Mounting a fan for solder fumes exhaust.

Taking a nice fan with a wierd base and mounting it to drywall above the Rock The Bike soldering station.

Step 1: Create a wooden plate offset from wall for fan's triangle base to slip through.

Step 2: Cut pieces with jig saw.

duh.

Step 3: Mounting bracket to wall.

Wooden standoff allows fans base to slide down. Fan can still swivel at any angle.

Fake_Name says: Sep 30, 2006. 3:16 AM

That design would just blow the fumes around, not exhaust them. Solder fumes aren't too bad anyways. Fosin is just a sensitiser. If you have asthema, it'll make it worse. That's about it.

BlackDidThis says: Nov 12, 2008. 12:36 PM

Maybe I was just too stingy on my fan... since the technology was much more expensive those days...
But I always got a bigger headache from the fan than I get from the fumes.

Agreed, the sound is less harmful than the chemical; but my God did it drive me nuts!
(A Computer fan will possibly be my first project shall I start again)

fluff says: Nov 12, 2006. 9:27 AM

Solder fumes aren't bad? Unless you use lead free solder you're inhaling lead vapors. And don't tell me that is not bad. I agree that there is worse. But you should reconsider because this stuff accumulates...

Fake_Name says: Dec 15, 2008. 7:15 PM

The vapor pressure of lead is *extremely* high, even at soldering temperatures. Lead fumes are not an issue.

As an experiment, when I was having some general-health blood tests done (cholesterol, etc...), I had them run a lead level test. Now, I've been soldering for perhaps 10 years, and a good portion of that was indoors, with less than ideal ventilation, and my lead level was so low the test didn't even register anything.

osgeld says: Dec 15, 2008. 6:02 PM

unless your vaporising lead, at like wat 800+ degrees F, and if your doing that you wouldn't be soldering much of anything... the most damage is caused by the flux fumes lead based solder uses rosin, which among other things has acids in it lead free solder doesnt, it uses much more agressive acids since it has to withstand the higher soldering temperature and still clean quickly before going up in smoke lead free fumes are actually worse, not as bad as good ol acid flux but not as "safe" as rosin

alexanderm says: Dec 3, 2007. 10:04 PM

lead-free solder is good, but you've still got the flux fumes, and the flux needed for lead-free is worse than what you can get away with using leaded solder. Get halogen-free solder. i vent my solder bench, but i have to admit that i sorta' kinda' like the scent of Kester 44. No, i don't go sniffing it!

alexanderm says: Nov 21, 2010. 12:09 AM

LOL! People make fun of me all the time for saying that! i, too, like the smell of Kester 44! And, no, i don't intentionally sniff it either!

Sorry for the bump!

fossilfool (author) says: Nov 12, 2006. 2:39 PM

Wow, this is a terrible exhaust fan. The problem is not that it doesn't exhaust to the outside. The problem is that the fan needs to be very close to the work to really pull the fumes before the rise into my face. This one is too far away and angled wrong. Will post a revision.

JordanZed says: Oct 21, 2006. 2:34 PM

Yeah that will only move solder around. Get a computer fan, and tape it to a long tube (blowing into the tube). Then put the fan beside your soldering project and put the tube out a window. Ghetto but it should work :p

http://jordan.motivo.ca/img/lol.PNG