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7 brilliant ways to use PC fans in your next 3D printing project
Your 3D printer pairs well with all sorts of components and accessories, from IKEA pegboards to $5 microcontrollers. But one item you might not have considered is the humble PC fan.
These pint-sized air movers aren’t just great for keeping your GPU temperatures down.
Why PC fans?
Small, versatile, and easy to control
PC fans are small, cheap, and come in common sizes like 120mm, which makes them easy to integrate into projects. You might already have a few lying around. They range from the sort of pack-in fans you get with an inexpensive PC case, right through to near-silent offerings from be quiet! and Noctua. Some even come with fancy RGB lighting.
These fans are normally powered and controlled using a header on your motherboard, but you can connect them to a $7 USB speed controller or similar to manually control them (or combine with a microcontroller like the ESP32 to automate).
Compact blower fans
You’ll be blown away
Perhaps the most obvious use for a small fan is a compact, portable desk fan. By directing the air current, you can focus the energy of the fan in a specific area using something like BrainsCollector’s fan blower stand mount. It’s the perfect design if you don’t have a lot of desk space available.
Not convinced? Many reviewers say that a controller is necessary to slow the fan down on account of it being a bit too effective.
Bladeless desk fans
Don’t pay retail prices
Did you know that those fancy, expensive bladeless fans from Dyson and similar actually use blades? They just happen to be hidden in the main chassis and spinning a lot faster than standard fan blades. Even though the design uses a bit of trickery, there are still some good reasons you might want one, like child and pet safety.
Thankfully, you can print and build your own with GIAN’s bladeless fan design. At around 400g of filament, it’s considerably cheaper than a Dyson.
Fume extractors for soldering and other hobbies
Protect your lungs
Breathing in fumes when you’re soldering can be bad for your health. The answer is to do it in a well-ventilated area, but sometimes that’s not quite enough. A fume extractor adds another layer of safety by moving air away from the work area before it’s had a chance to reach your lungs.
LTS Design’s soldering fume extractor uses a cheap 80mm PC fan, a USB-C breakout board, a few screws, and an optional 5mm carbon filter. Place it right in front of your soldering setup, ideally pointed at an open window.
3D printer and workshop ventilation systems
Add hose and print the rest
ModulAir is a free system of quick-connect adapters for connecting 3D printers and other workshop items to hoses, ventilators, and vacuums. You can use PC fans with this setup via adapters like the 120mm fan mount, just attach the fan using four screws and power it using a controller of your choice.
The system makes it possible to connect appliances that generate unwanted fumes, dust, and smoke with a 2.5” (63mm) hose. There are window pass-throughs, printer-specific adapters, hose-to-hose connectors, blocker caps, and more.
Portable air purifiers
They suck
There are all sorts of portable air purifiers you can build, but my favorite has to be the Corsi-Rosenthal box built using 200mm PC fans. This device was devised in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by two engineers as a means of purifying air for roughly a tenth of the cost of commercial alternatives.
The device works by sucking air through 20x20x1” MERV-13 HVAC filters, removing pollutants like dust, pollen, and smoke. You’ll need four fans, a USB controller, a soldering iron for installing the threaded inserts, some screws, washers, and a rubber grommet to seal the wire passthrough. An alternative design uses smaller 140 or 120mm fans, if that's what you have available.
What you’re left with is a big box about the size of a PC case that will purify the surrounding air. It’s small and light enough to move around the house and, depending on the fans you use, relatively quiet to boot.
Shoe dryers
Something you’d probably never buy
After falling down the rabbit hole of using PC fans in 3D printed projects, I discovered a few oddball examples that are equal parts niche and genius. One of my favorites, for which there are many designs, is a shoe dryer.
This is little more than a means of directing the airflow from a PC fan into a pair of shoes. It’s hard to argue with the beautiful simplicity on display here, and cool air over time is better than blasting your shoes with a hairdryer and ruining the glue.
Your PC can benefit too
They’re PC fans after all
Of course, PC fans are PC fans for a reason. They’re small enough to fit in cases and provide high airflow in a concentrated manner. You can print an angled fan mount to improve airflow (with fresh air entering the case on the elevated side) or add extra fans to your case with a dedicated RAM fan mount for 60mm fans or a tray that fits in the 5.25” bay and adds three 40mm fans.
