how the lubricant can enter in the "gap" without spreading everywhere and doing the job much "dirty"
But now that you insist on it and mentioned that it helped a lot i guess i need to try it
But probably i will use "neutral solid vaseline", is a tube with a paste that have the texture of a cream. It can be bought locally in a drug-store, frequently used to prevent "skin chafing", its composition is very special because is considered "neutral acidity", doesnt have parfums or shit.. is just a single chemical component, and is transparent... not sure if is electrical condictive though

The point is... we could lay the vaseline tube on top of the table with a bit of vaseline going out at the tip of the tube... and then (with the 2 hands grabbing the wire) move the wire over it left and right to "wet" it
I guess this is a handy way to do it, and minimizes the amount of lubricant that is going to end in the CELL gap

 

[Mello_1993]

Thx, thats a good reference, so with 0.8mm it was breaking a few times (i guess you mean the number of times was aceptable)
Just to throw some numbers... i consider is aceptable if your wire of diameter 0.8mm broke 5 or 10 times while doing a CELL delidding
Because i dont expect the wire to be 100% "unbreakable", thats imposible

Btw, dont get confused with the decimals of the diameter, the link you posted is a wire with diameter 0.08mm (this is a bit smaller than 0.1mm)
The first time i was looking at this i was a bit confused with the decimals too because are very small values
The problem i see with this wires specifically designed to remove smartphone screens is that there are a few manufacturers with good reputation because they are labeling his product explicitelly to be used for LCD screen removals, and also they are giving technical info about diameters, composition of the metal alloy (using exotic metals), etc... This makes me confident too
But the problem is all this manufacturers with some reputation seems to sell only wires with max diameter 0.1mm. I could not find anything bigger than 0.1mm. In lot of them the only diameters availables are (from smaller to bigger)
0.05mm --> 0.06mm --> 0.08mm --> 0.1mm

But the gap in the CELL is way bigger... 0.5mm would fit without problems (five times bigger than the biggest wire used to remove smartphone screens). So im wondering if....

Taking one of those wires to remove smarpthone screens of 0.1mm and "twist" it over itself to duplicate the diameter
The result would be around 0.25mm and the surface would have like "bumps" that would have a similar effect than the edge of a saw

Or just forget about that wires specifically designed for smartphone screen removals and go directly to a "stainless stell" wire of around 0.3mm (or maybe a bit more... 0.4mm ?)
It would be like a electric guitar cord but way thinner, and i guess the "exotic metals" of the alloy doesnt matters much because the diameter is making it way stronger than the other wires for smartphone screen removals
Ive seen some announces in aliexpress of this kind of wires, are available in very precise diameters too
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005002739940866.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.55262e00wOzXIw&algo_pvid=41d25bb7-dc17-4515-acd0-6ededeb6600e&algo_exp_id=41d25bb7-dc17-4515-acd0-6ededeb6600e-28&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000021926369026"}

------------
I did read some comments before about using some kind of lubricant with this delidding method (i guess it was you, i dont remember sorry), but i didnt considered it much important, mostly because i dont see how the lubricant can enter in the "gap" without spreading everywhere and doing the job much "dirty"
But now that you insist on it and mentioned that it helped a lot i guess i need to try it
But probably i will use "neutral solid vaseline", is a tube with a paste that have the texture of a cream. It can be bought locally in a drug-store, frequently used to prevent "skin chafing", its composition is very special because is considered "neutral acidity", doesnt have parfums or shit.. is just a single chemical component, and is transparent... not sure if is electrical condictive though

The point is... we could lay the vaseline tube on top of the table with a bit of vaseline going out at the tip of the tube... and then (with the 2 hands grabbing the wire) move the wire over it left and right to "wet" it
I guess this is a handy way to do it, and minimizes the amount of lubricant that is going to end in the CELL gap

Yes, I'm sorry! I used the 0.08mm wire. It broke about 6x. As for the lubricant, I used it because it is an anti corrosive, I don't know if it could cause other damage. The fact is that I managed to remove the IHS from my PS3 FAT cecha. Vaseline I have no idea if it will be useful. The lube helped me with the issue that the wire glided a lot lighter with it. And when it had dried completely, the thread broke more easily because I had to use more force as there was only direct friction, reaching the point where the thread got tangled up. I hope that my English comes out correct

 

[sandungas]

Yes, I'm sorry! I used the 0.08mm wire. It broke about 6x. As for the lubricant, I used it because it is an anti corrosive, I don't know if it could cause other damage. The fact is that I managed to remove the IHS from my PS3 FAT cecha. Vaseline I have no idea if it will be useful. The lube helped me with the issue that the wire glided a lot lighter with it. And when it had dried completely, the thread broke more easily because I had to use more force as there was only direct friction, reaching the point where the thread got tangled up. I hope that my English comes out correct

Your english is fine, im gettting a good idea of what you did and how good it was working

So it broke six times with a 0.08mm wire, thats fine for me... and for everyone else too, note the wire rolls are always 50 or 100 meters lenght, thats becuse everybody (the manufacturer and the clients) assumes the wire is going to break soon or later
Is almost imposible to be "unbreakable" because everytime we bend the wire there are some atoms that are "moving around" internally... this generates heat... and eventually microfractures... and eventually the wire breaks entirelly
The lubricant helped you to do the work with less force... and maybe also was reducing the heat... the fact is in most of the works when is needed to cut something with a "saw" moving it left and right (or with a drill doing a hole in a metal block) there is always a lubricant to prevent overheatings because that overheating damages the tool (in this case the tool is the wire)
So.. yeah, it makes sense the wire could "overheat" at an intermediate point and that overheat breaks it... is hard to calculate that heat... the only way is to touch it and keep as reference our skin temperature (around 35ºC)

If you feel is a bit hotter than your finger skin = this is around 40ºC
If it burns your skin = 60ºC +

 

[sandungas]

Hmmm for ther record... im doing some test with calipers and wires of different thickness and i have to correct something i said before, im going to try to be more accurate this time

When you meassure the "gap" in between CELL IHS (the metal) and the substrate (the fiberglass) of the CELL models used in PS3 slim there are 2 "gaps" because the IHS have 2 heights
Starting from outside border... the first gap (without silicone) is 1.2mm... and the second gap (with silicone) is 0.2mm
We need to insert the wire in the second gap, so the wire needs to have a diameter of 0.2mm max

At this tiny scale is very hard to get an idea of what we are talking about, even visually is not intuitive, and the decimals are confusing, so for curiosity sake i found this link
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/diameter-of-human-hair/54217

How big is a human hair in millimeters?
Europeans consider hair between 0.04 and 0.06 mm in diameter as thin, hair between 0.06 and 0.08 mm in diameter as normal, and hair between 0.08 and 0.1 mm in diameter as thick. Compared to European hair, Asian hair is significantly thicker. The average diameter of Asian hair is 0.08-0.12mm.

The biggest diameter of the wires manufactured specifically for LCD screen removals are 0.1mm max (or 0.10mm that is the same)... this is the thickness of a human hair

There are not wires for LCD screen removals bigger than 0.1mm... so the only way to go a bit bigger is with the "stainless stell" wires, i found several announces that have intermediate diameters in between 0.1mm and 0.2mm
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...9-14&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000025944918992"}

Lets say... a stainless stell wire of diameter 0.15mm fits well in the gap, the diameter is around the double of the wire of 0.08mm used by @Mello_1993 (or 33% bigger if we compare it with the LCD removal wires of diameter 0.1mm)
Now the only doubt is which one is more "breakable"... if the wire with 0.1mm with molybden/tungsten/spaceshit... or the wire with 0.15mm of humble stainless stell
I guess it doesnt matters much because both are going to work

The point is it seems we only have that 2 options... with the LCD removal wires we can go up to 0.1mm... and for bigger diameters (in between 0.1mm and 0.2mm) we could use a wire made of stainless steel