hey i am interested in building a solder fume extraction accessory. the goal is to have the solder fumes extracted directly at the tip. to give some context, here is a reference for what i am making:
you can see the fume extraction is achieved by a very small tube placed close to the soldering iron tip - hence, the idea is that fumes (generated mainly from flux in melting solder) are directly sucked into the pipe at the source.
If I used your 12v vacuum pump, could it provide enough suction to capture fumes? it would need to:
operate continuously (ie while I am soldering)
provide enough suction to capture fumes / solder smoke etc
What about if I used two of these pumps in parallel?
I have tried using a ventilation fan which works at 540m/h, but it didn’t work, maybe because it could not induce enough suction in a 10mm diameter tube, I don’t know. I tried reading up on Venturi’s principle but don’t want to chase another rabbit hole if a simple vacuum pump will work better.
Previously, I have tried more common soldering fume extractors - ie like this - but they don’t capture enough of the fumes. I am working in a ventilated area but I am asthmatic. It would give me tremendous satisfaction to solve this problem.
If I am able to extract the smoke at the soldering tip, I will then ventilate the fumes out of a window using the ventilation fan.
Sounds like your fan doesn’t have enough static pressure to pull air through that tube, but the vacuum pump may not have enough flow to catch all the fumes. Keen to hear more about the fan you tried so we can compare.
Have you not had success with a traditional fume extraction system?
Hi A1623
Just a suction pump on its own will not be any good. Don’t forget the “fumes” will condense into probably resin very quickly and won’t take long to “gum up” the works. I think most commercial extractors have a cleanable filter for the solids before they get too far into the system and cause trouble.
Cheers Bob
An air pump will have two important parameters - volume and pressure. For your application you need enough pressure to force air through the small tube at the iron, and you need enough volume to create sufficient flow to extract all (or most) of the fumes). A vacuum pump will emphasize pressure (eg, up to 32PSI, 12-15LPM or about 0.5CFM) compared with a fan which will emphasis volume (eg, ~10-15CFM for a typical 12V fan) at very low pressure. The vacuum pump will have more than adequate pressure, but I suspect the volume will be insufficient. You need something more towards the middle of those two numbers.
