Sat 07/04/20 04:05:39 pm
Categories:
Electronics
If I am going to learn to solder I want a solder fume extractor.
While reading about solder fume extractors I found a few tutorials on making them. The simplest way is to attach a carbon filter to a computer case fan. I previously wrote about a computer case fan and measuring its speed. The reason I got this fan was to eventually make a solder fume extractor and, aside from being an interesting project, the reason I wanted to measure the speed was to eventually use this as a way to test whether the carbon filters significantly limited air flow.
Here is the fan with two carbon filters attached:
Since I verified (see microcontroller and logic analyzer ) the oscilloscope is an accurate way to measure fan speed I used the oscilloscope again for this test. Here is the result when the fan is powered with 12V:
The frequency is about 90 Hz so the speed is about 2700 RPM. This is only a little lower than 2820 RPM, the fan speed without any filters. It is fast enough to keep a sheet of paper stuck to the back of the case when the fan is running. The real test will be whether it pulls the solder fumes through the filter, but it looks promising.
subscribe via RSS