Solder fume extractor

[Robert]

Anyone have any experience with larger solder fume extractors?

I have a little Hakko FA400 "Fart Fan" and it helps but I feel like it could certainly be better.

I've actually considered mounting a kitchen hood vent above the bench and venting the fumes outdoors, but if there's something better I'm all ears.

 

[Harry Klippton]

Fart fan

 

[JTEX]

I just use rosin core and love the fumes. It's like free incense.

 

[Robert]

I just use rosin core and love the fumes. It's like free incense.

I don't mind it in small doses but after a long day of building I smell like a diesel mechanic.

 

[jwin615]

I ripped a 120v 3x6 inch fan assembly off a rack of medical equipment and bought a sheet of activated carbon filter foam stuff whatever and wrapped the assembly in it.
Ugly but works well and is cheap.
Will pull fumes from about 3 ft away laterally.
One day I'll pretty it up a bit and put it on a slide out hinge assembly also stolen from medical scap so I can hide it under the shelf.

I know this doesn't help much but there's really not much to those guys. A fan and filter substrate.
Stick a vortex fan on some PVC in the rafters blowing through some filter and run a 2 inch vacuum tube down to the desk. 600 cf/m of extraction and the noise is across the room. It'll probably clean the snipped leads off you desk too!

 

[Vicious C]

I’ve been looking into attaching my laser Machine’s hose/fan that extracts fumes out my window to my desktop Fa400 since I noticed with the sun shining in that the room is full of smoke, probably don’t have lead poisoning?

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

I've actually considered mounting a kitchen hood vent above the bench and venting the fumes outdoors, but if there's something better I'm all ears.

(it's either that or on top of the dryer in the basement... )

 

[Robert]

Yeah what bugs me is that even with regular filter changes there is always some white crud build-up on the back side of my FA400....

So obviously that little charcoal filter ain't catching everything.

 

[Robert]

View attachment 64612

(it's either that or on top of the dryer in the basement... )

This man is brilliant! Plus you have four hot plates right there for reflowing!

Time to move the workshop.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

This man is brilliant! Plus you have four hot plates right there for reflowing!

Time to move the workshop.

as a bonus, you can drop components in the gap between the stove and the counter! (really fun with SMD)

 

[jubal81]

I have that FA400 and it's useless. I've pondered just getting a desk fan just to keep the fumes directly out of my face.

 

[Robert]

I have that FA400 and it's useless. I've pondered just getting a desk fan just to keep the fumes directly out of my face.

I can tell when it's not on, but that's about all I can say positive...

BTW I saw your fancy dual pedal on Instatube the other day, niiiiice!

 

[Erik S]

I have that FA400 and it's useless.

I just upgraded to a knock off fa400.

Up to now I’ve been using this cobbled monstrosity.

 

[KR Sound]

I saw one the other day in a video that had a light on it and was on a gooseneck arm. Seemed pretty useful.

 

[melveyr]

120mm CPU fans can move a lot of air. I connect them together to make little units

 

[peccary]

I used a little personal fan to blow the fumes away and t worked alright, but there'd be backdrafts and, especially working on an amp, it wasn't really something I could move around to different areas effectively.

My MIL got me this for Christmas:

Amazon.com

I've only been able to use it once, but it is a massive upgrade. You can move the hose wherever you want and the instructions said that there are longer hoses available. The hose also stays put wherever you move it. It was really handy working on my amp because I could move it in, out, and around all over the place. I wish I'd bought one for myself sooner, it would have been well worth the money.

You can see it peeking out from under my lamp here:

 

[Feral Feline]

I bought a 6" fan, something like Erik's, some flexible tubing and was going to hang it from the joists above my bench (basement solder-station) and run the tube out the window, simply remove one of the little basement windows replace it with plywood to which the hose would be fastened.

Problems.
1) Wife does her gardening in front of the window so all the lead-fumes would coat her gardening stuff.
2) Would need to work out some quick-change system for the window in winter.
3) Need a way to stop critters (squirrels, mice, voles, bugs etc) from crawling through the tube into the nice warm house.
4) I'm lazy, bought the stuff, haven't set it up yet; but now I won't due to problems 1 & 5.
5) Adopted a dog that runs through the yard, problem 5 is now problem #1.

Currently using a large desk-fan to extract fumes away from me, but I solder in the furnace room, so all I'm doing is getting the fumes away from my immediate work area,
where they then get redistributed throughout the house by the furnace poisoning my wife and dog, and me, still. See problems 1&5.


I posted this recently somewhere else in the forum, but can't find my post — nonetheless, here 'tis, a DIY fume-extractor article by The Tone God:

Solder Fume Extractor - The Tone God

How To Build A Solder Fume Extractor Introduction Fumes given off when soldering are not good for one’s health. One solution is to use a solder fume extractor. The problem is that fume extractors are either hard to get or are somewhat expensive. This article is to show you how to build a solder...

www.thetonegod.com

There were some extractor suggestions in this thread (just 3 pgs):

$100 Amazon Gift Card. What should I buy?

Just curious what you would tell someone just getting started in pedal building to buy with a $100 Amazon gift card? I just placed a big Tayda order so I should be good on most parts. What about tools or specialty parts?

forum.pedalpcb.com

From that thread, Harry Klippton pointed out the lead doesn't make it into the fumes, but rosin-fumes aren't worth huffing either.



[EDIT Here's the desk fan, it gets moved onto the solder bench to the right (where the computer is in the pic) when soldering. Furnace is behind and to the left]

 

[jubal81]

I can tell when it's not on, but that's about all I can say positive...

BTW I saw your fancy dual pedal on Instatube the other day, niiiiice!

PPCB chips the brain of the bypass switching. Works great!

 

[Robert]

What kind of faceplate is that with the backlit LEDs?

EDIT: Ahh I see from a side shot that it's some sort of acrylic.

Those pedals are absolutely beautiful. The color, the faceplates, control spacing, all of it.

PPCB chips the brain of the bypass switching. Works great!

I need to work up a single chip version that can handle two channels...

 

[finebyfine]

I saw one the other day in a video that had a light on it and was on a gooseneck arm. Seemed pretty useful.

I have this. As far as “extraction” goes its useless, but its nice to keep flux smoke out of my nose. I mostly bought it to reduce bench space took up by the light and previous fan I had and it was worth it for that.