Blower Fan Shroud for PrintrBot Simple 1403

thingiverse

Finally, a fan shroud for the Printrbot that makes use of the advantages of a blower fan! I love my printer, but have been disappointed by its ability to print overhangs. It traced the reason for this back to the fan, which is a pretty anemic 40mm PC fan, designed for high volume and not pressure. it's good for blowing lots of air into a case, but not very good at pushing it through a small space like a fan shroud. A blower fan like one of these on Amazon can produce much higher air pressure, which should translate to more airflow over the part. So, after some work, I came up with this fan shroud! It positions the fan much closer to the nozzle than the stock cooler, and uses an open, surround-style shroud to get as much air on the print as possible, but also making sure that all sides receive airflow. I've found that other surround-style coolers have very small openings which limit airflow too much, or are too close to the print, this shroud should not have either of those issues. It is also compatible with the fans on the new Ubis hotend and the E3D V6*, and includes a mount for your extruder cables. I've done some simple overhang tests, and while I don't have a "control" for comparison, it is significantly better than my previous prints (I can now go down to 12 degrees or so with no drooping/curling). Results may vary of course, so I'm curious to see how others' pritners perform with it! Required tools/hardware: existing fan mount m3 bolts & nuts two 6-32 x 3/4"or m3 x 18mm bolts (or whatever you have that fits, this isn't rocket science :P ) a thread tap to match your two bolts. allen wrench/screw driver -needle nose pliers or tweezers -solder iron/solder or small crimps -optional: JST connector, heat shrink tubing. *note: I haven't tested these extruders as I don't own them, I would definitely appreciate anybody who has these installed to try this out and let me know if any issues arise! and if anybody is wondering where I got the lovely fan cover, it's a scaled version of this one by Lemm. Print Settings Printer Brand: Printrbot Printer: Simple Black Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Yes Resolution: whatever you usually use Infill: 15-20% Notes: I found printing with the bottom of the shroud on the print bed to work the best. I use Cura, so I chose the "line" style support material. using other types may make support removal from the shroud tricky.