Inside the Quark 125, pics.

[BrianG]

Serum: I thought about doing pictures, but there were already pictures of the internals posted previously. I didn't do anything earthshattering; I just removed the internals, then removed the thermal pad on both sides of the spacer aluminum, and epoxied that to the FETs, then to the case. Since the pads were 0.5mm each and the slab was 2mm, I needed to use a 3mm piece instead. And, you are correct, I didn't do anything to the middle piece. Like I said, unless that one is coupled to the external case, nothing done will have much effect.

Cartwheels: I think there are two reasons why they use the pads: ease of assembly and warranty work. If the FETs were epoxied to the case from the get-go, warranty work would be all but impossible. There are other forms of thermal tape which may work better, but the stuff they used is actually better than most tapes I've seen. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay connected under the dusty and vibrating conditions.