How to Remove the Original Equipment Fan from Your Laser Cutter

[@tresgarcia1725]

Great video! I just got the AF2028 - 80W and have my AC infinity 6" inline fan set at the end of a 20 foot exhaust. It is working great so far, but you still have a to wait a few for the smoke to clear when cutting (sand plywood). Casually chatting with an HVAC expert, they said that the extension fan would be limited by the output of the internal fan as well as the diameter of the exhaust hose. However, running them together will increase the suction vs just running the internal fan. Looks like I will be following your lead this weekend! 🤓

[@GreylightMay]

I really appreciate this information. It fits my experience and makes sense. Check out the comment above where a viewer suggested using a wire cover instead of the one that comes with it; I'm definitely going to look into that. I don't think there is much that would get sucked into the hose, but some kind of cover makes sense and wire would definitely let air through more easily. Let me know how it goes, we have the same machine!

[@ronm6585]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, Ron! Kind of a niche topic, but as long as I'm doing something I like to share for those who might be interested. Next week I'm doing a project that requires I turn the fan off, so hopefully taking the fan out will give me the results I'm looking for!

[@NiHaoMike64]

Replace the drilled plate with a wire fan grill, much less restriction.

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks for the tip, Mike, that makes complete sense! I'm hoping this 6" size is a standard item?

[@NiHaoMike64]

@@GreylightMay Look up the part number of the fan to get the official size in millimeters.

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, Mike, will do!

[@BsrlinMAZ]

I need a small bit of clarification please: prior to removing the fan which came installed in the laser cutter you had an inline fan installed and vented outside, correct? When using the laser cutter would both fans run at the same time? If yes, then it seems a bit counter-intuitive that you now get better exhaust results with only the inline fan versus having them both running. Was the original fan working as it was supposed to work, or did it possibly have a problem causing it to run at a much slower speed than it was supposed to, so it was causing less air-flow by running at very low-speed and actually hindering air-flow by simply "being in the way"? I've had fans on computers that have slowly died over time, and they would gradually spin at a slower speed that was not obvious to the naked eye...without having some sort of gadget that could measure the RPM/speed of the fan I could not tell by looking at it if it were running at 100% versus 50-60%. Anyway, sorry for rambling. Thank you for sharing this guide. I have a different brand/model of laser cutter/etcher and will investigate taking out the pre-installed fan. Thank you for your time and assistance.

[@GreylightMay]

First of all, I totally agree it is counterintuitive that two fans are less than one, which is why I didn't make this change for months, even though I had read in many places I should do it. I'm not an engineer, so I can't really explain the fluid mechanics. The original fan does have significantly less capacity than the inline I installed, so it WAS a choke point of sorts for the system, but I was also told that it sets up some flow issues. This is why the guy from OmTech asked about the distance between them. Apparently, the greater the distance, the less impact from the flow anomalies. My advice is to not make this change based on my video. Do some research until you are comfortable with the science and then come back to my video if you want to proceed and want tips on how to do it. If you run across a good engineering explanation in your research, please let me know and I can add that link to the video description!