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Thread: Desk Fan

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Fishers, Indiana
    Posts
    554

    Desk Fan

    A little tired of working on big projects, so decided to just make something for fun. My sone had a DC motor laying around that I had been thinking of making into a small desk fan and decided to finally do it. As things progressed, I think I got a little carried away for a desk fan, but it was fun to make.

    I wanted to make something with a kind of retro aviation look to it.

    The body is just a piece of schedule 40 pipe. I made the end plates, knurled knobs, and propeller hub from mild steel plate that I had laying around. I flame blued the steel parts except the body which I just didn't have enough heat to blue.

    The base, uprights and blades are red oak. The uprights were laminated to produce the curve.

    I designed a little PWM speed controller that mounts inside the steal tube along with the motor. The PWM controller gives me continuous speed adjustment from ~30RPM to maximum (I don't know quite what max RPM is, but it moves pretty good air). So why would anyone want to run a fan at 30 RPM? Well it doesn't move any air to speak of at that speed, but it looks pretty cool. The power supply is just a 12V wall wart that plugs into a connector on the back plate.

    As you can see, there is no blade guard, which adds a little to the excitement of using it, but at 12W max power, it doesn't do to much damage even if I am careless.
    100_2673.jpg100_2675.jpg100_2672.jpg100_2656.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    22,492
    Blog Entries
    1
    How fun! Very cool.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    South Coastal Massachusetts
    Posts
    6,824
    Okay - let me be the first to offer you "props".

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,619
    That is really slick.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  5. #5
    Have you had it hit your hand yet? Is it lethal? I love how it looks! I mayhave to make one of these!

    Chris
    "I have worked myself up from nothing to extreme poverty." Groucho Marx
    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChrisPineWorkshop

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Central NJ
    Posts
    835
    That's neat. Did you design the propeller to any particular specifications?

    Doug

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