Replicator 2X Part Cooling Fan Duct for 6028 Blower

This is a counterpart to https://www.printables.com/model/552474-replicator-2x-part-cooling-fan-mount - it's a (fairly simple) duct for a "6048" blower-style cooling fan mounted on the left side of the extruder carriage and pointing down, roughly in line with the heat blocks. It's agnostic to mounts, at least in theory, so you should be able to use it or adapt it to however your fan is held in place. However, it was designed building on https://www.printables.com/model/552474-replicator-2x-part-cooling-fan-mount so you'll see that in the sources.

I used a 6028 fan (approx 60mm diagonal size, 28mm outlet) because I happened to have a 24V 6028 blower fan from an old humidifer. In theory you can load up the fan model in SolveSpace and adjust the size and location, then load the other parts up and the changes should propagate.

The design isn't ideal because it's one-sided cooling and only the left nozzle. The left nozzle thing works for me (I keep PLA-PRO loaded in the left extruder and PETG in the right), and so far I just cope with one-sided cooling, sometimes rotating models with the cooling fan direction in mind before printing. I made this because I could make it in the same tools as my fan mount and it wasn't too hard to print. The subdivision of the airflow should make it a little bit better than a wide-open duct, I think, in addition to making it easier to print.

If you make it, if you don't post a "make" with pictures, it would be great if you left a comment saying how it worked - I can see that this is getting downloaded a lot and I'm curious how well it's working

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

MakerBot

Printer: 

MakerBot Replicator 2X

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

Doesn't Matter

Resolution:

0.2

Filament:

AmazonBasics PET-G Black

Notes:

I printed this on its side, with supports selectively enabled just for the little screw-hole tab. However, my settings aren't dialed in enough to make that useful, so it didn't work. Fortunately it just snapped off easily.

The 3MF file is set up for PrusaSlicer to print PET-G from the Rep2X right nozzle.

If you print this on its side, you'll want to have good bridging performance, but it should be doable. (I don't have very good bridging performance but it was quite usable. In theory I could re-print with the cooling fan on now...) You might be able to print it "standing up" on the fan-end with some selective supports for that initial edge: I did this for the previous iteration of this design.

Probably use something more heat-resistant than PLA: I used PET-G, but ABS would also work.

Post-Printing

Attachment

Since I failed to print the screw tab successfully, I just used aluminum foil tape to connect the duct to the fan before screwing the fan onto the mount. If you follow this approach, make sure to tape all 4 sides - initially I taped only 3 (as seen in the picture) and had it fall off/get knocked off somehow after a few days.

How I Designed This

This is made using the free parametric CAD software SolveSpace. I actually started by linking/referencing the model for the fan mount, which is why there are so many SolveSpace files in this thing: it's all the files for the fan mount, plus the file for the duct itself (whole-thing-3.slvs)

Yes, it's underconstrained and a bit slow to modify: it's a fairly complicated model. Most parts of the profile can be just dragged around to adjust them.

More Information

For more details on Replicator 2X part cooling, please see the fan mount I've posted, linked several times above.