Lulzbot mini Fan

I have a lulzbot mini and i have printed about 30 things. However, I know that the lulzbot mini has a fan to cool off the extruder and heat block when cooling down before and after prints. For some reason, I have never seen that fan spinning or doing anything. Is that normal? I feel kind of stupid for asking such a newbie question :blush: . If anyone could respond as soon as possible, that’d be great because I would like to know before my warranty runs out.

Thanks SO much,
Ryankimharrison

:smiley:

If you talking about the tiny fan mounted to the front of the extruder, then yes it should be on all of the time. If you mean the larger fan to the right of the print head, it is controlled by the slicer software.

Is there any manual way to control it in Cura?

Thanks,
Ryankimharrison

If you are talking about that tiny little fan, I don’t believe there is any way to control it. If the power to the printer is turned on, it should be spinning. If it’s not, you’ve got a problem. Those tiny little squirrel-cage blowers have had issues. It doesn’t take much to clog them up. IF you are lucky, just cleaning them out will solve the problem.

Some folks are replacing them with a 25mm fan and a printed fan duct (don’t use PLA for this part, the melting/softening point is too low).

Yeah, it looks like Lulzbot has now upgraded the fans shipping with the new 1.4 Gladiola Mini’s and have gotten rid of those tiny squirrel fans. Good change in my opinion.

Here is the link to my original 40mm fan upgrade for my mini.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1587110

and here are a few remixes of my design that Jamie made.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1878444

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2080980

What size fan is Lulzbot now using on the Mini? The photos of the Taz in their store seem to show a 40mm fan, but the Mini pics still look like the old squirrel cage fan.

When my squirrel cage fan finally goes (again), I’m debating whether to go to the 25mm fan mod that someone posted on here, or the 40mm that was posted above. 25mm probably gives better visibility of the nozzle, 40mm more air flow (but is that extra air flow needed)?

I created a 25mm Mini version of the TAZ heatblock fan. It fits exactly where the squirrelcage fan is, including a tiny pocket for the original fan top aligner, which was missing from the TAZ version.


I mounted the fan so that it blows away from the heatsink.

Curious why you chose to have it blow away from the heat sink. Seems as though sucking though a funnel backwards would restrict the air flow. How is it working?

I don’t know for sure, but it looks like 40mm to make buying fans in bulk easier. None of the Mini pictures have been updated for 1.4 Gladiola as far as i can tell.

http://download.lulzbot.com/Mini/1.04/production_parts/printed_parts/heatsink-fan-duct/

To be honest, it’s a mix of gut feeling and a little research. It turns out that removing the heated air from heatsinks seems more efficient and blowing causes turbulance that is believed to hinder heat transport. It also prevents unwanted cooling of the heatblock or even the part. I’ve printed one print in ABS now, so it’s a bit early to draw conclusions. I will get back if I start to get problems…

update: Just did a PLA print (I think the most prone to buckling?) and all went fine, if not better :wink:

I can confirm that it works like a charm. Had a few clogs lately and clicking sounds in the extruder. Probably it skipped steps.
I’ve been printing for a few hours now and the clicking is gone. I did previously try the fan duct that was designed for a Taz that I managed to mount on my mini with the help of a little bit of filing and hacking and that seemed to work as well.
But I noticed the temperature of the heater block was jumping up and down as much as +/- 3 degrees Celsius. Probably due to the fan blowing onto the heater block as well.
Now with MrVanes design and the fan blowing outwards the temperature remains rock solid! I checked the temperature with a thermocouple and the air coming out of the fan is around 32 degrees C (ambient is around 20 C), so I guess it doesn’t hurt the fan.
I used a Sunon Maglev which is very quiet.
I think this is a worthy upgrade for every Lulzbot Mini.