# I need help with oscillating fan prop



## Cassie7 (Sep 16, 2007)

I need help with an oscillating fan prop. I removed the fan blade and replaced the cage. In this prop, the cage is in the chest area.

I did a test run last night and let it run and oscillate for an hour and the motor became pretty hot. I ran another fan (with blade) without a prop as one would normally run for an hour with no real heat coming off the motor at all.

I have read that many people have a problem with the prop motors burning out after an hour or two.

As you can see from the pic below, I have the back of the fan motor open to the air and totally unobstructed. (I was planning on painting that part black if this worked out).

Is there anyway I could make this work without over heating the motor? I thought since I had the vented part of the motor unobstructed, it wouldn't be a problem. But it still gets hot.


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## Cassie7 (Sep 16, 2007)

I've made a 6inch pitched blade out of plastic (from a milk jug) to attach in the cage to hopefully add circulation but I don't know if that'll fix the problem. I'll try it out tonight.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

It looks like you got that fan motor enlcosed too much in fabric and plastic. If you can, open up the back to let air in. If no one is going to see the back anyway, and it looks like they won't unless you want them to see the motor, just dress the front of it. Fan motors need air, and it looks like your homemade fan blade will be be off balance and cause your prop to vibrate uncontrollably.


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## Beepem (Jul 17, 2006)

I too would suggest opening up the back more.

edit:

Maybe you could put the fan blade on backwards? Would that make the wind cool off the motor?


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## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

Also, make sure the front of the motor housing is unobstructed. The idea, I believe, is the fan blades pull air thru the back of the motor to cool it. You've removed the blades, so you must keep as much free air flow as possible.


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## Beepem (Jul 17, 2006)

Yeah budman, that sounds right considering the vent holes in the back. Never thought of that before...


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## Cassie7 (Sep 16, 2007)

I added my little hand made propeller, opened up the back of the costume a bit more and it's been running for two hours now without a hint of over-heating.

Another prop is born! WhooT!


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## Dreadnight (Jul 9, 2006)

Cassie, if you still have any problem with it, another technique is to use a small desk fan behind the figure's head, blowing air into the big fan's motor. Again this depends on people not being able to see behind your figure (maybe spray paint the small fan black) and you need a place to mount the small fan.


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## Cassie7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks Dreadnight, but that little blade I added made all the difference in the world. I carved it out of a plastic milk jug and pitched it. It added just enough circulation to prevent the over heating.


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## Cassie7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Here are a couple pics of my fix...

This shows how I opened up the back of the costume a little...









This shows the blade I added for air circulation. You can also see a foam block that I used to fill in the space between my thin blade and the knob that screws down to hold it in place...









Prop almost finished...I put a fan torch in his right hand and will put something else in his left hand. The hands are actually my home made zombie arms and their armature is made of 16 ga wire so they're fully posable (there is a how-to on my homepage)...


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## Beepem (Jul 17, 2006)

Well thats good to hear. Glad it worked


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## BobC (Aug 23, 2005)

*Fan Motor Monsters*

In the past when I made my fan motor monsters I removed the cage and blade completely threw them out. hack sawed off the shaft that the blade rode on flush so nothing is left sticking out. I got an old lid from a nyquil bottle and epoxied the lid over the shaft hole leaving nothing to rub as to start a fire etc.
I opened up the back by carefully drilling nice big holes and most of my motors last me two seasons before replacing I have one knock on wood that Im going on like four or five seasons with. If your using a mask cut out the back of the mask to fit around the back of the motor as to let that fresh air flow I just epoxy my masks in the back. Hope this helps later all. :jol:


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## Madame X (Oct 16, 2007)

Wow that is a nice idea and a nice prop


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## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

Just make sure the motor gets air, or it will burn out.


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## Denhaunt (Aug 18, 2006)

You might try taking the casing off the back of the fan and expose the "guts". I have a fan operated prop that I had problems with. For my solution, I put the whole thing on a motion sensor so that It only ran is short bursts when needed. I ran all season and didnt have a problem after that.


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## Lotus (Nov 12, 2004)

i love the hands


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## Hauntmore (Sep 14, 2007)

I second the motion detector. For our fan head werewolf, I used a motion detecting floodlight, with a light socket to electrical plug screwin convertor. It turned on the fan, a tape playing wolf howls, and strobe light. One year we had "wolfie" in a little alcove alongside the walking path. It would come on howling as they walked by, and they didn't have enough time to recognize it was fake.


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