Is the fan on the 3D printing module that is facing downward intended to cool the part or is it cooling something inside the module?
@Tone, it is a good question. I’ve seen some prints/additions to direct the flow onto the print.
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Yeah, I’ve seen that too as well as thinking about my own design for one.
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I know that it is blowing down, what is the intention of the fan? If it is to cool the part, then it should have a shroud to direct it towards the print head.
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Found it on your SnapLinks - Wiki
But this is for an external fan
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That little fan is for coming the stepper motor not the part. On my module it blows up toward the stepper.
Are you sure about that? I believe mine is blowing downward. @kelvin8r is reporting the same. I’ll have to double check.
@Tone @CthulhuLabs now I’m curious which is the correct direction. I don’t think the stepper motors need cooling as much as the hot end or the print.
There are two fans. One is blowing across the heatsink for the hotend, the other as near as I can tell is blowing on the stepper motor. The reason for that is the stepper is in cramped space with the hotend. It heats up it needs active cooling. Neither of those dinky fans is enough for proper part cooling. Thats why I made that external fan and why I am working on using a different controller with Snapmaker.
Mine is definitely blowing downward. I’m wondering if the other fan wasn’t moving enough air through the module and they decided to add the bottom fan to help out?
Edit: The stepper motor really takes up about 75% of the cross section area there, the electronics takes up a bunch of the top area and the bottom fan takes up most of the bottom area so there’s really not enough room for air flow through that end. I would suggest some additional inlet slots in strategic locations to improve air flow.
@whimsycwd? Who’s your main Print module guy?
Looking at the direction of rotation and blade angle, the fan on my friend’s snapmaker is blowing down. I couldn’t get the left side of ABS rafts to stop warping off the bad where the fan was hitting them until I made a deflector out of card stock. Maybe whoever left out the screws in Cthulhulab’s 3d printing module also screwed his fan on upside down. The fan seemed to help PLA printing though, the right side of 3DBenchy where the fan doesn’t reach looks mushy during printing.
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Hi Tony,
The fan next to the nozzle should blow downward. It has 2 functions as you can see in the following figure.
- It is used to cool the print. This is the main function of this fan.
- It can also help cool the motor inside the 3D Printing Module.
@ock10 You can check if the fan is installed correctly by checking the label. If the fan is correctly installed, you can see the label directly.
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@Rainie, thanks for clarifying that. It sounds like that cooling detracts from the successful printing of ABS and a shroud that focuses the cooling of PLA around the nozzle would improve PLA printing. I have an idea for a shroud that could be used for improving PLA printing and then could be rotated into a different position to work for ABS. It might also be useful to be able to control the fan speed and/or be able to turn it off for certain situations.
For example, on our TAZ 6 printer they leave the print area cooling fans off for the first layer and then turn it on for the rest of the print. On the TAZ they can also control the fan speed which likely has different effects for different materials.
I agree with being able to at least slow down the fan. Turning it off for the first layer would help the filament stick to the bed.
I designed a fan deflector that fits on the fan. see pictures below.
it deflect some of the air from the fan to the nozzle.
if interested - the stl file for the print
snapmaker_fan_cover_10mm_v9.stl (141.6 KB)
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My design has a rotating gate that can shut off the flow to the nozzle which is good for ABS. It also has the deflection towards the nozzle go closer and then point down toward the part. It’s still in development but when I’m done I’ll post it on Thingiverse.
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I had the same idea to add to my design to control the airflow. But seeing that you are in the process of designing it i’ll rather wait.
Did you originally have all the air flow pointing towards the nozzle?
Yes i did, but i was worried to restrict the flow to much as the fan’s main job is to cool the stepper motor. this design redirect around 50% of the flow. It also direct the flow downwards to some extend at the nozzle.