As the title suggests, has anyone successfully dismantled an A12x25mm or even an A12x15mm fan? How hard is it to do? (don't care about voiding) The reason why i'm asking is like many of you, the fans colour choice is a bit like the love/hate relationship with Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Whilst i have a few of these fans in my inventory and will be adding them to my next build, i plan to use Rit dye to change the colours of the frame and fan blades. I know people in the past have tried with success and some failures, the fans tested were more focussed on the F12 and P12 range. I've heard dismantling the F12 was near impossible without breaking due to the center of the fan being molded around the motor from both sides.. but that was 4 years ago, and i'm sure technology in the fan department has changed much by then. I'd rather find out from someone who has done this already with success/failure than to botch a sub £30 fan to find out otherwise. Thanks
On the off chance you want black ones, they do black AF12 fans now. I think i swapped my cooler fan for one. I have the grey redux noctuas in my case.
Just to be perverse here: I... don't mind it. I don't hate it, and I wouldn't say I like it, but to be honest the colour is just irrelevant to me - no window in this case, so I can't see the (five) Noctua fans that live inside it. If I was bothered about the colour but still wanted that Noctua goodness then I'd get either Chromax or Redux versions - probably the Chromax as they are current-gen with a different colour scheme whereas Redux are last-gen with a different colour scheme. Not quite as interesting or in the spirit of Bit-Tech as disassembling and dyeing your own fans, of course...
I'd just buy the Chromax, or as I did before seeing the Chromax, the Redux ones. Still better than any other fans I've had, even if they are the older tech in the Redux ones.
hmm already have the A12x25 / A12x15 fans in my cupbouard.. i'm sure its too late to try and RMA them.. and not planning on buying additional fans , so will have to work with what i've got. Guess i'll keep them as is until i get fed up and go and destroy one to find out ha
There's no need to dismantle the fan if you use vinyl dye. It comes in spray cans, so you can mask off all the critical parts of the fan and then spray up as if you were painting. And since it's a dye, not paint, you're not adding layers of material and risk unbalancing the blades. I bought a A12x15 in brown after totally forgetting about the Chromax version and will be dying it at a later date myself.
Very interested to see the result. Also, do you plan on fixing the blades during the dye process or not ? Idk how it would affect the spray if they can turn
I'm going to wedge some paper underneath the fan hub and the frame to stop dye getting in. That should also offer enough reisistance to prevent the blades from spinning. Like any spraying action, you don't lather vinyl dye on in constant streams anyway, so short, soft pulses wouldn't give enough push to spin the blades if there's some kind of resistance.
