Magic Fan

In this Instructable, I will show you how to make a magic fan. When expanded one way, the fan works normally. But when expanded the other way, the fan mysteriously breaks!

Not permanently, though.

• An old fan
• Fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Solder

Disassemble the fan. There should be fabric, supports, a binding strip, and a pin that acts as the hinge. You don't need the original fabric.

Cut a piece of fabric so that it forms a sector of donut (see above). Repeat until you have one piece for every pair of supports.

Put two supports together on the pin and arrange them on top of the fabric. It doesn't matter if the left or right support is on top at this stage.

*If your support pieces have patterns one one side only, make sure the same sides are facing up.

**If the fan has different end pieces, make sure that you use one end piece on left and one regular piece on right, then another end piece of right and one regular piece on left. This forms two ends of the fan.

If all your support pieces all look the same, you do not have to worry about above details.

Hot glue the fabric to the support pieces as shown.

Fold the left edge over the left stick, making sure it sticks onto the glue and is flat on the support's surface.

A pencil (or popsicle stick) may come in handy to spread and press the fabric onto the support without burning yourself. Make sure that you use an object you're willing to lose, as glue may leak through the cloth and get on it.

I have included images with both the normal supports and the end supports (which are slightly thicker).

Rotate the support on the right so that it is at about the halfway mark of the arc of fabric. Glue along it.

Fold the flap over from the right edge. You may have to adjust the position of the right support so that the right edge of the fabric reaches the left edge.

Glue the fabric on top of the left support to the edge that you just folded over.

Repeat the steps to assemble as many fan pieces as you need.

Put the binding strip on the pin. Take one fan piece (We will call this 1). If you have fan pieces with end supports that are different than the other supports, you want to put one of them on first and the piece with the other end on last.

Take the support on the right side (1R) and slot it onto the pin.

Take another fan piece and slot the right side (2R) onto the pin.

Take the left side of the first piece (1L) and slot it onto the pin.

Repeat parts 2 and 3.

The pin should have the fan pieces in the following sequence:

1R, 2R, 1L, 3R, 2L, 4R, 3L, 5R... [some number] R, [some number - 1]L, [some number] L

This results in interlocking arrangement of the supports from each piece

After you installed all the fan pieces, put on the strip.

Solder the pin and the top end of the binding strip to the top fan piece.

This secures the fan.

You're done! Here are two videos showing how the fan works.