Blower Fan Active Cooling for Replicator 1 / Flashforge / CTC

thingiverse

Active cooling is an absolute necessity for printing with PLA. It just doesn't cool fast enough to get good results otherwise. Axial fans do not provide the CFM and pressure to adequately do this job, in my humble, non-fluid-fluent opinion. Hell, I don't even know what laminar vs turbulent flow is. But a blower fan will provide more of what you want for this application than an 'axial' fan. Sometimes it seems too much, but my PLA parts have fine sharp edges so I thought I'd share what I've been sitting on for 2 years now. Warning: The fit and finish is not perfect. I pride myself on releasing quality parts that actually print and work as intended, but this can be of use to many and I have sat on it for at least 2 years with minimal updates. Just print it as it seems, you might need to file to fit. Try to file the easily replaceable mount that screws into the fans, not the duct itself. FET install is easy, but I hear newer printers come with this FET already. If you come across a tutorial and want me to edit this to put it here for reference, feel free to post. Since this is merely a blower fan version of the files it is remixed from, please see them for a proper reference text. Custom Section The non 'not4printing' version contains tiny supports that will support the directional fins I added to point the airflow down at the part, and not just cooling the nozzle without requiring printing 'with supports'. Print the 'Coolduct2.1.stl' without supports. I used 30% infill, 2 shells, .1 mm layer height. Break off the support structure. YMMV. Inevitably, the blower fan has so much CFM that my nozzle and power supply can only maintain ~224 C equilibrium but this is ok, my prints are dank AF and y'all should be jelly. /s Again, I apologize for releasing such shoddy works, I hope to clean it up later, but I'm sure it'll still be useful and I think this is what I would print today, if I were in the market for a free active cooling solution on Thingiverse. Oh and if you mount a door/enclosure on your printer, it may not work when the printer reaches its maximum range of travel to the front. Still haven't gotten around to that one though so not a problem for me. Have fun ;) TL;DR Print: 'coolduct2.1.stl', 30%, 2 shells 0.1 mm in ABS 'Mountv3.stl' or 'Mount.stl' might need to scale 3% for ABS. Records indicate raft and supports were used Postprocessing Break off the red supports Moar Content (Bonus Instructions) Intel::MyDigikeyOrder_8/10/14 Item: Description: URL: 277-1011-ND TERM BLOCK PLUG 2POS STRhttps://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/phoenix-contact/1757019/277-1011-ND/260379 277-1106-ND TERM BLOCK HDR 2POS 90DEGhttps://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/phoenix-contact/1757242/277-1106-ND/260474 568-7589-1-ND MOSFET N-CH 30V 61A LL LFPAKhttps://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/nexperia-usa-inc/PSMN7R0-30YLC,115/1727-5909-1-ND/2753539 603-1116-ND FAN BLOWER 51.3X15MM 24VDC WIREhttps://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/delta-electronics/BFB0524HH/603-1116-ND/1014447 // These are the items I ordered when adding this modification to my Flashforge Creator printer (or anything with the same board lacking a FET on the extra slot). I believe I used a substitute FET with similar characteristics, as the model in the tutorial I read was discontinued, but it has served me well for almost 3 years now. Do yourself a favor and get some JST connectors to solder on the wires so you can remove the fan easily. These days Adafruit sells pre-assembled ones with multi-strand wire.