Temp control to major Tom

Something a little different this weekend - playing around with some bits and pieces at home to make a small scale temp control container. The idea being that if small scale worked then I could work on building a bigger one as a place to store my fermenting carboy and keep it at constant temp.

Trust me, I have half an idea about what I'm doing. 

AKA I don't have a spare fridge and let's see what we can build hey? #genius


The idea came about when I was clearing up some spare computer junk I had and I came across an old CPU fan that doesn't actually fit any of the motherboards I have on hand. I wonder how this would work in doing some cooling..

Of course we'll have to remove the 22 years of dust first..

This one has four wires (ground, power, signal and control.) To test to make sure it's still working we're just going to need ground (black) and power which is thankfully right next to it. So we'll pop in some spare lengths of wire to reach a power supply..

Once upon a time I had a whole heap of old computer power supplies that I could use on experiments like this  to my hearts content. However I got rid of them all when moving to the Gold Coast and so the next best thing I have handy...

A good ole 9V! While missing a few volts (3) it still gives enough juice to get the fan spinning and prove that it still works. So now that we have a working fan, it's time to fine something for our container.

This old protein powder container sitting around is just perfect and conveniently the lid is roughly the same size as the fan.
So my original plan was to drill some mounting holes and use the clamping feet to hold it in place, cutting open a wide enough opening to get some air in.
However the was a sizable gap..

Which meant I'd have to build some kind of shroud around it. I had a think about it for a minute before I wondered...will it fit under the lid?

Yes! (With some modifications)

The metal core had to be removed because the plastic cement holding the fan in place wouldn't have been strong enough, as did the mounting legs. Once done though, we could easily slowly screw the top back on with the fan underneath.

Time to pop a thermometer in to see if anything happens with the quiet fan running...

Okay nothing so far, same temp for 5 mins with the fan going.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS?

-The fan needs more power (ie 12V instead of the 9V that I have on hand) 

-Maybe the problem is that there's no air coming in to help cool things down? Maybe if we let things breath a little?

..(Yeah I don't know much about thermal dynamics..)

SO I DRILLED A HOLE.

Too big a hole it seems - the big chunky bit I was use ripped my lid to shreds and knocked the fan clean off the back (showing that the plastic cement hold was a bit rubbish.) So with the help of a rotary tool I have carved out a rough circle with plenty of air flow...I just have to work out how to glue the fan down.... (maybe borrow the wife's hot glue gun?) and throw some mesh on top for aesthetics.

Turns out I should have used the gun from the get go because it under a minute not only had I managed to burn myself (twice) but the glue gripped stupidly well. A bit of black tape glued in place to tidy things up slightly and we might just have a working idea right now..

(remember this is just for trial and error - I'm not that worried about how it looks at this stage) 

So better results?

Er no. It holds a constant temp...the same temp when it's not on. Right. Maybe the power is the issue? (Or maybe this is a terrible idea from the get go?) 

TO BE CONTINUED..