TAZ3 Salvaged Gateway All-in-one Fan Mount

thingiverse

To overcome the lack of a small fan, I crafted a shroud for an existing fan on hand. Adopting the hacker mindset, I repurposed a fan from a gateway all-in-one computer and commenced designing a mount. This marks the fifth and final iteration of my design, which functions efficiently. It's also my first OpenSCAD project. Initially, I thought a simple adjustment would suffice to reposition the previous fan. However, I soon encountered an issue with de-lamination, revealing a flawed design where the legs broke under pressure. Subsequent attempts placed the fan on the side and in front of the motor's exhaust, yet this added weight caused torque issues. The fourth prototype located the fan above the extruder head, eliminating torque problems while maintaining clearance. Lastly, the final design features the fan mounted above the extruder head, exhausting to the right through a slim duct to the nozzle without compromising print volume. The nozzle is an adapted version of the original TAZ3 fan upgrade source file. For customization purposes, I've included the OpenSCAD file for other similar fans. Please be aware that there are several tweaks throughout. As for wiring instructions, they will be added once finalized, currently, it's manually switched on. The entire process prints on a fan-less TAZ3 with PLA in four hours, and I've provided the .35 layer sliced gcode.