Painting fans

[Scottagecheeze]

I was looking at some people's builds and noticed that they painted a Noctua fan black to match their build. Does anyone know if this could potential mess up the fan?

[Gmac]

You can easily paint the shroud around the blades with little worry about messing anything up. This is of course assuming you separate the shroud from the motor and blades. I have seen people that have painted the whole assembly but i would do this at your own risk. With the right prep and precautions you could keep paint out of the motor or any electric area. With that being said you can paint the fan blades but you just never know how they will react to the weight change and possible shape change. They will be small changes but you never know with high performance fans. They tend to have very small tolerances for change.

But there is really only one way to know for sure and that is to try it out. Here is a great guide on paint fans. The key is always to take your time and prep to do it right.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1192785/simple-guide-how-to-paint-most-case-fans

[Brian]

This can seriously mess up a Noctua. Check their website it specifically mentions painting them and recommending against it.

The problem is one of weight distribution on an item rotating at high speed. The paint will not go evenly onto the blades without some robot level painting precision. Even then it's nearly impossible.

Uneven weight will cause vibrations. Vibration = noise.

If you don't believe me, go take a 25 gram balancing wheel weight of your car's 15 kilogram wheel then take it on the highway at 100Km/h. You WILL feel it.

But feel free to paint the shroud. :)

[Scottagecheeze]

Yea I saw the build and was really concerned about how it would mess with the fan, but I decided to get some input. I will probably not go with painting a fan because of the fact that it could increase noise, which is not what I want at all.

[Gmac]

I would love to add some Noctua's that didnt look like crap. So I did some more digging out there on the internets. Brain is right on the money that more then likely you are going to cause some kind of vibration if you paint the fans. But i did find someone that used rit dye to dye the fan blades and the shroud.

Check it out.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=35185#entry419931

I also found that Noctua fans can be close to impossible to take apart without break the bearing inside of them. I would look up a how to take apart the specific fan you are wanting to take apart and see if it is even possible.

I am very interested to see how the dying method would work out. I would have to think it would result in less possible vibrations. But trying it would be the only way to find out for sure.

[Brian]

I would love to add some Noctua's that didnt look like crap. So I did some more digging out there on the internets. Brain is right on the money that more then likely you are going to cause some kind of vibration if you paint the fans. But i did find someone that used rit dye to dye the fan blades and the shroud.

Check it out.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=35185#entry419931

I also found that Noctua fans can be close to impossible to take apart without break the bearing inside of them. I would look up a how to take apart the specific fan you are wanting to take apart and see if it is even possible.

I am very interested to see how the dying method would work out. I would have to think it would result in less possible vibrations. But trying it would be the only way to find out for sure.

Nice link. I'd heard of that idea, but never seen it implemented. :)

[airdeano]

ummm.. painting fans is dangerous and can cause an unbalanced assembly.

by the time to scuff, clean, prime and paint the blade assembly, you have now

altered the balance and more than likely, it will vibrate.

no matter in light coats (just enough for coverage) it'll tend to puddle and offset

the balance.

airdeano

[Brian]

ummm.. painting fans is dangerous and can cause an unbalanced assembly.

by the time to scuff, clean, prime and paint the blade assembly, you have now

altered the balance and more than likely, it will vibrate.

no matter in light coats (just enough for coverage) it'll tend to puddle and offset

the balance.

airdeano

I'm not sure I believe you.... lol

[airdeano]

ummm.. painting fans is dangerous and can cause an unbalanced assembly.

by the time to scuff, clean, prime and paint the blade assembly, you have now

altered the balance and more than likely, it will vibrate.

no matter in light coats (just enough for coverage) it'll tend to puddle and offset

the balance.

airdeano

the P-14 vibrates terribly. ive since purchased two new fans and no wiggles or vibs..

airdeano

[Dustin1706]

Technically, yes it is possible that the paint could cause an unbalance. In practice, I've found that if you are careful with your painting it works just fine. I am a huge silence freak and after trying some 30+ different kinds of fans I finally broke down and started using ugly noctuas. On my now spare PC (built maybe 5 years ago?) I was going for a green/black thing, so I decided to try painting a fan just to see if it would have any affect on noise. Paint will not "tend to puddle" if you go in light coats. The paint had Zero effect on the noise. No vibration, no extra motor noise, nothing. I'm not sure what effect the smoother painted surface has on the airflow, but I suspect very little if any.

The first fan I painted was an S12 and I took a few pics while doing it. I've painted several P12s, some cheap nexus's, and some gentle typhoons since. Some fans have an E clip or circlip under the sticker, some you just have to push the blades/hub away from the frame (carefully!) There are vids on youtube on how to do this. I wished I had some matte black when I did this one, but I only had gloss kicking around. Florescent green, then UV active green over top on the blades. ~4 extremely light coats on everything.

[airdeano]

i busted two P-12, three P14 and one F12, trying to get that fan out of the chassis, before i just taped off

the blade assemblies and dust 'em up with color.

airdeano

[Gmac]

Technically, yes it is possible that the paint could cause an unbalance. In practice, I've found that if you are careful with your painting it works just fine. I am a huge silence freak and after trying some 30+ different kinds of fans I finally broke down and started using ugly noctuas. On my now spare PC (built maybe 5 years ago?) I was going for a green/black thing, so I decided to try painting a fan just to see if it would have any affect on noise. Paint will not "tend to puddle" if you go in light coats. The paint had Zero effect on the noise. No vibration, no extra motor noise, nothing. I'm not sure what effect the smoother painted surface has on the airflow, but I suspect very little if any.

The first fan I painted was an S12 and I took a few pics while doing it. I've painted several P12s, some cheap nexus's, and some gentle typhoons since. Some fans have an E clip or circlip under the sticker, some you just have to push the blades/hub away from the frame (carefully!) There are vids on youtube on how to do this. I wished I had some matte black when I did this one, but I only had gloss kicking around. Florescent green, then UV active green over top on the blades. ~4 extremely light coats on everything.

Very good post! I will try this one day. There is just nothing like Noctua when it comes to performance and quietness.

Try the dying method for me and see how it works.

[mafal54]

This can seriously mess up a Noctua. Check their website it specifically mentions painting them and recommending against it.

The problem is one of weight distribution on an item rotating at high speed. The paint will not go evenly onto the blades without some robot level painting precision. Even then it's nearly impossible.

Uneven weight will cause vibrations. Vibration = noise.

If you don't believe me, go take a 25 gram balancing wheel weight of your car's 15 kilogram wheel then take it on the highway at 100Km/h. You WILL feel it.

But feel free to paint the shroud. :)

True don't paint fans. Its just like dust on your fans.

[MoeBrowne]

This can seriously mess up a Noctua. Check their website it specifically mentions painting them and recommending against it.

The problem is one of weight distribution on an item rotating at high speed. The paint will not go evenly onto the blades without some robot level painting precision. Even then it's nearly impossible.

Uneven weight will cause vibrations. Vibration = noise.

If you don't believe me, go take a 25 gram balancing wheel weight of your car's 15 kilogram wheel then take it on the highway at 100Km/h. You WILL feel it.

But feel free to paint the shroud. :)

Not only will the vibration cause noise, which will rubberised mounts etc isn't such a big problem anymore, it will also significatly reduce the life span of the internal bearings.

[Brian]

ummm.. painting fans is dangerous and can cause an unbalanced assembly.

by the time to scuff, clean, prime and paint the blade assembly, you have now

altered the balance and more than likely, it will vibrate.

no matter in light coats (just enough for coverage) it'll tend to puddle and offset

the balance.

airdeano

I was jokin. lol

[airdeano]

ummm.. painting fans is dangerous and can cause an unbalanced assembly.

by the time to scuff, clean, prime and paint the blade assembly, you have now

altered the balance and more than likely, it will vibrate.

no matter in light coats (just enough for coverage) it'll tend to puddle and offset

the balance.

airdeano

i know you were, but some of the new peeps may not..