Just wanted to follow up here... Regarding the extruder, it turned out that I was relying on wire colors to match up the connections. [insert face palm here]
I think it's because it has two separate connectors and it's somehow mandatory for an electronics person to always supply a reference ground when you have a signal line.
When I connect a second fan to the second always on and turn on the power, the fuse blows.
Do you have the red and black wires the right way round? If you do then that second fan is probably faulty. I am assuming that they are not very powerful fans such that the combined total load is well over 1A.