I’ve been slowly getting into the land of electrical pixies. So now, not only will I be inhaling sawdust, I can also fill them with leaded solder (because we all know that the performance of leaded solder takes higher priority than the safety of lead-free solder)! However, because I still value living, I figured I should get something to help get the solder fumes away from my lungs.

At my current job with MistyWest, we have a nice, bench top solder fume extractor by Hakko. But I’m cheap, so heck no was I going to pay over $100 for blowing away fumes when I can blow them away myself! Despite it being a nifty design with multiple configurations (shown in the images below), I would resist the temptation to lighten my wallet on this. Oh wait, I just bought a thing that I can use to make other things…

Hakko solder fume extractor.

Look at all the lead I won't be inhaling!

Taking the Hakko FA400-04 as a (heavily-inspired) design reference, I set off to make my own. Given my limited desk size and work area, I wanted to make it small and flexible. I had a 12V 40x40mm fan from eBay kicking around, which fortunately fit my needs quite well. See below for detailed images of the final product.

Image *kind of* showing it working. Configuration 1: Upright

Configuration 2: Low profile airflow

Configuration 3: Third hand

Carbon filters cut to size.

Pseudo-exploded view of assembly.

Uses M3 fasteners and a 40x40mm 12V fan.

It may not be the greatest fume extractor out there, but at least it works. Maybe I’ll make another version which has a proper power connector and its own supply. Maybe I’ll also add some LED strips to help illuminate my work area. Maybe I’ll even add wifi to it, because you know, the Internet of Things and everybody’s doing it.

Kidding.