Solder fume extractor

If you were wondering why you hadn’t seen any more about the Iler 40 transceiver kit I bought then here’s the reason. First I was distracted by making contacts using the new JT9-1 mode. But I also decided to get a solder fume extractor so I have been waiting for that to arrive.

It’s probably a bit late in the game to start worrying about the carcinogenic effects of flux and lead solder fumes. But as the price of peace of mind was only £20 on eBay, I thought “better late than never” and decided to get one.

I was a bit surprised by how big it was. I was expecting something more the size of a 12 volt computer fan. But it sits nicely on the filing cabinet next to my drop-down workbench. I just have to think of somewhere to put it when it is not in use!

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

2 Responses to “Solder fume extractor”

  • Marty AG3EK:

    About 25 years ago, while I was working as a civilian technician for the National Guard, they decided to start paying more attention to a variety of safety concerns. One of the tests they did was to hook up a sniffer to my coworker while he spent a day doing as many soldering type tasks as possible. He replaced multi-conductor connectors (like 30-40 wires) and replaced parts on circuit boards and whatever else we could keep feeding him so that he would do a full day of maximum solder fume exposure. When they ran the gizmo through the lab they said that even if every day were like that and we worked for decades doing it, we were still not at any real risk for anything they knew about at that time.

    We all got full respirator systems with a variety of filters for protecting against whatever type of chemicals we could be exposed to, but they said we didn’t need to use it when we were soldering.

    Of course, things could have changed quite a bit in the last 25 years…

    Marty
    AG3EK

  • powertechpollution:

    Fume extractor manufacturers in Bangalore, India. Fume extraction system design is exextensively used for removal of fumes, mist, smoke, fine powder. Fume extractors which we manufacture can also be fitted with the self-balanced extractor arms of the varied lengths to provide with an extra flexibility in capturing the fumes.

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