I’m wanting to manipulate a fan in my home gym with some eye tracking to get it to blow air on my face when I work out, but the fan is a few pounds.
Alternatively: any hardware motor suggestions for such a project?
For a heavy fan (don't forget the reaction force from moving air too), you'd be better off mounting it on a some sort of bearing and just using a motor to turn it. That way the motor isn't trying to fight gravity all the time. The robot arm linked here using Dynamixel servos - you could just use one of them to spin a fan on a lazy susan. Much cheaper and less complicated!
I believe it offers higher torque, better precision and ability to just stick to a position with relatively low/or no power due to gearing-side resistance.