I recently broke the cooling fan on my Voxelab Aquila while doing some maintenance, and I'm in the middle of a multi piece print that I would like to finish soon. I found the fan replacement I need, but it's not going to arrive for over a week. I was wondering if it would be ok to print a few things with the broken fan, or if that would be bad for the motor or anything else.
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F Tyrrell
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As long as your ambient temperature is not excessive and you're not using a very high bed temperature, you should be fine.
With insufficient cooling, there is a risk of heat creep - that is, of the heat from the melt zone working its way up to the area where the filament is supposed to be solid, potentially causing jams if it deforms and catches in crevices there. However, the hotend is made to operate in temperatures far above normal room temperature, e.g. in non-air-conditioned spaces, in enclosed chambers for printing ABS, etc.
Just keep the space you're printing in cool and go on printing while you wait for a new fan to arrive. Maybe reduce your bed temperature a bit if you usually use temperatures on the high end (over 50°C).
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
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If the fan is the part cooling fan, you'll have reduced cooling on the part as it is printed. This isn't necessarily going to be a problem, although you may have irregularities in the print surface.
If the fan is the heat sink cooling fan, reduced cooling will be problematic. This could result in heat creep and clogging of the hot end.
fred_dot_u
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I think you'll get weird print artifacts and strange surface errors.
The fan is not balanced and will buzz. This added vibration could be seen as an effect in the finish.
Personally I'd suggest patience and wait for the replacement to arrive before continuing. Or scavenge a suitable fan from something else in the meantime.
Criggie
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