The Canteen -- 9 May 2022

[wrwindsor]

Ugh, so yesterday's fun got two things knocked out.

Who knew a bathroom exhaust fan would eat up most of the afternoon?

I pulled the fan and motor plate out of the hole, cleaned the fuzzy stuff off of the fan and lubed it up so that it would free-spin. Re-assembled (minus the cover) and hit the switch, no spinny. @#$%&

Pulled it back down and ran off to Lowe's to buy a replacement motor.

Motors aren't in the electronics aisles. They're not in the "random household crap" aisles next to electronics, either. I went over to plumbing and found the ductwork section but no fans or fan motors. After a good 20mins of roaming around, I found them over in the fancy bathroom bits aisle. Once there, it took me a couple of minutes to locate the box of replacement motors (with fan wheels). While picking through them I noticed that quite a few had been opened, like they were returns. I grabbed one that was unmolested (still sealed) and headed to the farthest corner of the building to check out with a human. I haven't figured out how to use the self-serve kiosks and still get the military discount, so I always check out in the "pro" counter over by lumber.

Oh, and I gave her cash, which required $8 in return. She didn't have any fivers and only seven singles left in the drawer. She picked up the handset and talked to someone but it was clear that they weren't going to be there for a few minutes. I dug around in my pocket and pulled out a couple of singles, "Hey, if I give you two bucks, can you give me a ten?" Boom, done and done. The couple behind me were grateful, "thank you very much!"

I get home and proceed to swap the motor onto the mounting plate and notice the flippin' motor construction has the bolts pointed in the wrong direction. The bolts clamp the two end bearing caps, one cap is threaded. The bolts go through the threaded end, which is where you stick the plate and drop a couple of nuts on to seal the deal.

For mine, the shaft and the bolts need to stick out the same direction, as the plate sits between the motor and the fan wheel. The one that I brought home had the bolts stick out one way and the shaft sticks out another. After wracking my brain on how I can still make this work, I decided I can run the bolts through the plate, through standoffs (which I didn't have, but I can print!), and then into the motor.

I need to draw out a pair of standoffs in Fusion 360 and print them. Should probably print them in ASA because PLA gets a bit soft if the temps get warm. I whipped out the calipers and started measuring: inside diameter 3.5mm, outside diameter 8mm, height 4.5mm -- this should do the trick.

Get them drawn up and exported, then in the slicer to get some gcode for the printer, and finally uploaded to printer. I was smart enough to prep the printer and start the pre-heat process before firing up Fusion 360. It takes about 45minutes for the printer (and chamber) to be warm, tuned, and ready to go. It took like fifteen minutes start to finish to open Fusion 360 and end up with gcode uploaded to the printer. So we wait.

Once I had my standoffs printed, I reassembled the fan assembly -- worked like a champ!

OK, after all that, what's next? Well, the blackberry beds are priority, so outside it is. That took an hour even though I didn't really have all that many weeds, or so I thought.

By then, the sun is setting and I'm getting hungry, so that day is a wrap.

[chief on one]

I always just unscrew one bolt and turn it around and do the other bolt. when I did bath fan motors in the apartments.

[wrwindsor]

I always just unscrew one bolt and turn it around and do the other bolt. when I did bath fan motors in the apartments.

It's not a matter of assembly sequence, it's a physical construction issue.

exhaust fan motor-available.jpg

The threads need to come out the other side of the motor.

(edit) Like this:
exhaust fan motor-needed.jpg