I used the vacuum cleaner hose to make sure the fan had no trouble turning but as you can see in this video what was a strong wind when it was new seems now to be much weaker.
The link throws a file not found error. Make sure the fans been cleaned as build up will occur and make it hard to spin.
not sure how to clean that fan but, the vacuum cleaner causes it to spin right up
I use compressed air to blow the air assist fan clean. I would remove the head and with the machine off, the gantry forward you can reach behind the gantry for access to the fan intake. Then with the front door open you can blow out the other side.
Personally I use a finger or another instrument to hold the fan blade from spinning.
While you’re at it may as well blow out the tiny fan on the bottom of the head too. After blowing all of that dust loose, a good cleaning of your optics is in order - with a lens wipe, clean the lens, the two windows and have a look at the mirror in the top of the head.
I use a compressor, but the canned air will work well.
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To make it clear for a newbie… If one is blowing air through the head fan it might be wise to remove the lens and internal mirror first. No good reason to deposit new gunk on those surfaces.
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Absolutely! Good point, (need coffee) thanks!
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Thinking about it now, that also introduces the possibility of dust in the lens bore landing on the inside of the head window. Something to be aware of.
After the exhaust blockage incident, I had occasion to need to clean that window. It just unscrews from the head.
I wonder if that’s even necessary. It’s a pretty powerful blower. One might call it self-cleaning?
Never seen a fan that didn’t collect gunk on the blades. Not sure if it is because of static electricity or not. Haven’t cleaned mine yet. But compressed air, whether it’s from a compressor or can will push the collected gunk on to the optical surfaces. In addition have seen warnings from camera and optical manufacturers not to use compressed air for cleaning. Impurities in some of the cans will pit the surfaces. Hold the can at the wrong angle and a frozen material will shoot out. Compressors are far worse with the impurities, oil and water that naturally collects in the bottom of a tank.
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With the environment inside the machine, and the lens bore fan uses the air inside to purge it, eventually the bore will need cleaning.
The exhaust blockage I encountered greatly accelerated that. I could see particles on the inside of the head window. Removing the lens, the mirror and the window, I was able to blow out the entire beam path and then use a Q-tip and alcohol to swab out everything and then clean the lens, mirror and both sides of the window. Reassembled the head and everything worked like new again.
I think I wasn’t clear that I was referring to the tiny fan on the bottom of the head, not the much larger air assist fan. And I will echo @rpegg that I have never seen a fan that didn’t collect debris over time.
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Tritto. Probably not a bad idea to check both of them periodically to see how they look on the front as well as the back side. I found most of the buildup on my exhaust fan was on the front of the fan blades. (Easy to see with a flashlight.)
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I thought that WAS the fan, if not i need to look at doing the other… a vacuum solve the “getting gunk on the lens” problem and a paint brush has done somewhat of a job of brushing gunk off the fan,
For anyone who knows someone using a C-pap machine, the hoses are structured not to collapse, and have soft rubber ends that fit the canister vacuum hose nicely and can get into places the regular hose or even the car vacuums cannot.
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I tried all I could to clean up that other fan and without removing it, I made a video of the fan not working and hopefully small enough to upload.
Can you take a peek behind the gantry to see if it’s even spinning? You might have to perform a job operation at the front of the machine to get a view of the back.
There are 4 contacts on the bottom of the head carriage, that IIRC, control the fan. You might take the head off and use a lens wipe to make sure that those contacts are clean.
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Yup I cleaned those contacts on both top and bottom, made sure the fan is unobstructed and would spin freely and cleaned everything I could reach and am now convinced that it is only the tiny fan that is working and not the larger one at all. are there any other suggestions for getting it working?
I took a close look and saw some wires to the fan that were out in the open. it is hard to tell for sure if they have been damaged. I could take the head off and test the fan from the contact points but would need assistance from @staff before trying it as I do not know what voltage or which of those points to try.
this was over sharpened trying to get the most detail the wires are actually smooth.
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Interesting pictures. My guess is Support won’t provide you that requested info. Logically, if the fan or wires are damaged they will want the unit back for replacement and not allow you to repair. Even if you are just investigating and eventually determine the unit needs to be replaced, they will just replace the unit and sit it on a shelf somewhere until a repair person can repeat their normal investigatory steps.
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Don’t they normally have us check the pins too? (Serious sinus headache this morning…brain is just refusing to function.) 
I checked and cleaned both pins and plates.