Patriote
Well-known member
Hey guys!
I've been thinking of doing such guide since my recent worklog...I had many questions regarding all the sleeving i had did, from many persons... And since i just ordered some fans and some sleeving\heatshrink, i thought it would be a good idea to make a little guide while im at it.
Basically, sleeving a fan is pretty simple. It can be done by anyone having a little patience and even if not in possession of the right tools to work with... Now if you're not careful, you'll end up needing to replace the 3-pin metal headers using a crimp tool... In this particular guide, we will try to avoid needing to do so by being real careful and doing things the right way.
____________________________________
What you will need
Some sleeving and some heatshrink
Personally, for 3 pin fans, i use 1/4" Black wire sleeving and 3/8" Black Heatshrink tubing. Make sure to get expandable sleeving so you can fit the sleeving over the wires metal headers.
____________________________________
The Fan
In my review, i will be sleeving the most common used fan for watercooling set-ups. The Yate Loon - Medium speed. This one has 4 Blue led and is UV reactive.
____________________________________
And finally, the tools needed
You will need :
• a lighter
• a pair of scissors
• a standard cutter (Or a razor blade)
• a nail cutter
• a paper-clip
• a 4pin to 3pin connector (Just to test out that the 3-pins are correctly sitting into the connector once you have inserted them back)
____________________________________
Next : Preparing the fan for the sleeving
But first, remember the right emplacement for each wire in the connector!
Black on the far left. (Ground)
Red in the middle. (Power)
Yellow on the right side. (RPM Monitor)
____________________________________
Once you noted the right emplacement for each wires, you can start by cutting off the extra wires for the 4 pin connectors.
____________________________________
Now, i do realize that some persons out there will want to use that extra 4pin connector to connect their fan but in my personal experience and from what i have seen, most persons will only use the 3pin connector to connect the fan to a fan controller. So go away and cut that part off!
____________________________________
The tricky part
Once the extra wires are cut off, we will now remove the pins from the connector. This is THE tricky part. One thing you must know before doing this is that, if you apply too much pressure on the little clips (that are located onto each of the 3 metal pins), to actually be able to remove the 3pin headers from the connector, you can damage them and you'll have to replace them with new ones... And thats exactly what we want to avoid...
Have a look :
____________________________________
See that little metal part that raise on top of the pin ? Well, thats what you have to push to be able to release the pin header from the connector.
When you are ready, take your paper clip and unfold it. Now place the 3pin connector on a flat surface, take your paper-clip and gently push that metal part shown above.
____________________________________
It's only a matter of gently pushing that metal part and delicately playing with the wire until you can get the pin out the connector.
____________________________________
Once you successfully removed all 3 pins from the connector, get ready for the sleeving job!
But first, cut off the second red and black wires from the pins. Use the nail cutter for this task.
____________________________________
Once removed, use the nail cutter to ply the metal wall around the wire or you can use a crimp tool if you have one.
____________________________________
Sleeving job
Next : Take your sleeving, put it next to the fan's wires and measure what you will need. Then cut the sleeving using the scissors.
____________________________________
Now take your lighter and lightly heat-up the end of your sleeving. This will prevent the sleeving from fraying.
____________________________________
Then, regroup all 3 pins and insert them into one end of your sleeving.
____________________________________
Drag the wires all the way up until you get them out at the other end.
____________________________________
Finishing the job
Now that you have the sleeving over the wires, it's time to put the 3 pins back into the connector.
But before that, take your heatshrink out and cut two 1-2" pieces using your scissors. Slip them over the 3pins and leave them over the sleeving for now.
____________________________________
Now, take your cutter or razor blade, and ply back all the little metal clips we had to push earlier to remove the pins from the connector. Like that :
____________________________________
Once all 3 are good to go, insert them back, one at a time, into the connector. Make sure they'll stay in place!
____________________________________
When all pins are into the connector, use a 3pin to 4pin adapter (Or anything else where you can plug a 3pin fan) and plug your fan into it. This is just to make sure that all pins are correctly sitting into the connector. If one pin gets out of the connector, it means that it wasn't sitting correctly.
Ok now that all 3 pins are correctly sitting into the connector, it's time to heat-up the heatshrink!
Now take the furthest piece of heatshrink and slip it half over the wire and half over the sleeving.
____________________________________
When in place, start heating one side of the heatshrink. Basically, you have to put the flame real close to the heatshrink without touching it. If you touch it for too long, it'll burn up and you'll have that burned plastic smell in your room...Heh
____________________________________
When done with one side, if needed, heat up the other side to even the heatshrink around the wire\sleeving.
Final result should look like that :
____________________________________
For the other end of the sleeving, it's the same thing. Place the heatshrink half over the wire and half over the sleeving.
____________________________________
Heat it up the same way you did for the other piece of heatshrink.
____________________________________
Final Product
Here is the sleeved Yate loon in all it's glory!
____________________________________
Hope you enjoyed the guide! :biggrin:
I've been thinking of doing such guide since my recent worklog...I had many questions regarding all the sleeving i had did, from many persons... And since i just ordered some fans and some sleeving\heatshrink, i thought it would be a good idea to make a little guide while im at it.
Basically, sleeving a fan is pretty simple. It can be done by anyone having a little patience and even if not in possession of the right tools to work with... Now if you're not careful, you'll end up needing to replace the 3-pin metal headers using a crimp tool... In this particular guide, we will try to avoid needing to do so by being real careful and doing things the right way.
____________________________________
What you will need
Some sleeving and some heatshrink
Personally, for 3 pin fans, i use 1/4" Black wire sleeving and 3/8" Black Heatshrink tubing. Make sure to get expandable sleeving so you can fit the sleeving over the wires metal headers.
____________________________________
The Fan
In my review, i will be sleeving the most common used fan for watercooling set-ups. The Yate Loon - Medium speed. This one has 4 Blue led and is UV reactive.
____________________________________
And finally, the tools needed
You will need :
• a lighter
• a pair of scissors
• a standard cutter (Or a razor blade)
• a nail cutter
• a paper-clip
• a 4pin to 3pin connector (Just to test out that the 3-pins are correctly sitting into the connector once you have inserted them back)
____________________________________
Next : Preparing the fan for the sleeving
But first, remember the right emplacement for each wire in the connector!
Black on the far left. (Ground)
Red in the middle. (Power)
Yellow on the right side. (RPM Monitor)
____________________________________
Once you noted the right emplacement for each wires, you can start by cutting off the extra wires for the 4 pin connectors.
____________________________________
Now, i do realize that some persons out there will want to use that extra 4pin connector to connect their fan but in my personal experience and from what i have seen, most persons will only use the 3pin connector to connect the fan to a fan controller. So go away and cut that part off!
____________________________________
The tricky part
Once the extra wires are cut off, we will now remove the pins from the connector. This is THE tricky part. One thing you must know before doing this is that, if you apply too much pressure on the little clips (that are located onto each of the 3 metal pins), to actually be able to remove the 3pin headers from the connector, you can damage them and you'll have to replace them with new ones... And thats exactly what we want to avoid...
Have a look :
____________________________________
See that little metal part that raise on top of the pin ? Well, thats what you have to push to be able to release the pin header from the connector.
When you are ready, take your paper clip and unfold it. Now place the 3pin connector on a flat surface, take your paper-clip and gently push that metal part shown above.
____________________________________
It's only a matter of gently pushing that metal part and delicately playing with the wire until you can get the pin out the connector.
____________________________________
Once you successfully removed all 3 pins from the connector, get ready for the sleeving job!
But first, cut off the second red and black wires from the pins. Use the nail cutter for this task.
____________________________________
Once removed, use the nail cutter to ply the metal wall around the wire or you can use a crimp tool if you have one.
____________________________________
Sleeving job
Next : Take your sleeving, put it next to the fan's wires and measure what you will need. Then cut the sleeving using the scissors.
____________________________________
Now take your lighter and lightly heat-up the end of your sleeving. This will prevent the sleeving from fraying.
____________________________________
Then, regroup all 3 pins and insert them into one end of your sleeving.
____________________________________
Drag the wires all the way up until you get them out at the other end.
____________________________________
Finishing the job
Now that you have the sleeving over the wires, it's time to put the 3 pins back into the connector.
But before that, take your heatshrink out and cut two 1-2" pieces using your scissors. Slip them over the 3pins and leave them over the sleeving for now.
____________________________________
Now, take your cutter or razor blade, and ply back all the little metal clips we had to push earlier to remove the pins from the connector. Like that :
____________________________________
Once all 3 are good to go, insert them back, one at a time, into the connector. Make sure they'll stay in place!
____________________________________
When all pins are into the connector, use a 3pin to 4pin adapter (Or anything else where you can plug a 3pin fan) and plug your fan into it. This is just to make sure that all pins are correctly sitting into the connector. If one pin gets out of the connector, it means that it wasn't sitting correctly.
Ok now that all 3 pins are correctly sitting into the connector, it's time to heat-up the heatshrink!
Now take the furthest piece of heatshrink and slip it half over the wire and half over the sleeving.
____________________________________
When in place, start heating one side of the heatshrink. Basically, you have to put the flame real close to the heatshrink without touching it. If you touch it for too long, it'll burn up and you'll have that burned plastic smell in your room...Heh
____________________________________
When done with one side, if needed, heat up the other side to even the heatshrink around the wire\sleeving.
Final result should look like that :
____________________________________
For the other end of the sleeving, it's the same thing. Place the heatshrink half over the wire and half over the sleeving.
____________________________________
Heat it up the same way you did for the other piece of heatshrink.
____________________________________
Final Product
Here is the sleeved Yate loon in all it's glory!
____________________________________
Hope you enjoyed the guide! :biggrin:
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