Solder fumes are not nice on the lungs; nor are fumes from superglue, epoxy, or a whole mess of other things we often find ourselves using on the bench. Some people might be able to go the fume hood route to toss that all outside, but for the rest of us, there’s fume extractors. [Raph] has produced an extra-large, carbon-filtering, two-stage fume extractor that by all accounts really sucks — it is effective at hoovering up solder fumes up to 10″ from its inlet.
Even better, [Raph] built a battery box for an 18 V cordless tool battery, and broke out banana plugs so this doubles as a variable power supply via a cheap LM2596 based DC-DC converter. It also serves as a speed controller for the fans, which makes us wonder if you can adjust the PSU output and the fan speed independently…
Maximum suckage is achieved through careful baffle design. Check out the blog to see the trial-and-error process at work. Of course, having a 200 mm axial fan and 140 mm blower fan front and rear is going to move some air no matter what. Which is required to get air flow through the 38 mm thick activated carbon filter that should scrub all nasties quite nicely. We aren’t filtration experts but we can agree with [Raph]’s estimate that it will last “a while”.
If you want to roll your own, all of the STEP files are on GitHub, and [Raph]’s blog has an excellent step-by-step build guide. We’ve seen other hacks from [Raph] before, from his dovetailed modular breadboard to the machine that shaped his bed and automation for his camper van.
These are great projects, and I’m glad to see that people are taking their health and safety seriously. The cowboy mentality seems a lot less cool when you’re older and realize how much garbage you’ve inhaled.
It’s good to keep in mind that even when a carbon filter is just sitting there, it’s still adsorbing moisture and VOCs from the room, and they can get saturated in a matter of days to a few weeks, so before long, those epoxy fumes you can’t smell smell but that are still there and awful will end up going right through it. I’d love to see a metal framed filter that can go into a furnace to drive off all the garbage and “recharge”.
Even with all this being said, just a fan to draw the flux smoke away from your face will improve your quality of life significantly. Keep up the great work.
IIRC, a lot of compounds can be driven off at 65C with forced air. I wonder if hot nichrome decomposes the toxins fully or just makes them worse?
Epoxy barely smells but fumes meaning visible stuff I’ve never seen come off of it.
I just blow it away with each joint done when I am in a space with good ventilation.
“It’s definitely sucking!”
hoorray, a blog post and not a sponsored by nordvpn/squarespace/shittyapps video.
Nice! Good to use those battery packs. I’ve got an Ikea air filter I use for soldering but it’s tethered to a mains plug – though that’s not an issue for me as I always solder in the same place. It also sucks well, pulling fumes from about a foot.
is. . . is that a product placement in the picture? What are we becoming?
Also, just for reference, I found that if you build a really loud fume extractor you won’t use it. Or at least I won’t. I originally built mine with AC fans for max air movement but then I rebuilt it with PC fans and now I use it a lot more.
If Cliff is doing product placements with electronics bloggers, it’s news to me. Raph may comment but I’d bet good money that’s a good old fashioned bucket o’ bolts. Doesn’t everyone have a repurposed food container or three full of random nuts, bolts, washers, and/or screws?
Ha ha, spot on, this is my electronic-project-trash desk bucket.
These Clif plastic containers were phased out years ago. Good luck trying to find one.
Oh no, there goes my sponsorship… :-)