Fan-Daids _ A Moms Crafty Solution

Well if you live where it's hot and are in need of some cheap cooling you probably own one of these.....

A pretty inexpensive box fan. You can find one for about $15-$20 dollars and for most family's that's ok, just another item on the list if it goes out on you. For us it was a bit of an expense during a time that's not usually slow for my husbands construction business. It was a hot July day when I came inside to find our fan had fallen out of the window and was lying face down on the floor. Not only had it fallen but one of the blades had broken completely off!! I was so mad, not only had it been exceedingly hot but we had vowed to turn off the air conditioning after the last electric bill we received (I'm sure someone can relate) and this fan was suppose to be saving my sanity in our tri-level duplex. Of course it was cool and relaxing in our bedrooms that are located under ground level but the heat was killing us upstairs! I like to make a good home cooked meal every night too which would usually push us into the upper 80's if I wasn't careful (and that was with the fans going so we were in a real pickle). After about 3 days without our fan I was ready to tackle the problem: Fixing the fan blade so we would not have to spend unnecessary money on another fan! Luckily my wonderful husband already made the fan colorful with the kids..

...as you can see our fan has a rainbow on the inside. A little tradition passed down on his side of the family to color in the center of the fans with crayons. This helped when I decided to fix the fan because I figured all I could do was give it even more character!




First off I removed the covering to the fan and washed the whole inside especially the spots where I was intending to fix it (after I unplugged it of course). Then I assembled the supplies I would need: super glue gel, small narrow strips of news paper, and some Mod Podge. I started by adhering the broken blade back to the fan with the super glue gel the best I could and left it to dry. After it was dry I applied a generous amount of Mod Podge and then I applied the "Fan-Daids". Little strips of newspaper applied with the decoupage media cross wise across the break to give it added stability.

If you look close you can see where the crack is underneath the "Fan-Daids". I forgot to take before pics of course! but I think you can see everything pretty well.

After about 20 minutes to ensure a good solid dry we turned it on to see if it would work. For the record I think I was the only one confident in the repair, everyone got a few laughs while I was working on it. But today over a month later I'm the one who's laughing!! It's still going strong! Yeah sure I probably only saved about $15 bucks but hey $15 dollars is $15 dollars and our colorful family fan now has a little more character.