I've seen several people using 20" box fans in their shops with filters on the intake side to help reduce particulates in the air. I had taken to the idea, but was simply using the suction to hold the filter in place.
Once I finally got frustrated at the filters falling once I turned off the fan, I started looking for alternate solutions. My first attempt was a bent piece of wire that hooked over the fan handle to keep the filter from falling. While it functioned, it was loose enough where moving the fan would cause the filter to fall. From there I looked online for 3D printed parts to use, but most of them are larger clips that would take too long to print. At that point I decided to model and 3D print a small retainer piece to hold the filter in place.
I used Fusion 360 to create the model for this part. I made to to accept the screws that hold the fan grill in place, sitting slightly recessed below the grill. I quickly realized I needed to access the screws, so I added the hole at the top is to allow your screwdriver to fit down
I've printed them several times with several different settings on my Ultimaker 2+. From 0.15-0.25mm layer hight with a 0.4mm nozzle, to 0.35mm layer height with a 0.6mm nozzle. I used Grass Green PLA from Gizmo Dorks, as well as ProtoPasta Highfive Blue HTPLA. They all seems to print well.
I posted the file to Thingiverse and Bob Clagett's I Like to Make Stuff Facebook page. A couple people said I should start selling them - and I promptly said, "No." I really don't want to worry about tracking sales, dealing with broken pieces or incompatible fans, etc. Instead, I offered to send a few their way for free. In exchange I'm asking for their feedback. Hopefully they work well on their fans!
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