Stir Plate - Steps 3 - 5

3. Next I mounted the fan. I chose to mount the fan to the bottom of the project box. A lot of the others I've seen have the fan mounted to the top of the project box but I wanted a cleaner look. Four #10 x 1.5 inch screws are inserted through the bottom of the box. A nut is tightened down on each screw on the inside of the box. Each screw is then screwed into the mounting holes on the fan frame. It seems pretty secure and I'll be able to adjust the height of the fan by a simple turn of the screws.

4. With the fan in place, the two wires are connected.

5. Next I attached the fender washer to the fan hub. I first tried mounting the washer using 5-minute epoxy and eyeballing the washer for center. This didn't work out very well because the washer was a little over 1/16th of an inch off center. Even on the lowest speed there was a lot of vibration. Luckily I was able to carefully scrape off the epoxy and gently pry the washer loose.

For the second attempt, I put a piece of masking tape on the fan hub, powered it on, then used a Sharpie to make several concentric circles. I then used a utility knife with the fan powered on to cut just outside the biggest circle so that the excess tape could be removed. I used the Sharpie circles as guides to ensure the washer was perfectly centered. I also used a hot glue gun to secure the washer rather than epoxy just in case it took more than one try. The second attempt was much more accurate and virtually eliminated vibration on all but the highest speeds.

Click here for Steps 6-7