I cleaned my fan a few months back and it quieted down quite a bit from the high pitch whine it was making. It was night and day. Yesterday I cleaned my fan and was reminded how much of an impact this cleaning had again as it quieted down a lot.
To clean it, compressed air will remove 90% of this build up or a brush. Do this outside if you can, this fine dust will go airborne. Isopropyl alcohol with cotton swabs will take care of the rest.
Anything you laser produces particles that have to go somewhere.
I’ve read about folks prefiltering the air on their laser cutter exhaust fans but it’s usually with an external fan unit and larger surface areas to last longer. Seems like a smaller filter will just clog quicker vs getting rid of the particulates out the exhaust. I’m pondering using an AC Infinity CLOUDLINE PRO S4 to pull the air out of my laser and removing this 80mm fan. 80mm fans are noisy to begin with.
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I don’t know if it is A1 Pro you have, I have A1 and unfortunately it is a pain in the ** to remove the fan. Need to take half of your machine apart. But there is a lot of gunk on it.
One thing to remember is when you hit a small exhaust or cooling fan with compressed air, you’re basically turning it into a tiny turbine. The air can drive it far beyond its normal operating RPM, sometimes several times faster than it was designed for.
Worn or damaged bearings
Shaft wobble
Premature motor failure
Back-feeding voltage into the control board (on some brushless fans)
Try to block the fan from turning with a pencil or something.
Agreed. I always hold the blade of any fan when blasting with air as this cleans it better as well.
Mine is the Falcon2 Pro 40w - the fan hangs off the side. Not bad to remove to clean. The A1 exhaust fan looks a little more stuffed in the back there? So nice and quiet when you clean the fan after a bit.
I am planning out a new exhaust path with 4” PVC(minimizing turns for lower resistance path) and a 4” duct fan. This is the stock 3” opening currently. I will open this up to 4” for a custom flange to duct and also add another hole to my drawer (already added one 1”x6” opening) to allow more airflow through my enclosure to compliment the duct fan for more air exchange. Will still maintain negative pressure.
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Yes, it’s easier with the A1 Pro than with the A1 because it has two tool-less screws to open a service cover which then allows for easy cleaning of the fan:
Is it easy to unplug as well so you can blow it out with compressed air outside?
