Solder fume extractor

I have the small Weller, it has a very powerful fan, and it's noisy. I hate it. It works great tho.

Funny thing, I ordered a 36" zline hood in 2011 when I bought my $6100 American Range stove with a 12" BARBEQUE GRILL in the center. Long story short, I was sick on Turkey day, forgot the broth on the stove and it caught on fire at 2am. Insurance paid for an all new kitchen, they were very liberal with the $$$ so I actually paid zero for both.

But, zline shipped a 48" which was too big. When I told them they shipped the wrong one, they just shipped the one I ordered and forgot about the 48". Soooooooo when I do get the roof fixed in my workshop, so I can move all the crap out of my bedroom, I AM going to install the 48" zline over my workbench!!!!

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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:


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:

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You have a MIL that actually supports your hobby??!! Damn!
 
What kind of faceplate is that with the backlit LEDs?
It's a dual layer plastic meant for laser engraving signs. The indicator is a frosted acrylic that can be laser cut.
Thanks for the kind words! It took a lot of time and work to get it all dialed in.

I need to work up a single chip version that can handle two channels...
Dude. Seriously. Yes.
But go ahead and do one that can handle up to 3 channels.
I haven't seen anyone do this yet, but for standalone pedals, you could use stereo jacks and run the control signal along the ring connection to chain them up. Just need to make some stereo patch cables.
 
But go ahead and do one that can handle up to 3 channels.

We'll need a bigger microcontroller (more pins).

I'm pretty sure I can squeeze dual channels into a single 8-pin ATTINY, for more than two we'll have to move up to a 14-pin ATTINY24.

I'm sure you already know, but you can already chain as many of the current version together as you want. I've done three, but there's technically no limit and you can switch channel switching mode on or off to each one independently.


It's a dual layer plastic meant for laser engraving signs.

That looks so nice. When I saw the video the other night I didn't immediately recognize that it was your pedal. Saw the lightning bolt light up and said "Wow, shit!". Then realized "Hey I know that dude!"

It's not as pretty but I did a similar thing on these little VU meter panels. The square in the center isn't cut out and can be backlit with an LED.

I think in the next attempt I'm going to put a trimpot in that spot to adjust the gain of the meter (similar to the calibration trim on an analog meter) and backlight the logo instead.
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We'll need a bigger microcontroller (more pins).

I'm pretty sure I can squeeze dual channels into a single 8-pin ATTINY, for more than two we'll have to move up to a 14-pin ATTINY24.

I'm sure you already know, but you can already chain as many of the current version together as you want. I've done three, but there's technically no limit and you can switch channel switching mode on or off to each one independently.
Dual channel with 8-pin is done (PM me if you want my code, happy to share the love). I typically use a single switch to control both channels but the PCB is technically made for a switch per channel. Each switch has a dedicated pin on the MCU.

You can aggregate multiple switches on a single pin by cascading resistance and detecting the voltage instead of on/off.

Then, you can put the LED and relay in serial on a single pin if you get the right LEDs.

With non-latching relays, this could do 5 channels I think (on holiday without spec sheets). Probably don’t want to do it for sale though, the number of troubleshooting threads for LED/relays not working because people get the wrong LEDs would be painful.
 
It's not as pretty but I did a similar thing on these little VU meter panels. The square in the center isn't cut out and can be backlit with an LED.

I think in the next attempt I'm going to put a trimpot in that spot to adjust the gain of the meter (similar to the calibration trim on an analog meter) and backlight the logo instead.
What's perfect for back lighting is a reverse-engrave material, where there's a clear layer on top and a masking layer on the back that can be engraved. I've done that, too, and it's pretty awesome.
 
You can aggregate multiple switches on a single pin by cascading resistance and detecting the voltage instead of on/off.

Then, you can put the LED and relay in serial on a single pin if you get the right LEDs.

I'd love to take a peek at your code sometime. I'm always looking for ways to improve and make things more efficient.

I think I end up having to Google / refresh my memory every time I deal with multiplexing ADC inputs...

One of the early versions of the "Intelligent" Relay Bypass shared a pin for the relay and LED but I wanted to be able to control the LED independent from the relay(s) as an indicator when switching modes.
 
I have a metcal. A bit noisy and you still need to be fairly close. Smell is all but gone though.

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We’re gonna need some more details…

What the heck is it?

Is that charcoal filter?

Where did you get a piece that big?
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!
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Activated charcoal from AliExpress. 50cm x 50cm for $4.50
I'd link but the listing is inactive.
Just wrapped it and zipped it. I did install grills over the back side of the fans...
 
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I use this.. of course I paint inside with it too:
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I use this.. of course I paint inside with it too:
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I’ve been wondering about doing something like that for years. Are you airbrushing or rattle-canning? Will that pull all the solvent-stink from a spray paint can?

My basement workshop is also my work-from-home office space, so I’m down there all the time and can’t really stink the place up too bad. Honestly even the smell from bringing a batch of clear coated enclosures inside while they’re curing bugs me, so this probably wouldn’t work for me, but that is the dream.
 
I’ve been wondering about doing something like that for years. Are you airbrushing or rattle-canning? Will that pull all the solvent-stink from a spray paint can?

My basement workshop is also my work-from-home office space, so I’m down there all the time and can’t really stink the place up too bad. Honestly even the smell from bringing a batch of clear coated enclosures inside while they’re curing bugs me, so this probably wouldn’t work for me, but that is the dream.
It can handle rattle cans if you have a short hose length to the outside but rattle cans clog up the filter too fast... and filters are expensive these days. I use an airbrush because it is controlled and wastes much less paint. The filter will retain some stink but I keep it running for a while until it looses the smell. While it is running you can't smell anything so you could even keep the freshly painted enclosures there until they loose the stink.

There are new water filtered (waterfall) spray booths that filter the fumes with water which I would assume would stink less and you'd be able to quickly clean the filter. Wish these would have been around before I purchased mine.

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This is my setup that I've pieced together. The fan and window adapter are AC Infinity brand and the tubing and nozzle are dust extractor stuff from Powertec.

The window adapter slides in and out really easily and while I wouldn't leave it in all the time, it seemed to keep most of the ~30 degF air outside the house.

Tried for the first time last night. It technically functions but the nozzle has to be obnoxiously close to the work area. Could be because I have way more tube than I need for the distance, but it's hard to cut a $30 tube in half. There's a stronger (and more expensive) version of the fan that I wish I'd got instead. I'll live with it for now but might upgrade on the future.

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Something that helped me with my “fart fan” was picking up a solder mount. The height gets it right up on the ole plume o’ fume.
 

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