Building a fume exhaust setup; fan suggestions?

I'm in the process of building a solder fume exhaust setup over my workbench, which will consist of  a box in the ceiling containing a fan, with a 4" tube coming down to the workbench.  i was thinking of experimenting with various pc-style fans, but i saw an instructable whose author used the fan from a microwave. i was wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions; or what solutions others have found for this purpose. 

thanks!

michael

Perhaps you can use a big kitchen exhaust fan - or range hood?

(never tried it)

There are benchtop fume extractors with the carbon/charcoal filter that can be bought for around 50 bucks maybe closer to 75 with some spare filters... 
I guess if you have an old fan and some kind of housing to direct the flow it could be done cheaper with a fan some ductape and a hose and some spare time.

Pay attention to how much noise the thing makes.

be horrid to sit under a kitchen extractor for several hours.

I know this is a verypoorman solution made of surplus parts.. but it has vertical adjustment and switchable ugly blue led too

A PC style fan is not going to have sufficient air draw from that distance. Also this is a bit like cracking a walnut with a sledge hammer, unless you are generating a great deal of fumes which I would not expect from any soldering iron.  As sleeper suggested a bench top extractor would comfortably do your job.

But if you are thinking of doing something more powerful then you can do that with a more pwerful fan. In terms of filter you can purchase carbon/charcoal filters that are sold as replacement for spray masks. They have a round shape and easy to use.

you can get "in duct" round fans in all the common duct sizes, sold on Ebay and at hydroponics supply houses. the flex duct fits over each end, super easy.
position the duct over your work area, with some kind of hood, consider adding lighting. These fumes are bad for you, it is a worthwhile effort to keep from breathing them

Funny because with some of the natural resins that are pure colophonium, they were often used in medicine to treat lung patients, and many lung clinics are built in the hills with a lot of pine trees as that's where the colophonium comes from - of course this doesn't include synthetic resins and I guess there's a difference between standing next to a pine tree and smoking it. 

There's also the possibility that on ebay you can find yourself an old heating gun or blow dryer. That's a radial fan right there, you could have it in a box under the table where it doesn't make noise, and pipe the smoke down there. I remember one guy built one of those boxes with a vacuum cleaner motor from an old vacuum and turned it into a central plug-in vacuum cleaner for the entire house...he actually even used 4 of them...

Just to second living note.

Fumes out of lead solder being harmful is a myth. This was also the part of the argument to replace it with the horrid lead free solder. Lead does not release any fumes.

However, as a former TB patient I was also subjected to breathing pine trees for six months but now I think the positive effect of it on the treatment of TB is a bit questioned. However, at least we know that it is not harmful.

The smoke you see is from flux evaporating... not lead. 

It would take a very much higher temperature to convert lead to lead vapors.

I second the suggestion of just buying a bench top fume extractor.

You know, even at it's small size, it's still noisy. I couldn't imagine using something with a more powerful fan... i.e. more noise.

Colophony is a sensitiser. In that you MAY become sensitive to it with regular continuous exposure. How long it takes for you to develop a sensitivity to it varies from person to person. Some people can work with it day in day out for years and never have a problem, others only need a few light doses and they're reduced to fits of wheezing and coughing.

At work when we solder (which isn't nearly as often as it used to be) we're supposed to use extraction, but we can rarely motivate ourselves to use it because of the horrendous noise the extractors make. I've often thought you could home-brew a better option.

To my mind you want to move a very large volume of air at a relatively low speed. Moving it fast makes it noisy. Unfortunately to move lots of air, you need a big fan, big blades, and a fairly slow speed. These things are fairly uncommon.

I don't really see the value in filtering the fumes (unless you're extremely environmentally minded), I'd just exhaust the fumes to the outside world. Ok it's not enormously environmentally friendly, but a few people soldering in their garage or shed isn't the end of the world. Encourage your local smoker to give up for a day if you're that worried. A filter just means you need greater pressure from your fan to drive the air through it anyway.

CS

"Colophony is a sensitiser"

Man that just sounds like some kinky medical procedure involving special microphones. But anyways, back to the topic at hand......

M.

madriaanse said:

"Colophony is a sensitiser"

Man that just sounds like some kinky medical procedure involving special microphones. But anyways, back to the topic at hand......

M.

Click to expand...

Wash your mind out with soap and water....... I see what you mean though  ;D

CS

ColinS said:

I don't really see the value in filtering the fumes (unless you're extremely environmentally minded), I'd just exhaust the fumes to the outside world.

Click to expand...

Some/most DIY-spots are 'random' places, most won't have a proper window or something nearby that could properly
be used to get the fumes out. The idea of those filters is to 'catch' the bad air - that's at least how I hope they work, and significantly so  .
So the eventually bad stuff doesn't leave town immediately, but when the filters are replaced.

Bye,

  Peter

sahib said:

Fumes out of lead solder being harmful is a myth. This was also the part of the argument to replace it with the horrid lead free solder. Lead does not release any fumes.

Click to expand...

True, it's not like you're actually breathing lead fumes.

But it's also wise to minimize breathing the fumes. Sometimes I feel like I've been smoking after soldering for a long time in an enclosed room. It's a slight pain in my lungs. Can't be good.

FWIW, I recall the story told here (I thought by Brad / bcarso) about being able to trace lead-as-found-in-blood back down to the lead-mine it came from.
But IIRC that was for people who use their mouth
as a solder-spool clamp...

I don't know if lead can enter your body in noticable/objectionable amounts when just holding it with your hands (not talking here about eating using those solder-touched hands, just about lead getting through the skin of your fingers)

Bye,

  Peter

ColinS said:

I don't really see the value in filtering the fumes (unless you're extremely environmentally minded), I'd just exhaust the fumes to the outside world. Ok it's not enormously environmentally friendly, but a few people soldering in their garage or shed isn't the end of the world .... A filter just means you need greater pressure from your fan to drive the air through it anyway.

Click to expand...

I would imagine that regular usage of a higher powered fan would have a far greater impact on the environment than some wispy flux fumes, considering what they are doing to generate that electricity.

I just open the window, if there is one.

clintrubber said:

I don't know if lead can enter your body in noticable/objectionable amounts when just holding it with your hands (not talking here about eating using those solder-touched hands, just about lead getting through the skin of your fingers)

Click to expand...

I am quite partial to a sandwich while I'm working. I have some test-tubes clamps around the place somewhere, maybe I should hold the sandwich with those.  ;D

i wired up a pc fan to a selectable dc adapter (0v to 12v). lets me select the speed/noise level, keeps the fumes from going into my face. i do try to keep it fairly close to where i am working so it can be effective.

I'm using a 1RU rackmount cooling-thing placed vertically, with those mentioned filters.

A three-fan version of the attached pic. Pretty quiet.