Window-mounted solder fume extractor (not just for RVs!)

This is my solution for solder fume extraction for my home (RV) workbench. It uses a dryer hose, a computer fan, and some insulation board to make a removable solder venting system that blows fumes outside. You can even use it for regular houses, too!

Step 1 Get parts together

You'll need the following:
- Piece of rigid foam insulation material or wood 5 or 6 inches (125-150mm) wide by almost the width of your window (minus a gap for weatherstripping). I used 1/2" (12mm) polyisocyanurate insulation board (the stuff with foil on both sides and rigid yellow material inside).
- Outside clothes dryer vent (I used a 4" (100mm) diameter vent kit) with inside trim ring
- Two pieces of sheet-metal dryer hose tubing for ends
- Piece of flexible dryer hose long enough to go from window to soldering area plus some extra length
- Computer fan (12VDC) small enough to fit inside the dryer hose tubing. If you're using 4" (100mm) dryer hose, you should probably use a 60mm fan. You'll want the highest flow fan you can find.
- Power cable for computer fan, and either a 12V lighter plug (if you're using this in an RV and have 12V power handy like I do) or a 12V power supply capable of powering the fan.
- Open-cell foam, at least 1" (2.5cm) thick and bigger than dryer hose
- Weatherstripping (1/2"/12mm) for edge of panel
- Bendable wire for legs (I used 0.105"/2.7mm suspended ceiling wire)
- Rubber bands
- hot melt glue, contact cement, duct tape, or other adhesive/tape to put everything together with

Look at what's included in the "dryer vent kit" in your local hardware store; it might contain all the dryer hose related parts.

Comments

[Cobalt59]

Pretty nice shop for an RV.

[hjjhjhgjjh]

Ya the solder fumes really make you go crazy I think this is pretty useful might have to try this good job

[joshua8733]

perfect for all you at home meth cooks

[pfred1]

Ah, the only time flux fumes really bug me is when I use my 5 pound solder pot. An iron tip just doesn't make enough to do it to me usually. But when the fumes got you down I gotta admit it is pretty nasty! Where I used to work we had box fans mounted to blocks of wood to suck the fumes away. No hose or anything to transmit the fumes out of the work area. Thing is I guess not to have the fumes just blowing right up your nose.

[Dorien]

It is not the rosin, the metals are the killers and mutators. Toxins, not particles. Many in this topic keep referring to the "rosin" fumes and the "irritation" of the smoke. Unfortunately it is what is not visible or irritating that is harmful, this time anyway. Dorien

[Cobalt59]

It IS the rosin fumes, along with all of the suspended particulate matter and such. And I believe toxins are particles.

[James (pseudo-geek)]

well I know it does kill brain cells, so it cant be good. this guy has a great idea.

[pfred1]

I'll keep that in mind the next time I am fireside. rosin flux after all is just pine sap. And no, I don't think this fellow singlehandedly invented the fume hood. It sure seems like an awful lot of trouble over a minor annoyance to me.

[James (pseudo-geek)]

well the thing is, when your indoors, all that smoke gets trapped inside and you breath it over and over, then that can be damaging.

[James (pseudo-geek)]

also, your not only burning the flux, your burning lead and tin. that can DEFFINETLY be damaging.

[ReCreate]

wow your going on vacation while you have a whole soldering set and tons of more awesome stuff too thumbs up!

[twisted glass]

Hello all this is off this subject but its the closest thing i can find too help me. Im a glassblower and i use oxygen and propane too melt glass and add metals too the glass like silver gold exct. but im haveing troubles finding a way too ventilate my workshop and heat it in the winter and cool in the summmer. Right now i use a atic fan but its pullin way too much air out so im gonna construct a box too add a dryer hose too condence the area of exhast but is there a certian formula i can use too figure out air intake i can go on and on but pls someone help i cant figure out how too stay warm or cool and have a healthy breathing enviroment at the same time sorry about the run ons lol

[crapflinger]

are you using oxygen and propane TORCHES? or do you have a furnace? if you've got a furnace it should have it's own ventilation system or at least places to hook up a ventilation system to ventilate the gasses inside the furnace outside

[James (pseudo-geek)]

hmm...me likey. I'm going ot build one for my room,except I'm going ot use a mini-desktop fan and jsut make the hose spread out to fit it (for more power)

[Myself]

I keep thinking that the wire support frame could be paneled in with sheets of plexiglas or something, to block crosswise air currents that might otherwise waft fumes away before the hose inhales them. Then I think that this is also the perfect place to mount lights, because there always seem to be too many shadows around the tip of my iron. Then I realize that a face-shield could be integrated here, so you don't have to worry about solder or flux spattering if there's moisture in a joint or if you whack something while it's hot and molten blobs go flying off. (This was, incidentally, my favorite way of removing excess solder from the tip before I got a decent sponge holder.) Yikes, creeping featurism! Pretty soon I'll have a whole workbench hanging from the end of a hose...

[bikeNomad]

Here's the finished product. You can see how the wire legs are held to the trim ring using rubber bands.

[radiorental]

very cool, do you mind me asking what you're doing with a mobile soldering/EE lab like that?

[bikeNomad]

It's my home...

If you want to look around inside it, I've got a badly shot pano at http://bike-nomad.com/RV/rvpano.html

[PixlGnome]

Heheh, Nice chair. I know the one's we had at the game company where worth 600 bucks. how much U pay? I wanna get one, they are sOOoo comfy

[liamondrop]

Quite a kitchen knife collection you have there, if I may say so.

[radiorental]

A man of discernable tastes. I use the same soldering iron and miller chair. How did you do the panoramic? I likes it.

[bikeNomad]

Just took a bunch of overlapping pictures, then used Hugin for OS/X to splice them together into one long image, then used some Windows program (forget which one) to make that into a QTVR.

[radiorental]

its that last step I'm looking for, but searching fo qtvr should do - thanks

[bikeNomad]

pano2qtvr from http://www.pano2qtvr.com

[radiorental]

thanks very much! I wonder if you know of anything for OSX, not that I cant use this... I just do all my image editing on OSX and prefer to not have to swap over to a PC for the last step but again, thanks!! flat panos look terrible

[krusty]

A quick search for 'panorama' at www.versiontracker.com yeilds a bunch of results.

[bikeNomad]

Yes, but none of them did what I wanted, which was to (1) be free, and (2) produce a QTVR file that could be viewed without having to load a special viewer. DId you find any Mac OS X pano software that met these desires?

[Myself]

There are some Java-based viewers with the goal of exploring gigapixel-scale images in a browser. Look at GSV or Zoomify. They might be suitable for your pano-sharing needs too.

[leahculver]

Great job! I like that it's large enough to suck fumes from many types of tools.

[Stephen B]

I like even more that you said that.

[dome_head]

but I love the smell of fresh solder in the morning.

[pellepeloton]

That look cool! I made a simple and portable version of this without the ducting and using 240V AC fan ( I am in NZ). Simply soldered a mains power socket Into the frame of the fan and used a 3- pin earthed power lead. AC wall power points have a switch in NZ and Australia so I did not need to put a switch. Of course I insulated exposed mains wires to make whole thing safe. I found that ducting was not necessary as fan did blow the fumes away from my nose.