Had been having issues with my Malyan MA21 belt printer burning out the bearings on the rear mounted 30mm fan that comes stock on the machine. After replacing the 30mm hot end cooling fan not once but twice, I decided to look into designing a print head that used a fan that was further away from the hot end fins. After looking around to see what spare fans I had kicking around I found a 40mm fan that would produce enough airflow to keep the hotend cool.
Initially I'd used Dassault Systèmes Solidworks to do my 3D modelling, the same software that Dassault uses to make their fighter jets.. However the damn thing is more complex than AutoCad so I ended up getting shown TinkerCad.com and started to learn how to use it. While TinkerCad is far more simple an application for 3D modelling I find it suffices for most of what I wish to design.
If you happen to have a Malyan MA21 belt printer and keep blowing out your rear 30mm fan, you can find this new 40mm print head assembly which uses all stock parts minus the 30mm rear below:
Malyan MA21 Print Head 40mm
You can use the stock blower fan for the printing tip, but a 24v 40mm is required to side mount, blowing inwards to emulate what the stock 30mm fan once did. Not only is this print head lighter weight, but it also has better airflow and runs much more quiet.
While the Malyan MA21 has some horrible reviews on Amazon, the fact of the matter is for the current $399 USD price, it's a great belt printer that opens up massive ability to print items you'd otherwise not be able to. And as a bonus the Malyan MA21 printing on a 45 degree angle allows you to print things without supports that generally would require them.. Pretty damn neat!
