I have the usual cheap bathroom fan/vents that come from the factory in most all RVs, and have had trouble with the fan blades becoming fouled with the screen. I'm sure some here will say that the proper solution is to replace the whole shebang with a fantastic fan, and I've little doubt that they really are quite good and worth the money. However, replacing the fan unit does involve no small amount of work and cash outlay.
I constructed these little sheet metal standoffs to keep the screen away from the fan blades. I used some thin aluminum (a scrap of leftover aluminum flashing, to be precise), but there's no reason other materials wouldn't work equally as well.
A closer view of the standoff:
Since it's not at all easy to see how these are put together from the pictures (it's a tough angle to get a view of with a camera), here are some cartoons that show off my very modest drawing skills. These start out as a rectangle of sheet metal. (The dashed and dotted lines indicate roughly where it gets folded in the next steps.)
The long edges are folded over to put the sharp edges within the standoff and to provide a little more strength. The strength would be irrelevant for anything much sturdier than the aluminum flashing.
Then, folds are made to form a rectangular box shape with the top edge doubled. It would be best to cut little notches or slots in the strips that previously got folded over where these bends are made to avoid extra stresses in the metal, though I did not do this.
Also indicated are a couple of holes, with which they are attached to the crosspiece in the fan/vent unit. I used some machine screws and nuts and appropriate washers. (My first choice would have been pop rivets, but do you think I could find where I had stashed my pop rivets when I went to look for them? No, I could not.)
Thus far, these standoffs have worked flawlessly.
I constructed these little sheet metal standoffs to keep the screen away from the fan blades. I used some thin aluminum (a scrap of leftover aluminum flashing, to be precise), but there's no reason other materials wouldn't work equally as well.
A closer view of the standoff:
Since it's not at all easy to see how these are put together from the pictures (it's a tough angle to get a view of with a camera), here are some cartoons that show off my very modest drawing skills. These start out as a rectangle of sheet metal. (The dashed and dotted lines indicate roughly where it gets folded in the next steps.)
The long edges are folded over to put the sharp edges within the standoff and to provide a little more strength. The strength would be irrelevant for anything much sturdier than the aluminum flashing.
Then, folds are made to form a rectangular box shape with the top edge doubled. It would be best to cut little notches or slots in the strips that previously got folded over where these bends are made to avoid extra stresses in the metal, though I did not do this.
Also indicated are a couple of holes, with which they are attached to the crosspiece in the fan/vent unit. I used some machine screws and nuts and appropriate washers. (My first choice would have been pop rivets, but do you think I could find where I had stashed my pop rivets when I went to look for them? No, I could not.)
Thus far, these standoffs have worked flawlessly.
