Heat spreader with excess solder basin

The apparatus is a heat spreader for attachment to a device to be cooled, with heat pipes attached within holes in the heat spreader. Each of several heat pipes is soldered into a long hole formed between the top and bottom surfaces of a typical heat spreader, which is essentially a thick plate. The heat pipes extend out of one edge of the plate and connect the heat spreader to a heat sink such as an assembly of fins. In order to limit the overflow of solder when the heat pipes are soldered into the heat spreader, a shallow basin is formed in the edge of the plate around all the heat pipe entry holes. The basin creates sufficient additional volume to retain any excess solder which flows out of the holes, and prevents the solder from spreading onto the heat input surface of the heat spreader where it would adversely affect the thermal contact.