ventilation for giant hood/hawk box

[dbreedlove]

Have made a few GH for myself from the instruction on modern apprentice a friend wanted me to make a few for him. Only few things different and they have me stumped. 1st more air flow then what the midget louver vents give the fins tend to bend and lay flat. 2ND want to be able to stack so a flush handle. 3rd the use of CPU fans. Can't find instructions on them or how to hook up and power. Want to power 3-4 if possible.
Was like sure how hard can that be. Yea I'm stumped

HELP!!!!!!!

[killjoy]

This is just my honest opinion, but with all the mods he wants I would charge him a ton of money or tell him you can't build them.
Finding The computer fan should be easy, but for him to ask you to totally reengineer is alot of work for you.
Either that or just give him a totally blank giant hood and let him modify it to his specs.

With all the criteria he has, you will have a hard time placing the computer fan.
If he wants to stack you cant put it on top.
Can't put it on the back cause it won't draw air against a seat or something, so put it on front?

How flat does the handle need to be?
As for the Louvers, I drilled 100+ holes on each side of my hoods on a cnc router, maybe you could find a shop to do that? But that will run you $80 an hour for program and run time.

[Deleted]

Depends on how you want to do it cheap and dirty or with a little finesse.

Cheap and dirty wire the fans in parallel to your power source (12v car battery - cigarette lighter) You wont get a volt drop this way.

Little finesse you could add a 12v power regulator
www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm341.pdf
Then power it with a solar panel and a rechargeable battery.

[dbreedlove]

Though about that killjoy but i think i may lose some man point there if i did that to my friend. I figured i use a 1 1/2 flat nylon strap for the handle and the vent still tossing that idea around. Really like the idea of powered CPU fan since i am Sunny Arizona. I have seen on other boxes on line just got me stumped ..

wow thanks Steve but the info way way over my head. how about a simpler version of that i am not that Savoy with electricity

[nanahawk]

CPU fans are not complicated to wire. Look at it this way. On a CPU fan you normally have 2 wires. One red. One black. Most solutions to power your fan (12 volt power supply ( cigarette lighter adapter, solar panel, or one of those power adapters you can get at Walmart that have the selectable voltage output ) will only have 2 wires to feed it power. Some will be colored red and black (just like the fan). red is the positive and black is the negative. If one has a stripe and the other does not, the striped wire is the positive (connect it to red on fan). Be sure not to have the power supply running when you do it (not plugged in).

You can go to radio shack and get a solar panel setup ready to go. All you need to do is attach it to the box and hook up the wires.

[killjoy]

The fan isn't the issue.
I looked the box up, was it the wooden box on the web sight?
It's a nice box!
But looking at it it doesn't allow for stacking.
To stack you would need to add about 1 inch to the bottom of the side panels.

If he didn't want to stack I would use a CPU fan and a 9v battery.
I would put the fan on top and drill a bout 20 1/8 inch holes half way down the side panels, or on the front door half way up, and put the CPU fan on top toward the back so it draws air over the bird.
Not just around the bird.

It's just the stacking is throwing a monkey wrench into the mix.
My birds mutes never go higher than 1/2 way up the GH.

[nanahawk]

I agree there. The only solution I see if you want the fan on top. Is to basically setup a rim on the top outside edges, about 1" thick and slightly higher then the fan is tall. Many of those fans throw air to the sides and not just up. If he rimmed All accept the back to allow air to escape. Doing that he could stack the boxes. The top box would just sit on the rim of the 1st

[dbreedlove]

Nana , kill you all are great thank you for the wonderful idea. Using the fan to pull the push air in makes sense.
I am sorry i didn't specify the reason to stack but it is a storage issue. Found little rubber feet at the big orange box (home depot) like .98 cents and that raised my boxes about 1/2 an inch to clear my handles.

[killjoy]

Wait what??
I did?
Well, you can send nana and my consultant check to me, I PROMISE he will get it!
Just make it out to CASH!!!!

[dbreedlove]

keep your eye out carrier pigeon on it's way ;D

[jeff17]

I saw a GH that had 1 in. holes drilled in the bottom of the perch(2in. pvc) and the perch was mounted flush to the side walls of the coroplast with straight box conectors, it would let air in through the the perch,you could also use a small fan from an RC car heat sink ,mount it inside the perch, to push or draw air,depending on the direction of the fan.