MakerGear Forum

MG finally released the M3 cooler STL's so I thought I'd give it a try on the M2. I enlarged the cooler to 126% so it would fit the M2 stock 50mm fan and had to make a quick bracket to fit my modify extruder drive. The new cooler definitely localizes the air flow right at the nozzle compared to just the stock fan blowing everywhere.

I kind of just eye balled the placement when designing the bracket so the air flow would point right at the nozzle.

The fan sits a little offset now because the cooler actually blows at a 45 degree angle toward the nozzle now. But this also allows it not to hit the frame when the carriage is parked.

I don't know if this is an accurate test but I just tried to print some 1.5" tiny cones to see what would happen.
#1 is with no fan.
#2 is with the stock fan and placement.
#3 and 4 are with the M3 Cooler
#5 is with a Blower type fan w/a nozzle.

From my quick tests the M3 Cooler works better than the stock fan and about the same as the Blower fans setups I use. I think I'm going to stick with the blower fans though just because they allow a better view of whats going on at the hot end.

pretty slick. what filament?

The test was done with PLA.

Nice experiment. Which blower fan do you use? I get a little warping on thin spires, I'm using the stock cooler with a wire guard (oem is very noisy) and a slightly different mount for an LED strip.

Vandal968 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:36 am

Nice experiment. Which blower fan do you use? I get a little warping on thin spires, I'm using the stock cooler with a wire guard (oem is very noisy) and a slightly different mount for an LED strip.

Remove the guards much quieter and a lot more air flow.

Vandal968 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:36 am

Which blower fan do you use?

I use these Blower Fans I found on Amazon and the nozzle I made can be found HERE.

-Steve

airscapes wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:00 pm

Remove the guards much quieter and a lot more air flow.

Agree. I'm actually using a wire guard on the top fan that blows on the extruder to protect my Noctua fan, and the big fan that blows on the print itself has been unguarded for several years. I'm still very surprised that MG doesn't offer a "Quiet kit' for $80 that swaps the fans and guards and adds the nema isolators. I bet at least half of all customers would order it. Plus, almost every review of the MG lists noise as one of the few downsides. Mine is nearly silent thanks to these mods that I found on this forum.

cheers,
c

sthone wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:30 pm

Vandal968 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:36 am

Which blower fan do you use?

I use these Blower Fans I found on Amazon and the nozzle I made can be found HERE.

-Steve

Thank you.

cheers,
c