How to make a cool desktop USB fan with your own hands? Do-it-yourself fan from a cooler and disk How to make a desktop fan

You are sitting at the computer, summer is outside, there is no air conditioning. The hand is already tired of endlessly fanning itself with a newspaper, and sweat drips from the forehead onto the keyboard. Common situation? If there is no extra money, a homemade fan will help. To make it, you do not need to run to the store for details. Everything you need for a blower is in the house. Don't know how to make a free fan at home? Follow the text!

What is an air cooler made of?

engine
fan blades
stand
power supply

The last point can be omitted if you do USB fan with your own hands. The computer has a voltage of 5 volts. You will need a printer cable, an old "mouse", or any unnecessary device with a USB cable.

If you are a fan of homemade products, there are probably some in the house useful trash. Otherwise, you do not need to know how to make a fan with your own hands.

Did you find an electric motor in the box with unnecessary parts? You can make a fan out of a motor from an old drive or a broken toy. Consider a few examples of how to make a mini fan from improvised materials.

Glue, cardboard, toy motor

To make a small propeller, you will need a piece of corrugated cardboard 30 × 30 cm.

We glue the support in 2-3 layers, the area is not less than two palms. We make a rack for the engine in the form of a prism 10–15 cm high. For cutting, we will use a clerical knife. We bend the design along the line.

How to make a mini fan durable and stable? Let's use glue gun. No other adhesive will make the connection as secure.

We connect with hot glue, and as thick as possible: the design should turn out to be monolithic. The blades can be made from thinner cardboard. Suitable packaging from an accessory for a mobile phone.

This is the most critical element: the blades must be exactly the same in shape and weight. Otherwise, your propeller will vibrate during operation, and quickly fall apart.

We glue the blades (carefully) on a cardboard sleeve, observing aerodynamics. The planes should be turned 30–45 degrees in opposite directions. For simplicity of design, we assemble a USB fan with two blades. They are easier to balance, and such a propeller will cope with cooling no worse than a three-blade one.

Trial run and balancing

We make a hole in the very center of the bushing (using an awl), put it on the motor axis, and carry out a test run. Of course, before assembly, it is necessary to coordinate the angle of attack of the blades with the direction of rotation of the motor. Otherwise, the fan will blow reverse side. If vibration is present, the propeller can be easily balanced by simply crawling the blades. After making sure that the propeller spins smoothly and blows where it is required, we glue the motor onto the stand. Clay do not feel sorry!

We connect the USB cable to the power wires of the engine. Of course, it is better to do this with a soldering iron, but given the meager power, you can get by with a simple twist. The main thing is not to forget to insulate the connection with electrical tape or tape.

How to determine the power contacts of a USB wire

Any USB connector consists of 4 pins. We are not interested in the middle ones, these are information wires. The 5 volt supply is at the extreme contacts. Desoldering in the illustration:

If you reverse the polarity, nothing bad will happen. The motor will just spin in the wrong direction. How to determine the motor supply voltage? There is no need to look for markings. If the toy (where it was installed) is powered by three batteries (1.5 volts each), then the motor is 5 volts. If from two batteries - for USB power supply he won't fit.

CD

You don't know how to make an efficient CD fan? It's easier than it looks. We mark the disk into 8 sectors. An even number of blades is easier to balance if axial runout occurs.

Cut out the blades with regular scissors. You can do this work with a construction knife, or melt the sectors with a soldering iron - big difference No. If you inadvertently break a CD, get a new one.

The extra segments are broken out, the rest are given the aerodynamic shape of the propeller. To do this, it is enough to heat the workpiece over a candle or with a building hair dryer. If you make a mistake with the geometry, you can always correct the situation by reheating. This is the advantage of crafts made from a CD.

Glue a thickening in the center of the structure: any piece of plastic 5-10 mm. We drill a hole in it for landing on the motor shaft.

Where to get an electric motor

In this design, a drive from a disk drive is used. Power supply 5 volts, moderate speed. Most likely, you don't have a disk drive gathering dust on the shelf, it can be found in the system unit. No one uses floppy disks anyway, you can safely disassemble it for spare parts.

Convenient flat motor housing allows you to assemble the fan on a flexible leg. To do this, we twist a piece of single-core copper wire into a pigtail, and wind it to the power cable with electrical tape.

A motor with a propeller is glued to a flexible stand either with hot glue or wrapped with the same electrical tape. Unless you're going to enter a fan design contest, you don't have to worry about aesthetics.

After spending 2-3 hours, you get a convenient portable "device" that can be installed anywhere without leaving your computer.

Aesthetics from a plastic bottle

If you want not only fresh air, but also to make the product pleasing to the eye, we use other materials. The basic components remain the same: a motor from a child's toy and an old USB cable. By the way, you can connect such a fan to a 220 volt outlet using a smartphone charger (with that de USB port).

The highlight of the design is the body. The propeller is made from plastic bottle. The twisted plug will serve as an axial sleeve. The rack can be made from a bunch of straws for a cocktail.

We assemble an elegant base from the second PET bottle and a CD glued from below. With free accessories, you can install a connector and a switch.

Despite the “lightness” of the design, the fan turned out to be quite stable. If necessary, you can put some weight in the case.

Using Factory Parts

We return to the presence in the home workshop of conditionally unnecessary components for the computer. For example, a cooler from a power supply or a system unit.

The electrical part of the work is reduced to a minimum. If the power supply is 5 volts, we work according to the scheme: USB cable. To supply 12 volts, you will have to look for a power supply, or a phone charger. In addition, there are "turbines" that are connected to a 220 volt network.

Actually, to make a fan out of a cooler from a computer, it is enough to fix it on some kind of stand. And if you use batteries instead of a USB cable, you can organize a flow of fresh air anywhere.

Idea #1 - Use a cooler

It will take no more than 15 minutes to assemble a USB fan from a cooler. First you need to prepare the cooler. Two wires come out of the device - black and red, and sometimes yellow, even more rarely - blue. Yellow and blue are not useful to us. We clean the insulation by 10 mm and put the prepared element aside.

Next, you need to prepare the USB cable. We cut off one half of it and in the place of the cut we clean off the insulation with a sharp knife, a clerical one is perfect. Under it you will see four wires, of which two are necessary: red and black. We also clean them, while the other two (usually green and white) are best cut and insulated.

Now, as you understand, it is necessary to connect the prepared contacts in pairs, according to: red with red, black with black using twisting. After that, you need to carefully insulate the cable junctions with electrical tape or heat shrink and make a stand. As for the stand, it's up to your imagination. Someone successfully uses wire, others are very interesting in cutting out a landing nest in a cardboard box.

In the end, a homemade mini fan is connected to a computer or charging box, and you can enjoy the operation of your own electrical appliance.

Cooler idea

Idea number 2 - Use a motor

In order to make a USB fan from a motor and a CD, it will take a little more time, but still, in an hour you can easily make such an electrical appliance with your own hands. A motor for such a homemade product should be chosen with an operating voltage of about 5 volts, maybe a little more. If you take the motor to a lower voltage, then too much current will flow through the circuit and the motor will quickly fail.

First, we prepare all the elements of the device. In this case, you will need to make an impeller (blades).

To do this, we recommend using an ordinary CD. We draw it into 8 equal parts and carefully cut it with good scissors, almost reaching the center. Next, we heat up the disk (it is convenient to do this with a lighter), and when the plastic becomes more elastic, we bend the blades under equal angle(as shown in the photo).

If the impeller is not bent enough, then no air flow will be created during the rotation of the disk. However, if you overdo it, then homemade will also work poorly and unstable.

When the blades are ready, proceed to the creation of the main mechanism. Inside the disk you need to insert an ordinary, cut to right size, a cork from champagne, which must be put on the motor shaft. Next, we move on to creating a USB fan stand for a laptop.

Here, as in the previous version, it all depends on your imagination. Of all the tools at hand, the wire option is the most suitable. When homemade usb the fan will be ready, we connect the wires of the motor to the wires of the usb cord, as in the previous version, we carefully isolate the twist and proceed to the tests.

Let's make a simple fan.
You will need:
1. 3V motor
2. Section for 2 batteries of 1.5 V. I took it in the CHIP and DIP store.
3. Switch.
4. Wire 15 cm.
5. Bobbins from fishing line or ropes, a jar from Polysorb, a jar of gouache.
6. Impeller from the cooler of the power supply.
7. Soldering iron.
8. Thermal gun.
9. Self-tapping screws 11 pcs. 2 cm long.

1. Take bobbins from threads with a diameter of 5 mm and a height of 4.5 cm - from a fishing line or cord.
We mark a hole for the switch with a marker and cut a hole slightly smaller than the size of the switch with nail scissors and insert the switch into the reel:

2. Now we form the fan frame: let's make 3 reels together and mark four holes for bolts or self-tapping screws with a marker on the bottom of the upper reels. We burn holes through the edges of two bobbins:

3. Using a lighter, we melt and clean the red wire from the section with batteries and attach it to one switch terminal, and to the other - the second red wire. To isolate the terminals from contact with each other, fill them with hot glue:

4. We fasten the red wire to the plus + of the engine, and the black one, respectively, to the minus - of the engine:

5. The top can be made from a box of gouache: on the lid with a soldering iron we form a hole for wires and 3 holes for self-tapping screws. And on the box itself we cut a hole with nail scissors a little less than the diameter of the engine and place it inside. As in the case of a switch, you can pour hot glue on the outside for reliability.

6. We put the impeller from the cooler on the cork, fill the voids with plasticine or fill it with paraffin, make a hole in the cork with a self-tapping screw or an awl, fill it with epoxy glue or hot melt adhesive, and put it on the engine. If this epoxy resin- leave to dry for a day and only then turn it on!

From time to time there is a need for a kind of fan, but small models cost relatively much. Do not rush to fork out, because small fan can be easily done with my own hands. In terms of efficiency, it is not inferior to purchased analogues, and its creation will require minimal amount materials.

Creating a fan from a cooler

The easiest way to make a fan yourself is to use an unnecessary cooler (these are used in a computer as a cooling system for components).

Not surprisingly, this method is the simplest, because the cooler is just a small fan. It remains only to make a few simple steps to give it its final shape and performance.

The cooler itself is quite functional, but you need to prepare it for non-standard way usage:

Wires.

If the fan is located near the computer, an ordinary unnecessary USB cable will do. It needs to be cut and the insulation removed (same with the cooler wires):

We are only interested in two wires: red (plus) and black (minus). If there are other colors in the cooler or USB cable, feel free to cut them off and isolate them, because they are absolutely unnecessary and will only interfere.

Compound.

After cleaning, the wires must be connected to each other (it is enough to twist them tightly with each other). Don't mix up the colors. This threatens with serious complications in the process of creating a fan.

For twisting, 10 mm length is enough. If necessary, it is allowed to clean most of the wire, this is not scary, but much more will have to be insulated.

Safety.

Remember that proper insulation is the key to success and a guarantee that the computer or outlet will not short out. Bare wires should be sealed with electrical tape (only in the absence of power), and the thicker it is, the better.

There is no particular point in explaining what threatens the fall of "minus" to "plus". If the red and black wires come into contact during the transmission of electricity, not only the USB wire / port, but also the computer components may burn out.

In principle, computers are not afraid of such moments if they are equipped with protection against voltage surges. But when a wall outlet is used, fixing the wiring in the apartment will be much more difficult than creating a small fan.

Therefore, seriously take care of the insulation of bare parts of the wires. Extra complexity is rarely needed.

Final touches.

Do not forget that computer cooler very light, but at the same time very fast. Even with a voltage of 5 volts, its speed will be quite high. We consider this voltage for a reason: the cooler will perfectly cope with its task, and the operation will be as silent as possible.

Due to the small dimensions of the device, vibration and vibration may cause it to fall. This should not be allowed for the following reasons:

such a cooler cannot cause lethal cuts even during operation, but there are no guarantees that the device will not jump up and fly off, for example, in the face;
falling not on flat surface(on a pencil, pen, lighter) its blades can be damaged: fragments broken off at such a rotation speed can cause irreparable damage;
other unforeseen circumstances.

Therefore, it is important to fix the cooler (with adhesive tape, glue) on some more stable surface: a box, wooden block, table.

Additional functions.

If desired, the finished fan can be updated externally, add a switch (so as not to pull out the cord every time), etc. But attention is also paid to a method that relatively well increases the efficiency of the device.

Simply cut off the top of a plastic bottle and glue it (with a wide hole) to the cooler frame. Thus, the air flow will be more precise and directed: the force of air movement will be stronger by about 20%, which is a pretty good indicator.

This completes the creation of the fan, and it is ready for full-fledged work.

Disk fan

If the previous option does not suit you, and you want something more complex, then consider creating a fan yourself from computer disks:

Engine.

Since we do not use a cooler, it is necessary to acquire some kind of motor that sets the blades of our future device in motion. In fact, you can use the motor of the already mentioned cooler of the cooling system, but this is too simple.

You should find or buy a motor with a certain part of it moving (for example, a protruding iron rod). Since we are making a fan from disks, then the presence of such a rod will the best option. Motors from an old VCR or player are also great, because they spin discs and cassettes - just what we need for a spinning propeller in our fan.

Do not use an engine washing machine or even a past fan - they are extremely powerful. Due to self-assembly of the structure, it will be very flimsy. A strong motor in the first few seconds will spread the fragments of the blades around the room and fly off the base.

If there is a running motor, it must be fastened with wires in the previously mentioned form.

With a running engine on hand, we need to concentrate on the disks, which are the main components of our fan. First, cut one into 8 equal pieces:

In order not to make a mistake during the procedure, you can pre-mark the disk with a pencil. It is best to use a soldering iron (there will be no sharp edges, it is safer), but regular scissors will work.

After that, the disk should be slightly heated with a lighter to make the material more pliable, and bend the wings in the manner of the blades, like conventional fans:

The same can be done with the usual plastic bottle:

In the center of our propeller you need to put a wooden bottle cap. If the size is too big - it can be planed.

The rest of the parts.

As a center holding the entire structure, you can use a regular roll sleeve toilet paper:

It should be fixed in the center of the second disk, which will serve as the foundation for the fan. From above, you can place half of the second sleeve, as seen in the photo, so that the motor is inside it. On it you need to hang the blades from the disk / bottle.

The fan is ready to work. Optionally, you can add decorative elements to make the device look more presentable.

And you can see clearly how such a fan is made from a bottle in this video.

Additionally, it should be recalled that important points while creating homemade fan:

To fasten the parts to each other, you must use high-quality "superglue".

It is the one that cannot be peeled off even if desired. The entire structure must be as stable as possible and not succumb to vibrations and vibrations. Be responsible and glue everything you see, except for the blades and internal parts engine.

Take your time.

You risk missing important detail, and this significantly increases the chances that something will go wrong during the operation of the finished fan. The consequences can be very serious.

Don't use bad parts.

If you do not need the motor that is used to create the engine, its performance may be in doubt. Make sure it lasts for a while and will be effective.

Building an engine from scratch is a highly specialized process and requires good knowledge. Take care that the motherboards are in order, all the necessary connections are soldered well, etc. Better once again check what to do with another fan.

Insulation.

We remind you once again: do not forget about the high-quality winding of wires with electrical tape. You should not save it, because short circuits and their repair will force you to sacrifice big expenses. Perhaps even in terms of money.

A hand-held fan is quite compact, efficient and does its job well. It is not difficult to make it if you take the procedure responsibly and follow the instructions. There are no restrictions on dimensions: if you feel strong, feel free to start assembling the fan bigger size.

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