Woodworking Q

[cdbrown]

Hi all,

Trying to work out how I should mount the cabinet intake and exhaust fans.  The picture I have in my head is on either side of the cab (meaning the side wall) there will be an intake fan towards the bottom front and an exhaust near the top / rear.  The reason is I have the clear plastic fans with 3 bright blue LED's and they look pretty cool and are fairly quiet.

I would prefer to flush mount the fan or perhaps just having the fan sticking slightly out of the wall.  Problem is when looking at the fan there are the mounting flanges front and back which are square with rounded edges.  while the middle section is rounded.  Hard to explain so I attached a very rough sketch.

I have had a good look at the fan and don't see an easy way of taking it apart so I was thinking that I might just have to cut a circular hole in the panel and cut the fan flange back to a size that will fit through the holes.

Has anyone done this before or thought about it?

Cheers
-cdbrown

Still biting off more than I can chew

[BobA]

When I have mounted a fan it is usually inside the case with a round hole the same size as the fan.  The flange is inside the case and I use 4 long bolts with nuts that run thru the wood to attach the fan at each corner.  The fan needs a guard so this allows the guard to be mounted on the outside because it uses the same hole pattern as the fan.

BobA

[Tiger-Heli]

Ah, problem is the fan were designed to mount to a metal plate, not a wood panel.

Couple of easy suggestions (test in scrap wood first to see what you think).

Assuming these are 80mm or 92 mm fans. .  .

You could cut a larger square hole in the wood, cut a metal scab patch to fit over the hole, cut a circular hole in the metal patch, bolt the fan to the metal and the metal to the wood, but that would look ugly.

Option 2 - if the fan is about 3/4 inch deep, you could use this approach on the INSIDE edge of the side wood.

Option 3, cut a square hole for the fan, put the next larger size fan grille over it, 92 or 120 mm.  Use zip ties or some combination of screws/washers to hold the fan to the grille.

Option 4 - cut a square hole the size of the fan, in the side wood and use contact cement, RTV, or some other goop to hold the fan in place.

[TalkingOctopus]

I did the same thing as BOB A.  I got the guards from newegg, (ANTEC accessories) when I was placing an order with them.  I used a jigsaw to cut the circles and it was really easy.

I put 3 80 mm fans on the back of my cab -- but I currently only have 2 operating.

I decided to throw a link up to the fan guard I used:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=255&manufactory=1516&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

[cdbrown]

Thanks for the different options Tiger but it probably looks like I'm just going to have to mount it inside the cab with a grill on the outside, but I will test it on a scrap piece before I do anything.  If it doesn't look that good I'll just have them mounted in the back panels .

Thanks again.
-cdbrown