Working in the summer at the computer, or just on vacation, sometimes you want a slight breeze, a “local” coolness. The airflow of an office air conditioner doesn't create the sweet comfort of a gentle, directed blow that a mini fan provides. It is very easy to make such a device with your own hands.
How to make a "personal breeze"
The most famous invention in this field since ancient times is folding fans. They were made from colored paper and ostrich feathers, from painted silk and carved bamboo sticks. Such a device has only one drawback: to obtain such a desired coolness, you need to hold it in your hand, which is not always convenient. It is ridiculous to imagine a manager or an economist working at a computer and fanning himself with a fan.
Therefore, let's return to our topic and figure out how to provide yourself with a pleasant breath in the heat. To make a mini-fan with your own hands, you need to solve the following few tasks:
- What will be the rotating propeller, from what material.
- Where can I get a motor.
- From what power source will the device work.
- Is it possible to completely do without an engine.
How to make a mini fan?
Let's start with the simplest: making blades. If you take a square from an ordinary sheet of paper, cut it diagonally, leaving about a centimeter intact in the center, you get a blank for a turntable. Then 4 sharp corners they are bent to the middle and alternately strung on a nail, having previously stuck it into the center of the workpiece. That's all! Too bad it's just a baby spinner.
For functional and useful design take 2 CDs or DVDs. From one you get the blades, from the second - a stand for the device.
The circle that has served its purpose is cut into several equal parts (from the edge to the center). To make the process easier, you can hold the plastic for a few seconds over the fire. Each of the resulting sectors of the softened workpiece is slightly rotated around its axis to form a propeller.
What other components are needed in order to assemble a convenient mini fan? Here is the list:
- Cork from a wine bottle.
- Cardboard or plastic tube for mounting the engine to the stand.
- Small motor.
- Two wires.
- USB cable or batteries.
- Good glue, scissors, a strong large nail or awl.
Where to get a micromotor
It happens that in the home bins are stored appliances that no one has been using for a long time. It can be hair dryers or mixers, blenders and children's cars. Even a motor from an old tape recorder, player or some other mechanism may come in handy. We disassemble the unnecessary device and remove the engine, after disconnecting all the wires.
Since we make a mini fan, the motor is from the old washing machine, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner or other large unit will not work due to its size and noise.
Continuation of the assembly of the device
A hole is made in the cork and placed on the axis of the selected engine. To fix the shaft, it is pre-coated with glue. Then, a propeller cut from the disk is fixed with glue on the part of the axis sticking out of the plug hole.
Next, glue the paper tube along the diameter with glue and put it on the plane of the second disk. Then the motor is installed on top and its contacts are connected to the leads from the USB cable. If, when plugged into the computer port, the propeller spins in reverse side, you need to disconnect the contacts, swap them and solder them again.
By connecting a battery to such a device, you can use it anywhere in the room, in the car, near the pool.
Wind turbine without engine
How to make a mini fan at home and do without a motor? A very popular option is to create a device using small neodymium magnets.
They take the cooler from the computer and separate 4 transformer coils from its case. Instead of copper windings, you need to install and fix the same number of pieces of a magnet. Usually they buy neodymium in the form of semi-arcs or remove them from an unusable hard drive. The magnets are placed exactly in the places where the transformer windings were removed, that is, along the perimeter of the cooler frame.
As soon as the last piece is fixed, the mini-fan will begin its rotation. Using technology with permanent magnets, it is possible to assemble an almost perpetual motion machine. To stop it, one of the pieces of neodymium that replaced the coil is removed from the circuit.
The field of the magnets must be equal in strength to the field of the disconnected coils, otherwise the propeller will not be able to rotate in a constant stable mode. The poles are arranged diagonally, alternating plus and minus.
What to do if none of the above methods are suitable, if there is not enough time or details to homemade fan? In this case, you will have to use the usual factory product.
Summer has come, which means heat, heat and an eternal lack of coolness. But this problem is fixable, and pretty easy. You only need a few details and some free time to make your life easier with your own hands, fill it with light coolness, which you will certainly get by making USB fan at home. Of course, you can go and buy a fan in the store, but how nice it will be to sit near the same computer, and a light breeze will blow on you from the USB fan you created. And a thing created by one's own hands always pleases not only the eye, but also develops selfishness.
We offer you to watch a homemade video - usb fan:
Tools for usb fan:
- Regular CD (not necessarily new);
- A tube of silicone glue is empty;
- Wooden block;
- Mini disk;
- USB cable;
- Motor;
- Holder;
- Adapter;
- Silicone glue gun.
Three holes must be made in the tube, one in the lid, and two on the sides. Holes are easy to make using a regular nail, which must first be heated.
AT wooden block it is also necessary to make a slot or recess. This can be done easily with sandpaper.
The mini disk easily turns into a propeller. To do this, it must be drawn into uniform blades, then heated stationery knife and cut along the pre-drawn lines. And after that, we heat the base of each blade with a lighter and with the help of our hands we bend each blade a little to make a propeller.
We take the motor, holder and adapter from a non-working CD drive.
Now let's start assembling the USB fan.
Heat up the glue gun. Lubricate the holder along the axis silicone adhesive from a glue gun. The propeller must be firmly planted on this glue. Press on all sides. Then, on the other side of the holder, we drip a drop of glue and glue the adapter. We are waiting for the glue to dry well. This usually only takes a couple of minutes.
Now we take a tube of silicone glue, remove the lid and grease the inside with silicone glue. And inside we insert the motor so that the part that we will connect sticks out of the hole that we originally made.
Then we put the USB cable into the side hole of the glue tube and connect the ends of the wires to the motor.
It is necessary to pour silicone glue into the recess in the wooden bar, and put the wire from the USB cable tightly there, and glue the tube with the motor inside to the base of the bar. And on the other side of the bar, glue the CD on silicone glue.
Now the propeller must be mounted on the side of the adapter glued to it on the sharp edge of the motor, which sticks out of the hole in the glue tube.
And finally, our USB fan can be plugged in and get that long-awaited coolness.
Throughout the long winter, we look forward to pleasant summer days, and with the onset of a hot season, for some reason, we begin to dream of coolness. How deliciously the light breeze created by a small homemade fan will help restore strength and relieve fatigue. Plus, making it is incredibly fun, right?
We invite you to familiarize yourself with step by step instructions on assembling the simplest effective devices from literally junk raw materials. The article presented to your attention details how to make a fan with your own hands and what a home master will need for this.
At your disposal detailed description production of options, the action of which has been tested in practice. You can make such devices with your own hands, without having any experience at all. For a complete understanding of the information attached step by step photos and video instructions.
The simplest fan can be made from CDs. It can be used, for example, for local impact on a user who spends a long time at the computer.
Let's prepare the source materials for the work:
- CD discs - 2 pcs.;
- low power motor;
- cork from a wine bottle;
- wire with USB plug;
- a tube or rectangle made of thick cardboard;
- soldering iron;
- candle or lighter, hot glue;
- pencil, ruler, checkered paper.
For our purposes, you can use a motor from old toy, for example, from a typewriter. As a cardboard tube, a sleeve from a roll of toilet paper slightly ennobled with decorative finishing paper is suitable.
The main advantage of this model is that almost any do-it-yourself lover can find all the materials that are necessary for its manufacture.
The process of assembling a mini fan is quite simple.
Let's take one of the CD disks and use a marker to divide its surface into eight identical sections. The easiest way to do this is to use a piece of squared paper.
Let's draw a cross on it from a horizontal and vertical line. Each of the four resulting right angles is divided in half. Using cells, this is quite easy to do.
Using a very simple method using a checkered leaflet, we can achieve a perfect layout of the disk into eight equal sectors.
We impose a disk on our drawing so that the intersecting lines are in the very center of its hole. Alternately applying the ruler to the lines diverging from the center, we make markings on the disk. So the sections will be the same.
To divide the disk into blades, you should draw a soldering iron along the marking lines from the transparent part to the edge.
Scissors can also be used for cutting, but there is a danger that the workpiece will crack during operation. If there is no soldering iron, you need to use a knife preheated on the stove. When working with a soldering iron, welded plastic is formed along the edges of the cut, which is easily removed with a knife.
Cutting the disk with a soldering iron is the most effective method, at which the workpiece will not crack or deform, and the remnants of the deposited plastic can be easily removed with a knife
We heat the surface of the disk over the flame of a burning candle so that the blades can be slightly expanded. If there is no candle, a lighter or blow dryer will do.
The central part of the disk should be heated, and all the blades should be turned in the same direction. Placed in the opening of the disk wine cork. To better fix it, you need to pre-treat the edges of the hole with hot glue.
The USB cable must be connected to the motor. If we do not guess with the direction of rotation of the propeller, it will be possible to swap the occasions, that is, change the polarity.
The motor must be glued to the cardboard tube, and the tube itself to the second CD, which will act as the base of the stand.
When the plug is installed in the hole, the support of the second CD and cardboard tube, as well as the connecting device are already assembled, it is very important to properly fit the propeller on the motor shaft
Now the propeller needs to be “landed” on the stem of the future fan. We will try to make sure that it is installed strictly in the center. You can fix it in this position with hot glue.
After completion of all work, the fan is ready for use.
Although the construction of this device will not take you much time, but the result of the work done will undoubtedly please you.
How to make a similar, but slightly more complex design by including a regulator in the circuit, look at the video posted at the end of this article.
Do you find this homemade instructions complicated? Then you may be interested in information about and the rules for choosing them in order to purchase a ready-made appliance offered by manufacturers of household appliances.
Plastic bottle fan
What our craftsmen do from plastic bottles! It is time to say that the fan from them also turns out to be very good. It may not ventilate your entire room, but it will definitely help someone who is forced to work at a computer.
We offer two options for creating such a fan model.
Option #1 - hard plastic model
To do the job, we need:
- plastic bottle with a capacity of 1.5 liters;
- motor from an old toy;
- small switch;
- Duracell battery;
- marker;
- scissors;
- candle;
- hammer and nail;
- Styrofoam;
- hot glue gun.
So, we take an ordinary plastic bottle of 1.5 liters with a cork. At the level of the label line, cut off its upper part. It is she who we will need to make the propeller. We divide the surface of the plastic blank into six parts.
We try to mark it so that we get equal sectors: the quality of the future device depends on this.
We cut the workpiece according to the markup almost to the neck. We bend the blades of the future propeller and cut off every second of them. We are left with a blank with three blades equidistant from each other. The edges of each of the blades must be rounded. We do it carefully.
To remove those parts of the blades that are closer to the neck of the workpiece, it is better to use a utility knife; do not forget to round the edges of the blades
Now we will need a small candle. We light it up. We heat each blade on it at the base in order to turn it in the direction we need. All blades must be turned in the same direction. We remove the cover from the workpiece and in its very center we punch a hole with a nail and a hammer.
We put the cork on the rod of a small motor. Such motors can remain from old children's toys. As a rule, getting them is not difficult. We fix the cork with glue.
Now you need to make a base on which the motor will hold. For this purpose, we take, for example, a piece of foam. We fix a rectangle on it, which can also be cut out of the foam packaging.
On the upper surface of this rectangle, our motor will be fixed, to which the propeller is attached. To do this, in the foam, you need to make a recess corresponding to the parameters of the motor.
Hot glue is used to fix the elements of the product. In its absence, other adhesives can be used. It is important that the mount itself is as reliable as possible.
The fan is not a complex 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 already options that are not so important.
It is not at all necessary to buy a fan, because it is quite possible to make it yourself. Moreover, this does not require special skills of the master.
With due skill, homemade model it 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 simply get 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 conventional electric motor
Probably the easiest and fast way to get a self-assembled home-made fan is to find an ordinary 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 knick-knacks from the Celestial Empire ply. And if not, then just buy an inexpensive one. toy car and remove the motor from it.
But expect the impossible from such a device is definitely not worth it. Rather, it can only slightly drive air. But for a desktop model it will do. He will be able to blow the face of the person 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 be only within the boundaries of fantasy.
After the motor is ready for use, it makes sense to take care of the power. These can be batteries, as in the toy for which the motor was intended. But, of course, such 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, don't overdo it. Direct connection through the plug is a sure way to burn out the motor. So do not experiment, trying to spin the engine up to high speeds. On toys, electric motors are usually designed for 3-4.5 Volts, and the desire to give more rotation due to powerful energy sources, firstly, will quickly land the source (if it is a battery), and secondly, it will seriously reduce the life of the fan up to breakage. The motor will start to heat up, 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, which is ideal for the motor.
To create the blades, you can already take any material. The main thing is that it should be light. Due to the weakness of the motor, the less the blades weigh, the faster the rotations will be, and, therefore, the efficiency of the work.
- The easiest option is to take a cork from an ordinary plastic bottle, which will serve as a fastener for the blades. Make a hole in the bottle according to the size of the rotating axis of the electric motor.
- Blades can be made from a regular CD. A hole is burned in the center according to the size of the cork from the bottle. The circumference of the disk is divided into 8 sectors. They are cut for some distance, but not to the center. After that, the disk must be heated with fire in order to easily bend the blades. For this, a lighter is suitable.
Creating Blades on CD
- You can attach the disc to the cork with glue. The second option - when a hole is burned in the middle for the cork - immediately connect the structure. The melted plastic will harden and hold firmly.
- After all this, the structure is interconnected. Wire is suitable for the stand. This is perhaps the easiest option. And for such a light device, you can’t imagine better. You can bend the skeleton in such a way as to discreetly hide the batteries there. Or carefully run the power supply wire going to the motor.
- The circuit should not always be closed if batteries are used, so a button must be fixed on the case. She is inexpensive. You can use it from the toy from which the motor was removed.
Another version of the propeller device is the use of paper, only thick. The method is even simpler, but less practical.
Advice! When experimenting, remember that the larger the fan blade area, the more noisy it will be. On the other hand, small blades do not move air as efficiently.
How to make a paper fan
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 rigidity.
But even despite all the disadvantages, craftsmen even make quite nice samples from paper. Of course, we are talking about thick paper or cardboard. Strong material from boxes is good. A regular motor or cooler, an on / off button and wires are also useful.
Simplest table fan using cardboard
An 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. All at the request of the master. The motor can be mounted on a wooden or cardboard bar. The stand will also go from paper or an old computer disk.
It is only important not to forget that such a fan turns out to be very light, which makes it shaky in operation. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen the body. Old batteries, bolts or nuts are good.
How to make a plastic bottle fan
Crazy Hands' favorite raw material - plastic bottles - are almost perfect for creating your own fan. For a propeller, the top of a standard round bottle works well. It is necessary to cut off the part with the cork just above the glued label.
- The part of the bottle with the cork will be the blades. To do this, the plastic before the cork needs to be cut so that several different petals are obtained. After one, the petals are cut off at the base. The rest are the future propeller blades.
Plastic bottle fan blades
- To shape the blades and twist them a little, you can use a candle or a lighter. The main thing is not to overdo it, because the plastic is soft and can catch fire. The task is to warm it up a little, and not set it on fire.
- The cork will be the base of the propeller. A hole is made in it according to the dimensions of the axis of the motor. To keep the connection firmly, you can put it on glue.
- Now is the time to think about the foundation. The rest of the plastic bottle is also suitable for it. A hole is cut in it to firmly place the cork with the blades at a right angle. It is necessary not to forget to weight 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 the 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 good base. But then you will need Additional materials. For example, regular drinking straws.
Simple and lightweight bottle fan
How to make a usb fan
But the most convenient and simplest fan is exactly the old cooler, which can also be used. For example, put it on the table, and it will cool, only not the processor or video card, but the person.
The advantages of this design are obvious: the cooler is very reliable, because it is his job to constantly turn the impeller and cool something. Yes, and getting coolers is easy. It is enough to either find an old computer, or order a new fan or buy it in a store.
The cooler device is simple. This is a ready-made fan in a plastic case. Two wires (usually red and black) depart from it.
Regular computer cooler
Making a USB fan is a matter of minutes:
- The wires on the cooler are stripped by 1-2 centimeters.
- A regular USB cable is taken, at the end of which you also need to get rid of the insulation. The standard USB cord has four wires inside. Of these, you should choose black and red. Cut off the rest so as not to interfere, 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.
- It remains only to think about the holding device. Here the already familiar wire, which takes any shape, can come in handy. For a fan case, it will do even cardboard box, and if you spend a little more time and effort, you can even build a real design object.
Design approach to the design of the fan
It is very convenient when the fan turns on when you start the computer. In addition, modern blocks have several USB outputs at once. It turns out that such a device will not interfere.
Another point - 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, phones today make chargers that easily turn into a USB cord when the plug is disconnected. Similar equipment can also be used for a fan, making it universal: powered from the network and from the USB port of any computer. Another plus 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 uncommon use of a free cooler (but you can get by with an electric motor) is a bladeless fan. Modern, interesting, with due skill - no less effective - a solution that definitely attracts the eye. The thing turns out to be completely non-standard, spectacular.
For example, here's the perfect appearance bladeless or duct fan model:
This is 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, then you need to try to think through the frame in great detail. Rough edges, roughness - all this will spoil the impression.
Frame bladeless fan is almost entirely a workspace. Do not think that some space technologies are implemented here.
Air circulation is carried out quite prosaically - with the help of rotating blades. They hide in a tuba base. If you take a cooler from a computer, then 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.
Location of the cooler in a bladeless fan
The upper ring is made hollow inside, two-layer. 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 air blows
You can make the frame of a bladeless fan out of plastic, wood, thick cardboard. It is better to use a flexible material so that it can be easily shaped into a ring. Alternatively, use a combined structure. For example, rings are made of cardboard or plastic, and the frame is rigid - made of wood.
You need to cut out:
- four faces for the stand;
- Two circles of the same radius;
- Twist two rings of different diameters.
Then everything is connected together, if necessary - painted.
Meals can be organized in different ways. Universal option– Combination cable for USB connector and pluggable plug for socket.
The device can also be slightly complicated. For example, make a light strip from a diode tape along the edge of the rim. The backlight consumes little energy, but it will add beauty to the fan. And the power supply and wiring, if necessary, can be easily 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 the motors of old fans, ending with others household appliances. Well suited:
- unnecessary ceiling chandeliers with fan;
- old lawn mowers;
- drills;
- hoods.
The only thing you need to get into the voltage corridor, which is required to power the motor. For example, drills most often need 18 volts. But for ventilation purposes, it will be sufficient 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 done from the network. Therefore, you need to think about installing a power supply or connecting a charger. The wiring diagram can be complicated by adding light bulbs, an electronic clock, a radio, a toggle switch or a 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 proper skill, a very good thing can turn out, the real pride of the owner.