Solder Fume Extractor

A fume extractor was required for soldering. The system needed to be adjustable and lockable in position during use.

A custom enclosure was designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed to house the fan and filter. To provide adjustable positioning, the enclosure was mounted to a used microphone arm using a custom 3D printed adapter. The system is powered by a repurposed 12V LED power supply.

The design consists of a 3D printed hood where the 90mm fan is screwed into place. The airflow path includes a grid on the fan, a slot for the active carbon filter, and a second outer grid. To simplify the modeling process, the protective grids were not CAD modeled, instead they were generated directly in the slicer by printing a solid plate utilizing honeycomb infill with no top or bottom layers. A custom 3D printed adapter was fabricated to attach the hood to the microphone arm, allowing it to be secured using the arm's original thumbscrew.

The complete 3D-printed extractor assembly was much lighter than a standard microphone, causing the heavy-duty springs of the microphone arm to pull the assembly upwards, preventing it from holding its position. The initial attempted fix involved removing one of the two tension springs at each joint, but this tension reduction still was insufficient, so new holes for the Spring suspension were also drilled to relax the tension even more.

The mechanical modifications achieved a perfect equilibrium for the arm. The custom fume extractor can now be smoothly positioned and reliably locked in place over the soldering area without springing back.