This Diy Fume Extractor Will Be A Showpiece For Your Workbench

We have no idea how well this diy fume extractor works, but it sure does look great! We’ve been thinking that it’s time to stop trying to blow away the solder fumes while working on project and this might be just the kind of motivation we need. The 6″ cube doesn’t get in the way of your work, and since it includes a carbon filter it should keep the smell of burning flux to a minimum.

[Jeff’s] project basically brings together a 120mm PC cooling fan with a power source. The fan mounts inside of a steel enclosure he picked up from Digikey. The face plates that come with it were modified to accept the fan, as well as the grill hardware that goes with it. Before assembling he painted the box with some Rustoleum “Hammered” black spray paint. This gives it a texture that will hide any imperfections in your application.

We’re a bit hazy on how this is being powered. It sounds like he’s plugging the cord into mains but we don’t see any type of regulator to feed what must be a 12V DC fan. There are build instruction available but they didn’t clear up our confusion.

28 thoughts on “This Diy Fume Extractor Will Be A Showpiece For Your Workbench

    1. Also did something similar, with an AC 110V fan and the case of an old computer PSU. Should add some filters, but at least the fumes are directed away from my nose and the cose was nothing but reused parts.

      1. No, the carbon filter absorbs them. I have a commercial unit that does basically the same thing, it sucks the fumes into it, and they pass through a carbon filter, then clean, breatheable air comes out the other side.

    1. No, these older generation (like me) mains fans were “impedance protected”; even stalled they don’t draw excessive current. Electrical failure must happen but I’ve replaced many of these for shot bearings and never seen an electrical failure. It is marginally more likely that an isolation transformer would itself short to ground, but that’s pretty rare too.

      If the metal case is grounded, as it should be, the mains circuit protection will pop. Most household appliances don’t have fuses, and even heating devices only have thermal fuses. A cable gland entry is a wise idea however.

    1. A knot is fine. I’ve seen UL listed products with knots to restrain cords. Why does it need a fuse? Where you plug it in will be fused enough. Well, it should be. A device fuse only protects the device from damage, if something happens to this device you’ll be out a fan anyways.

      The really big question is why does anyone need a flux fume extractor? I’ve been overcome by flux and it doesn’t happen off the end of a little soldering iron. Just like no one ever died of smoke inhalation off burning one incense.

Leave a Reply to MdPhoenixCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.