HEPA is for removing particles. Soldering results in vaporized flux. Thus, a HEPA filter would be ineffective, other than the moving the concentrated fumes away from your face.
An activated carbon filter is indeed what you want. A simple box with fan sucking air away from your work and pushing it through a carbon filter is simple and fairly effective. Build something like that Aoyue using scrap and buy a filter for a few dollars. The fan does need to be powerful enough to move enough air that it gets all the fumes before they hit your face. On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 2:05 PM, Nathan McCorkle <[email protected]> wrote: > Would a HEPA-filter filter effectively? They're $35 and lots of folks > online use them for filtering air so they have clean air to work with > for microbiological work... small-molecule fumes will get through any > sieve-filtration mechanisms (that would catch large particles which > probably don't exist much in solder fumes, a wood fire would be > different since it has visible ash), which is when you'd want carbon > filtration. The folks online use a rubbermaid-type storage bin turned > on it's side, with the filter mounted on the top/side pushing clean > air into the boxed area. For filtering a space, you would just need to > reverse the filter's mounting direction. > > If it was tolerable before, you might be able to just get away with a > room air filter with just carbon in it, blowing toward your soldering > area so you know the air you're breathing while doing work is clean > (and eventually filtering it all from the circulating air)... or place > it near your area with the suction-side toward you, which should > create a draft around the general soldering area sucking in and > cleaning your fumes. > > You might also re-purpose a desk lamp on an arm, with a piece of HVAC > tubing on the end instead of a lightbulb... and have that go to a > small carbon filter nearby. Position the sucker in the most convenient > place near your soldering setup. > > > The latter idea is actually how a lot of chemistry labs are run, with > the suction arm supported on the ceiling. See pic: > > http://pimg.tradeindia.com/00638843/b/2/Laboratory-Fume-Extraction-System.jpg > _______________________________________________ > dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list > [email protected] > http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber >
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