Dual fan mount for Printrbot Simple Metal by WaveSupportApparatus

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

After publishing my experiment about how fans and fan shrouds affect overhang success and appearance, I became curious about whether using dual fans would improve my results. I couldn't find anyone who had made a frame to hold two print-cooling fans onto a Printrbot Simple Metal, so I designed my own.
I have experimentally demonstrated that using two fans instead of one improves the printing success and surface quality of tall and thin features like spikes, horns, screws etc, and reduces warping in general.
This frame attaches to the existing 40 mm fan mount holes and provides a second 40 mm mount in front of the hot-end (the bed levelling probe prevents me from putting the fan to the side, which is how other printer manufacturers have arranged them). The two fan mounts are equidistant from the hot-end, so you can use any existing fan shroud and be assured that it is pointing at the right place.
The demonstration photos show my printer fitted for a test print, with blower fans via my universal blower fan mount supplying EricY's Improved Fan Shroud for jetting air onto the working face from two directions.
What fan shrouds should you use?
According to my experiment, different kinds of fan shrouds are good at different things:
Shrouds that focus air at the nozzle are good for overhangs and thin features.
Shrouds that blow air broadly over the printing area are good at reducing warping.
It's no surprise that the results suggest that you should use one of each! Here's what I use:
For the focused shroud, I use EricY's design. I mounted it on the left side of the printer, but I don't think it matters since the dual-fan mount can accept any shroud interchangeably.
For broad airflow, I'm actually using the blower fan by itself without a shroud, which is what the experiment showed worked best.
I'm working on some shrouds of my own to apply what I've learned.
Important notes!
Do not hot-swap your cooling fans. There is a chance of damaging your controller board. Always turn off and unplug your printer before messing with its wiring.
You will need M3 screws and nuts for fitting this frame and its accessories to your printer. I used a range of screw lengths from 15 mm to 30 mm, depending on the shroud I was testing.