The following page is a guide on how to make your own dorm room fan out of (2) 115v fans. In this case, I salvaged (2) 6.77" Comair Rotron fans from a 286 desk/ control cabinet. Honestly, I have no idea exactly what to call the device/ object is came from, as Rensselaer tends to throw out some weird stuff. All I know is that it had several fans, a 286, a 5.25in floppy drive and very legacy looking non-consumer looking peripherals. The difference between this fan project and the last window fan I made is that the fans I am using this time are axial fans, thus they move air parallel to the motor's axis of rotation. The last window fan project used a centrifugal fan axial, also called a blower. Blowers move air perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the motor. Unfortunately, the first dorm fan became too unsteady for everyday operation, as the fan blade assembly was slightly off true, causing a very loud wobble noise from the fan. I tried to balance the fan blade assembly again, but to no avail, I could not get rid of the prevalent wobble.To prevent further damage to the motor, I decided to decommission the window fan and build a new one. I utilized all the electronics from the original fan, as well as the wood.
Axial Dorm Fan
The Axial window fan features (2) 120v AC Comair Rotron fans, an indicator light, a 2.25 amp Variac for adjusting the speed of the fan, an on switch, a C-14 connector for easy plug in, and fan grills to protect your fingers.
Of course, the fan did not start out finished, so here's a close up on my beginning workspace and the components I used to make this project happen. I started out looking for scrap wood, and I eventually came across some extra 1x4's. I then laid out the 2 fans, the Variac and switches on my work table and made some rough measurements. Basically, I created a box with a half an inch of play on each side from the inner components.
Once the box was complete, making the front panel became a lot easier since all I had to do was outline the box onto a piece of plywood. Now, fInding a good piece of plywood is another story.... Don't worry, that is the back side for a reason. the front looks a lot nicer.Luckily, I kept the original metal mount to trace onto the plywood. this aided significantly in cutting out the appropriately sized circles. For this I used my trusty jig-saw.
