I started up my new Malyan M180, and the first problem I ran into was when I was about to feed filament. I just couldn’t get it into the extruder. The feeding mechanism could only be behind the fan. I started to dismount it with the result that I lost 1 nut and 1 washer (I did eventually find 1 on the floor and one under the heated plate). I am certainly not the first user to run into this kind of problem. Filament breaks, gets stuck and so on. So one has to be able to reach the feeder in a simpler and faster way. Who wants to dismount the fans when you have preheated the extruder for a filament change, just before you are about to print a new design. I don’t!
My goal was to design a fan holder which allows me to dismount the fan without any tools.
This is the result. One just snaps on the fan.
Instructions:
You will need 8 25 mm M3 bolts.

• Dismount the nuts and the fan grid. There are no reason to use this grid, it only causes extra noise.
• Pull the fan out, if you haven’t done it before be careful not to snap the cable to the fan.
• Loosen the tension on the extruder wheel. The screw in the upper middle is actually the axis for the tension mechanism.
• Remove the threaded axis, a good idea is to use 2 nuts that are tightened together.
• Now mount the fan holder with the M3 bolts, these bolts holds the extruder stepper motor so tighten well.
• And now just snap on the fan and you are ready to go.

From now on any problem behind the fans can be fixed in a second!

If you find my design useful please give me a TIP