12 Inch Fan Blade 3 Leaves (no supports needed)

thingiverse

12 Inch Fan Blade 3 Leaves printable without any supports WARNING! Might overheat the motor, read update below. Some guidelines: Material for the blades should be a material with good layer adhesion. PLA or PETG would be a good choice How to print: - Print the 3 fan blades (part 3) first. This can be done without supports enabled. The overhang never exceeds 45 degrees. - Print part 1. Use this to check if the tolerances are good enough. The blades should have a slight press fit. If this is not the case, you can modify this part to your hearts contend. STEP, IGS and SolidWorks 2014 files are present. Print part 1 again until the fit is good enough. - Print part 2 with the modification that you made to part 1 - Drill out the center hole of part 1 and 2 with a 8mm drill to get the correct tolerance. - Assemble blade assembly. Glue can be used if needed. Some special advise about part 4 (the nut). This part is also printed without supports at 0.15mm layer height. I am not particularly happy with the design but it worked straight away so I did not modify it. Be aware about the left handed thread. The tolerances on this thread should be tight. Again, use the STEP, IGS and solidworks files to modify tolerances if you need to. The thread on my fan was weird. It wasn't cut very deep. That is why the thread has been designed as is. Some warnings There is one major difference between part 2 and the real thing. It sticks out much further back than the original fan. With my fan there was enough space to do so. Please check that this does not cause any interference issues with your fan. Result I happy with the result this design gave me. The fan is surprisingly quite. However, I have no idea what the efficiency of the fan blade is. Could be worse than the original. Honestly no idea. Update about overheating: During summer I noticed the motor becoming very hot and starting to smell during long operation. Apparently the original fan blade draws a bit of air through the motor to cool it. My design apparently does not do this. This overheats the motor. This is why I created "Part 5" It is a substitute for "Part 2". It is a radial fan which sucks a little bit air through the motor cooling it. This is a part which does require supports. The part is also presumably very specific to my brand of fan. You might need to modify the design so it fits yours. All files are included to do so.