How to rejuvenate a box fan

Step 7 Reassemble the fan.

Wipe the whole thing down inside and out.
Reattach the grills, the feet and align the power cord collar.
Turn it on, if the fan was not old to begin with you will find a world of difference between the speed of the fan blades before and after the cleaning.

I do this every season to my own fans and these $20 box fans last a lot longer then the manufacturers want them too.

Comments

[wanna beco]

I never have to this. I duct tape a air filter to the back of the fan... I occasionally vacuum that filter. I have had them last decades. and I am very lazy. too lazy to clean like this.

[mikesloane]

Before you start washing stuff, go around the screen with the upholstery tool on a vacuum cleaner and use the "crevice" wand (the narrow pointed one) around the motor to get most of the hair and dusts out. That will save a lot of the mess. As far as the screws, I save the sheet metal screws from all kinds of stuff that I discard - you can always force larger screws into the worn holes in the fan body - you really need everything to be pretty tight to avoid vibration and noise.

[winston3338]

Great Instructions. I have been doing it for years and some of My best fans came from dumpsters. I do brush the motor but You won't believe what comes out of the motor with caned air.

[rustaholic]

When I read rejuvenate_{, I hoped you were going to really work on a fan with a problem.}
The biggest problems I see are worn out motors or stripped occilating gears.
I have tried oiling the motors and got a little use out of a fan.
Mostly what is needed are bushings or spacer washers.
Do you have any experience with these problems?

[potterrandy]

And I thought from the pictures that this box fan was becoming a ceiling fan, based on the pics......and it would be fairly easy to do assuming mounting and wiring would be "easy" , nonetheless a super cheap ceiling fan, out of a recycled product.

[Sinner3k]

A friend of mine (dude that lived on the couch kind of friend) did this exact same thing in the garage of a place I was renting at the time. It was great since he used to hang out in the garage a lot. Instead of duct tape, he used high-test fishing line wrapped around the rafters many times at the corners of the fan. It worked so well, we pretty much never had to sweep the floor during the summer.

[potterrandy]

Good story man, just goes to show that "great" minds think alike! haha.

[Rishnai]

I did duct tape a box fan to the rafters in my garage once... it stuck long enough to be useful. It was a hell of a project cutting it down, though!

[jgodsey]

There i will concede that the $20 box fan may not be worth more than 1 hour of my time to repair. Perhaps the more powerful fans are worth breaking down to fix the motors, but i haven't had much luck with the smaller ones. i have broken down two fans to make one good one however. I think I need to find a someone to teach me small motor repair. that's not something they used to teach girls back in the dark ages. perhaps we need a few instructables on small engine resuscitation.

[Scott_Tx]

Heh, if we could only retro-fit some bearings imagine the air flow we'd get.

[sevesteen]

Most of the dead fans I've revived need the armature shafts cleaned and oiled. Sometimes you can just flush them clean with oil, using the extension tube to get to the back of the shaft. If they do need to come apart, it is usually not more than 4 screws, and the shell will come apart. That lets the armature come out, and you shouldn't need to go any farther. Clean the shafts well, add oil or light grease and reassemble.

[KD7WHQ]

Most small appliance motors can be brought back with disassembly, cleaning, and fresh lube. The bearings in a lot of them, are sleeves of Oilite (r), which is a porous sintered bronze. To really get them clean, is an overnight process. Complete disassembly, and 99% isopropanol + a couple of paper towels.. Tear it down to nuts and lockwashers. Clean the armature shafts with the alcohol. Then put both of the bearings in a container that will allow them to be fully submerged. A lid is a good idea as well. Give the bearings a best-can wipe down with the alcohol, put them in the container, and fill it up with what you have left, or what will cover. Let it six hours or so, agitating occasionally, then remove them from the container to dry. This is where the overnight comes in. When dry, start dripping machine oil on the bearings until they will take no more. Slowly. Drip, and check back in a few minutes. Then put it all back together, checking for binding before calling it done. I've brought lots of things back from "dead" doing this..

[Scott_Tx]

The last fan motor I took apart had no bearings. Metal on metal. It prob came from the dollar store.

[sevesteen]

Those are plain bearings, rather than ball or roller bearings. Most fans (and probably most small-appliance motors) are similar--They have minimal bearing loads, so a more complicated bearing isn't cost-effective or necessary. These will generally be a brass alloy, often porous and impregnated with oil. Steel on brass wears less than either steel on steel or brass on brass.

[KD7WHQ]

You really can't tell Oilite from plain brass, as bronze is much the same color As an addendum, there is usually a felt surrounding the bearing, that supplies oil to the bearing itself. The process I outlined removes ALL the oil and goo, and clears the pores of the bearing itself. That last is the major reason for bearings lacking lube. And goo it is.. Essentially worn out oil, but black goo.. As Sevesteen said, anything more wouldn't be cost effective to produce..

[rustaholic]

With that great info I sure was surprised to see that you have not done any instructables yet. I am headed for a 1600 some mile round trip over the next 2 1/2 days. Then some time next week I will be tackling three motors your way. It will sure beat just squirting a little oil near where it needs to be.

[KD7WHQ]

It'll work ;) And having the oil able to get from the felt to the bearing would improve things, I'm sure. BTW, this is what it took to fix the blower in my portable heater. The fan kept freezing up, no matter the oiling. Did this, and no problems since..