Creating air flow with high density possible in several ways. One of the most effective is a fan. radial type or "snail". It differs from others not only in shape, but also in its operating principle.
Fan device and design
Sometimes an impeller is not enough for air movement and power unit. In conditions of limited space, a special type of exhaust equipment design should be used. It has a spiral-shaped body that acts as an air channel. You can make it yourself or purchase it already finished model.
To form a flow, the design provides a radial Working wheel. It connects to the power unit. The wheel blades have a curved shape and create a discharged area when moving. Air (or gas) enters it from the inlet pipe. When moving along the spiral body, the speed at the outlet increases.
Depending on the application centrifugal fan snail maybe general purpose, heat-resistant or corrosion-resistant. It is also necessary to take into account the amount of air flow created:
- low pressure. Application area - production workshops, Appliances. The air temperature should not exceed +80°C. Mandatory absence of aggressive environments;
- average pressure value. It is part of exhaust equipment for removing or transporting small fraction materials, sawdust, grain;
- high pressure. Forms an air flow into the fuel combustion zone. Installed in many types of boilers.
The direction of movement of the blades is determined by the design, and, in particular, by the location of the outlet pipe. If it is located on the left side, the rotor should rotate clockwise. The number of blades and their curvature are also taken into account.
For powerful models you need to do it yourself solid foundation with housing fixation. The industrial installation will vibrate strongly, which may lead to its gradual destruction.
Self-production
First of all, you need to decide functional purpose centrifugal fan. If it is necessary for ventilation of a certain part of the room or equipment, the housing can be made from scrap materials. To complete the boiler, you will need to use heat-resistant steel or make it from stainless steel sheets yourself.
First, the power is calculated and the set of components is determined. The best option The snail will be dismantled from old equipment - an extractor hood or a vacuum cleaner. The advantage of this manufacturing method is the exact match between the power of the power unit and the body parameters. A snail fan can be easily made with your own hands only for some applied purposes in a small home workshop. In other cases, it is recommended to purchase a ready-made industrial-type model or take an old one from a car.
Procedure to make a centrifugal fan with your own hands.
- Calculation overall dimensions. If the device will be installed in a confined space, special damper pads are provided to compensate for vibration.
- Manufacturing of the body. In the absence of finished design You can use plastic sheets, steel or plywood. In the latter case Special attention is given to sealing joints.
- Installation diagram of the power unit. It rotates the blades, so you need to choose the type of drive. For small designs, a shaft is used to connect the motor gearbox to the rotor. IN powerful installations A belt type drive is used.
- Fastening elements. If the fan is installed on the outer casing of, for example, a boiler, mounting U-shaped plates are made. With significant power, it will be necessary to make a reliable and massive base.
This general scheme, according to which you can make a functional exhaust centrifugal unit with your own hands. It may change depending on the availability of components. It is important to comply with the housing sealing requirements, as well as ensure reliable protection power unit from possible clogging with dust and debris.
The fan will make a lot of noise during operation. Reducing this will be problematic, since vibration of the housing during the movement of air flows is almost impossible to compensate with your own hands. This is especially true for models made of metal and plastic. Wood can partially reduce background noise, but at the same time it has a short service life.
In the video you can see the process of manufacturing a case from PVC sheets:
Review and comparison of production ready models
Considering radial fan snail, it is necessary to take into account the material of manufacture: cast aluminum body, sheet or stainless steel. A model is selected based on specific needs; consider an example of serial models in a cast case.
The fan is not a complicated device. It consists of a motor, blades, various adjustment buttons and a stand-case. There are additional elements, such as backlight, clock, but these are options that are not so important.
It is not at all necessary to buy a fan, because you can easily make one yourself. Moreover, this does not require special skills of a master.
With the right skill, a homemade model will turn out not to be a way to get rid of old things, but an opportunity to show imagination and, possibly, hidden talents. Some craftsmen quite easily create both functional and extremely attractive options. They harmoniously complement the interior and become the center of attention no worse than any art object.
How to make a fan from a regular electric motor
Probably the simplest and quick way To acquire a homemade fan assembled with your own hands, you need to find a regular motor, which is most often found in toys.
Standard electric motor from a toy
Ordering such a thing is not difficult. Moreover, today, without stopping for a minute, caravans of various trinkets from the Middle Kingdom ply. And if not, then it’s enough to buy an inexpensive one toy car and remove the motor from it.
But you definitely shouldn’t expect the impossible from such a device. Rather, it will only be able to move air slightly. But for desktop model It will do just fine. He will be able to blow air onto the face of someone sitting at the computer.
For such a fan you can use absolutely anything. The main parts will be:
- blades;
- motor;
- on/off button;
- stand;
- supply system.
Otherwise, the limit of the idea will only be within the boundaries of imagination.
After the motor is ready for use, it makes sense to take care of the power supply. These could be batteries, just like in the toy for which the motor was intended. But definitely this kind of energy will not last long. However, there is a plus - the device will remain compact and mobile.
The second option is mains power. But in this case you need not to overdo it. Direct connection via a plug is a sure way to burn out the motor. So you shouldn’t experiment, trying to spin the engine to high speeds. On toys, electric motors are usually designed for 3-4.5 Volts, and the desire to provide more rotation due to powerful energy sources, firstly, will quickly drain the source (if it is a battery), and secondly, will seriously reduce the life of the fan, even to the point of failure. The engine will start to heat up and the brushes may melt.
But modern chargers convert the voltage in the network, reducing it to the specified parameters. You can find a power supply, including on sale, that is ideal for the motor.
To create blades, you can take any material. The main thing is that it is light. Due to the weakness of the motor, the less the blades weigh, the faster the rotation will be, and, therefore, the efficiency of the work.
- The easiest option is to take a cork from a regular plastic bottle, which will serve as a fastening for the blades. Make a hole in the bottle the size of the rotating axis of the electric motor.
- The blades can be made from a regular CD. A hole the size of a bottle cap is burned in the center. The circumference of the disk is divided into 8 sectors. They are cut to some distance, but not to the center. Afterwards, the disk needs to be heated with fire to easily bend the blades. A lighter is suitable for this.
Creating blades on a CD
- You can attach the disk to the cork with glue. The second option is when a hole is burned in the middle for the plug - immediately connect the structure. The melted plastic will harden and hold firmly.
- After all this, the structure is connected to each other. Wire is suitable for the stand. This is perhaps the simplest option. And for such a lightweight device, you can’t imagine anything better. You can bend the frame in such a way as to hide the batteries there unnoticed. Or carefully run the power supply wire going to the motor.
- The circuit does not have to be always closed if you use batteries, so you need to secure the button to the case. It's inexpensive. You can use it from a toy from which the motor was removed.
Another option for a propeller design is to use thick paper. The method is even simpler, but less practical.
Advice! When experimenting, remember that the larger the fan blade area, the noisier it will work. On the other hand, small blades do not move air as efficiently.
How to make a fan out of paper
Paper is not the best suitable material for a home fan for the simple reason that it is very impractical. Any ingress of water, even banal humidity, and the device will rapidly begin to lose its hardness.
But even despite all the disadvantages, craftsmen They even make quite nice samples from paper. Of course, we are talking about thick paper or cardboard. Strong material from boxes works well. You will also need a regular motor or cooler, an on/off button and wires.
The simplest table fan using cardboard
The approximate design plan is that the device can be simplified as much as possible. The impeller is easy to cut and can have many or few blades. Everything is at the master's request. The motor can be mounted on a wooden or cardboard block. The stand will also be made from paper or an old computer disk.
It is only important not to forget that such a fan is very light, which makes it shaky in operation. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen the body. Old batteries, bolts or nuts work well.
How to make a fan from a plastic bottle
Crazy Hands' favorite raw material is plastic bottles - almost ideal for creating your own fan. The top of a standard round bottle works well for the propeller. You need to cut off the part with the cork just above the pasted label.
- The part of the bottle with the cork will be the blades. To do this, you need to cut the plastic down to the cork so that you get several different petals. After one, the petals are cut off at the base. The remaining ones are future propeller blades.
Fan blades made from a plastic bottle
- You can use a candle or lighter to shape the blades and twist them a little. The main thing is not to overdo it, because the plastic is soft and can catch fire. The goal is to warm it up a little, not set it on fire.
- The plug will be the base of the propeller. A hole is made in it according to the dimensions of the motor axis. To keep the connection firmly, you can put it on glue.
- Now is the time to think about the foundation. The rest of a plastic bottle will also work for this. A hole is cut in it to rigidly place the plug with the blades at a right angle. You must remember to weigh down the base - with nuts, bolts or any other metal objects.
- A hole is made on the base for the button and the chain is assembled. There is also enough space for a power supply.
Field for imagination when working with plastic bottle extensively. You can use several bottles at once. One will become a propeller (more precisely, part of it), and the second will become a solid foundation. But then they will need Additional materials. For example, ordinary drinking straws.
Simple and lightweight bottle fan
How to make a USB fan
But the most convenient and simple fan is an old cooler, which can also be used. For example, put it on a table, and it will cool, but not the processor or video card, but a person.
The advantages of this design are obvious: the cooler is very reliable, because it is its job to constantly turn the impeller and cool something. And it’s easy to get coolers. It is enough to either find an old computer, or order a new fan or buy it in a store.
The cooler design is simple. This is a ready-made fan in a plastic case. There are two wires coming from it (usually red and black).
Regular computer cooler
Making a USB fan takes just a few minutes:
- The wires on the cooler are stripped 1-2 centimeters.
- Take a regular USB cable, at the end of which you also need to get rid of the insulation. The standard USB cable has four wires inside. Of these, you should choose black and red. Cut off the rest so as not to get in the way, and clean up the necessary ones.
- Connect the red wire of the cord to the red one on the cooler. Black - with black. Carefully insulate areas without winding. Ready.
- All that remains is to think about the holding device. Here the already familiar wire, which can take any shape, can come in handy. Even suitable for a fan housing cardboard box, and if you spend a little more effort and time, you can even build a real designer object.
Design approach to fan design
It is very convenient when the fan turns on when the computer starts. Besides, modern blocks have several USB outputs. It turns out that such a device will not interfere.
Another point is that sometimes you want to turn on the fan regardless of the computer’s operation (especially since a device with a cooler turns out to be quite powerful, good and useful). Then you can use adapters. For example, today they make chargers for phones that easily turn into a USB cable when the connector with the plug is disconnected. Similar equipment can be used for a fan, making it universal: operating from the network and from the USB port of any computer. Another advantage of this design is the simplest electrical circuit. A cooler-based fan can even do without extra buttons: just a wire and a plug.
DIY bladeless fan
But a slightly unusual use of a free cooler (but you can get by with an electric motor) is a bladeless fan. Modern, interesting, with the right skill – no less effective – a solution that definitely attracts the eye. The thing turns out to be completely non-standard, spectacular.
For example, here is the ideal appearance bladeless or duct fan model:
This is roughly how you can make a bladeless fan with your own hands
The most important thing about bladeless models is, of course, their appearance. Therefore, if you make such a device yourself, you need to try to think through the frame in the smallest detail. Uneven edges, roughness - all this will spoil the impression.
Frame bladeless fan is almost entirely a work area. Don’t think that some kind of space technology is being implemented here.
Air circulation is carried out quite prosaically - with the help of rotating blades. They hide in the base tube. If you take a cooler from a computer, you can make a stand according to its shape. Here, as they say, at the discretion of the author.
The differences from the classics are in the location of the cooler - it is placed horizontally in a bladeless fan.
Cooler location in a bladeless fan
The top ring is made hollow inside, two-layered. There the main redirection of air in the right direction is carried out.
A hollow cavity is visible in the upper ring of the fan, from where the air blows
You can make the frame of a bladeless fan from plastic, wood, or thick cardboard. It is better to use a flexible material so that you can easily give it the shape of a ring. An alternative is to use a combined structure. For example, the rings are made of cardboard or plastic, and the rigid frame is made of wood.
You need to cut:
- four sides for a stand;
- Two circles of the same radius;
- Twist two rings of different diameters.
Then everything is put together and, if necessary, painted.
Meals can be arranged in different ways. A universal option is a combined wire for the USB connector and a plug for the socket.
The device can also be a little more complicated. For example, make a light strip of diode strip along the edge of the rim. The backlight consumes little energy, but will add beauty to the fan. And the power supply and wiring, if necessary, can easily be hidden in the stand.
How to make a powerful fan with your own hands
When it comes to powerful fans, you need to understand that they require completely different motors. Starting from old fan motors to others household appliances. Good fit:
- unnecessary ceiling chandeliers with fan;
- old lawn mowers;
- drills;
- hoods.
The only thing is that you need to get into the voltage corridor that is required to power the motor. For example, drills most often require 18 volts. But for ventilation purposes, it will be enough to supply less than half of this voltage. Even at 12 Volts, the fans are very loud and extremely unstable due to the strong inertia of the rotating blades.
Power for powerful electric motors must be supplied from the mains. Therefore, you need to think about installing a power supply or connecting charger. The electrical circuit can be complicated by adding light bulbs lying around, Digital Watch, radio, toggle switch or board for switching operating modes. But it’s easier, of course, to limit yourself to only a fan with a button, if that’s enough.
In any case, such homemade variations of homemade fans are sometimes much better than even purchased options. With the right skill, you can get a very good thing, a real pride of the owner.
With the onset of heat, we remember fans, the simplest and most accessible human inventions for freshening the air. The classic fan design consists of an engine, onto the shaft of which an impeller with many blades is attached. During operation of the fan, air is sucked in from the rear side and, passing through the blades at an increased speed, is pushed forward, creating a cooling and freshness effect.
A conventional fan has a number of disadvantages: noise and vibration from the blades, which collect dust and air pollution. In order to clean them, it is necessary to remove the protective grille. The speed of such fans is adjustable in only a few modes, and it can be difficult to adjust the blowing angle.
The alternative device we propose does not have these disadvantages. This development was invented by Dyson engineers, presenting an almost revolutionary solution in the field of air ventilation. Thanks to them, the world learned what a bladeless fan is. And today we will collect it at home.
Operating principle of a bladeless fan
The main difference between a bladeless fan and a conventional one is the changed direction of the ejected air flow. This is achieved due to the fact that the engine and impeller are placed vertically and hidden in the base, which is equipped with grilles. Through them, air flows pass into a frame placed above the base and equipped with slots around the perimeter for ventilation.Materials, tools for a bladeless fan
To assemble this cutting-edge household gadget, we will need the following materials:- Sections of PVC pipes with a diameter of 150, 125, 90 mm;
- Quick-drying glue for plastic, such as superglue;
- A small piece of plexiglass or plexiglass of blue color;
- Server cooler YW880, frame width 60 mm;
- White aerosol paint, 1 can;
- Soft section metal mesh with cells of about 10 mm;
- Rheostatic speed control board, toggle switch;
- Solder, flux, thermal casings, self-tapping screws;
- Line segment LED strip, length - about 50 cm;
- Power supply (adapter) 12V/2 A;
- Insulating tape.
- Miter saw or grinder (angle grinder) for cutting pipes from PVC pipes;
- Jigsaw for cutting curved lines;
- Drill or screwdriver with a 50-60 mm crown cutter;
- A set of drills of various diameters;
- Soldering iron, screwdriver, scissors, pliers, hot glue gun;
- Painting knife.
Work order
Preparing plastic pipes
Take a segment PVC pipes with a diameter of 150 mm and trim it, aligning the edges. Mark a fragment about 100mm long and make a cut miter saw or grinder (angle grinder).
The edges of all pipes must be processed sandpaper to avoid burrs, unevenness and improve the fit of edges for adhesive joints.
The next step is to select a plastic container that will fit tightly onto our section of pipe. We cut off the bottom of it with a painting knife, and use superglue to secure it to the top of the pipe.
Then we take a pipe with a diameter of 125 mm and cut off a pipe 90 mm long from it.
The next one will be a pipe with a diameter of 90mm, which we will also cut like the previous two. This is the base of our fan. The length of the segment is 120-130mm.
The basic plastic parts are ready. You can check how they will fit together by placing them in their places.
The fan frame sits perpendicular to the base, so the 90mm pipe needs to be slightly prepared by cutting off its edge according to the circumference of the frame. We mark it with a pencil, you can cut it with a jigsaw or the same grinder.
Unevenness in a curved cut can be smoothed out with sandpaper, removing burrs at the same time.
Using a core cutter with a diameter of 50-60mm, a drill or a screwdriver, we make through hole in the middle of the largest pipe. This will allow air to flow through the base and into our frame. We fix our base with superglue.
In order to close the fan frame, which consists of two pipe sections of different diameters, a plug is glued to one end of the smaller one. We make it from a sheet of plexiglass or blue plexiglass.
Having first marked the larger circle and then the smaller one, we cut off the plug ring.
Now it can be attached with superglue to the smaller frame pipe.
Using spray paint white and electrical tape as masking tape for plexiglass, we paint the plastic parts of our fan.
After the paint has dried, you can glue a piece of LED strip onto the larger pipe on the side of the plug. Don’t forget to immediately solder the contacts for LED backlight, and bring them to the base.
We fix both pipes of our frame with superglue.
Electrical part
We begin to prepare the electrical filling of our fan by soldering the cooler contacts. It is better to take the wires with a reserve so that it is convenient to work with them when connecting the control board and toggle switch.
You can use a soldering iron to make mounting holes to securely secure the cooler in the base housing.
We fix the cooler and drill two ventilation holes in the base opposite each other. This can be done with the same core cutter.
We close these holes with fragments of metal mesh, pre-cut to size.
Glue the mesh fragments with a hot glue gun.
We solder the contacts of the toggle switch and the power socket. We cover the exposed contacts with heat-shrinkable casings, heating them with a lighter.
Now you can make holes for the toggle switch and power socket, and secure them to the fan base housing.
You can make a low-noise fan for room air conditioners, window and table fans, for cooling or heating various equipment.
Here is a general view of the TsAGI low-noise fan (see Fig. 1). It consists of an electric motor, a housing and an impeller (impeller). The fan can be made without a housing. But then it will not produce such a powerful air flow. The fan diameter can be up to 400 mm.
If you have an electric motor and you know it maximum number rpm, then from the graph (Fig. 2) it is easy for you to determine what maximum diameter you can make a fan.
So, you have decided to make a fan. Keep in mind that the noise of the entire installation consists of the noise of the electric motor and the impeller. So if you want a low-noise fan, then choose a low-noise electric motor.
The fan impeller is made of metal, duralumin or steel sheet. The thickness of the sheet is selected depending on the diameter of the impeller within 0.5-2 mm. The larger the diameter of the impeller, the thicker the sheet should be taken.
First, unroll the impeller. The dimensions of this scan are shown in Figure 3. Here the numbers do not indicate millimeters, but fractions of the radius of the impeller blade. To obtain dimensions in millimeters, multiply the indicated numbers by the selected radius of the fan impeller. Then give the impeller blades the desired profile - knock them out on a blank. Make a blank from hard wood according to the dimensions indicated in Figure 4. Here the dimensions are also given in fractions of the impeller radius.
How to get such a blank? It is processed using three curved patterns. These templates are made from flat templates (Fig. 5). You will find the bending radii of bent templates and the dimensions of flat templates in the table. Bent templates are used to check the correct manufacturing of the blank according to three sections I-I, II-II, III-III. Align the ends of the template arc with the corresponding vertical marks on the sides of the blank. Make sure that the axial marks on the templates and blank are located in the same plane. Templates are easiest to make from tin. But any metal or plastic sheet will do, only the working edge of the templates should be made no thicker than 0.5 mm.
The working surface of the blank must be smooth and smooth. To do this, it must be thoroughly cycled and sanded. Only after this can the blades of the fan impeller be knocked out on it. To prevent the impeller blank from moving when hammering out, nail it in the center to the blank. And to increase the rigidity of the blades, after knocking them out at the root of the blade along the axis, make small indentations - ridges.
The bushing for seating the impeller on the axis of the electric motor is machined to lathe, or done manually as shown in Figure 6. The impeller and bushing are connected with rivets or screws.
Once the fan impeller is assembled, be sure to balance it statically.
We have already said above that the fan can be made with or without a housing. Figure 1 shows one of the possible options structures with housing. Other designs are also possible.
Many suburban buildings need ventilation. Without it, houses and sheds become damp, cellars and basements get wet, and using a closet without a fan is, to put it mildly, uncomfortable.
Of course, equip the toilet or cellar with an electric supply or exhaust fan It’s not difficult, but many country houses are not always electrified. But the fan that I want to tell readers about does not require electricity - it is driven into rotation... by a rotary wind engine.
Anyone can make such a device. Its entire “mechanics” consists of a rotary wind engine and a 12-blade fan. Both are mounted on the axle of a bearing unit, which uses a bushing from the front wheel of a bicycle. The latter is secured with M4 bolts and nuts in the center of a circle cut from a sheet of plywood 8 mm thick.
The rotary wind turbine is assembled from a pair of half-cylinders and two disks made of 6 mm plywood. An old one will serve as a good blank for half-cylinders. aluminum pan or a bucket. A plastic container of appropriate size will also work. The pan is carefully cut along the diametrical plane and secured between a pair of plywood disks as shown in the pictures.
1 – wind fan; 2 – play closet; 3 – ventilation pipe; 4 – sump
1 – rotary wind turbine; 2 – nut securing the wind turbine to the shaft; 3 – bearing unit (hub from the front wheel of the bicycle); 4 – fan impeller (steel or duralumin sheet s2); 5 – self-tapping screw for fastening the wind fan on the ventilation pipe (12 pcs.); 6 – ventilation pipe (square box made from s20 boards); 7 – nut securing the fan impeller to the shaft; 8 – receiver (plastic basin); 9 – M5 bolts and nuts for fastening the bearing assembly on the receiver cover (3 sets); 10 – receiver cover (s8 plywood)
1,2- end washers (plywood, s8); 3, 4 – rotor semi-cylinders; 5 – corner for joining half-cylinders and washers (6 pcs.); 6 – fastening of half-cylinders and washers (M5 bolt with nuts, 12 sets)
Making a fan impeller
(A – blank, B – finished impeller)
Fan impeller – 12-blade; It can be made from a steel or duralumin sheet about 2 mm thick. After making a flat piece, each impeller blade is bent twice, as shown in the photograph, approximately 90 degrees, and the direction of bending will depend on what kind of fan you need - supply or exhaust.
The wind fan is installed on top of a kind of receiver, which is a small plastic basin, in the bottom of which a hole is cut for a ventilation pipe (asbestos-cement or knocked together from boards). In the upper part of the receiver (above the fan impeller), holes are cut for the outlet (or intake) of air.
The finished unit is fixed on top ventilation pipe- and it will continuously (and completely free!) ventilate your toilet or cellar.
I. KHOROSHEVSKY
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