C10 Duo - Dual radial cooling fan mount and duct for Tevo Tarantula by code10

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

I've printed out a few fan ducts for the Tevo Tarantula but i was looking for a fan/duct setup that gave good cooling but also doesn't obscure the hotend tip.
Making it possible to easily see the distance of the hotend from the print bed, see how that first layer is going down and giving space to quickly pull out those pesky bits of loose filament, if any are floating about. But also be light compact and extend as little as possible from the front of the x carriage keeping things as balanced as possible.
So i thought i'd have a go at designing my own version.
I've taken inspiration from the Atom 2.0 Delta 3D printer which Thomas Sanladerer did a live build of on his Youtube channel. This Delta printer uses two metal body compact (40x40x10mm) radial fans for its cooling.
Atom 2.0 Delta Printerhttp://www.atom3dp.com/en/atom2/
Rather than use the metal body radial fans i was able to get a plastic version from Aliexpress.http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/7qnMBUj
12VDC and 24VDC versions available if you need.
The top mounts use the four hotend mounting holes and screws on the top of the x carriage.
The fans press fit into the top mounting bracket arms (no screws).
And the lower fan ducts fit over the radial fan body (no screws).
You will need to print:
Two fan brackets (left and right)
Two fan ducts (left and right)
And you'll need to buy 2 x radial fans (one for each side).
These fan brackets and ducts are designed to work with the stock Tevo Tarantula hotend only.
I've run a few prints through the printer with this new cooling setup in PLA and i've noticed a visible improvement in the print accuracy particularly around over hangs and small details.
Update
Having seen fan ducts being tested, on the Tevo Tarantula facebook group, using a glass of water i thought i'd see how my design performed. The glass of water helps to visualise the air pressure created by the fan duct, much better than using your finger or a piece of paper.
It turns out that my original design doesn't perform that well using this visual aid. The focus of the ducts is very broad, not focused around the nozzle and is located behind/in front of the nozzle.
So with this new info to hand and with some new and improved Fusion 360 skills i set out to create a new version.
This time with better air focus around the nozzle.
One thing i found is that with a more focused air flow around the nozzle this can affected the hotend temperature stability. So to counter this i changed to an e3D V6 clone heatblock and matching silicone heat block sock. This has been great for keeping a stable hotend temperature and i would highly recommend fitting one. This also reduces the heat transferred into the nearby fan duct.
Version 2:
This new version has smaller duct outlets, more sweeping contours and tweaked geometry. These changes result in better air pressure focus around the nozzle.