Soldering Fume Extraction Constructed From a Fish Tank Air Pump

I saw an expensive fume extractor that removes soldering fumes directly at the solding tip when connected to a specialized soldering iron. Because I don’t like breathing soldering fumes when I am soldering on a project, I decided to make my own fume extractor. I began by looking for an inexpensive air pump that has both an inlet and an outlet port to allow me to draw and expel the fumes away from my work station. I found an air pump on Amazon that fit my needs and designed the following project based off of a fish tank air pump.

List of Supplies used

Air pump. I used a fish tank air pump off of Amazon for around $30 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08H286R34/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AE29D1W4WM9U1&th=1

3D printer. This is a small project so any size 3D printer will work.

Tinkercad, Fusion360 or similar design program. I have added the modified files to this Instructable if you wish to use the exact parts as described in this Instructable without the need to design your own.

Files for the weighted base: "Soldering Aid/Helping Hands" were found on Thingiverse and designed by AirwavesTed. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3114125 Then modified by me to receive the extraction tubes.

The hose is from Autozone: Duralast #50211 7/32” windshield washer hose/vacuum tubing. Around $2/foot.

Cotton Balls or a better filter media

Playground sand for the weighted base of the helping hands.

Super glue or similar to glue the plate onto the base after filling it with sand.

Rubber bands or springs for the helping hands. I used rubber bands as they are simple and effective.

Total cost of this system to build is around $40.

You could skip this step if you only wish to draw fumes away from the soldering zone. It is my hope that I can remove at least of some of the particulates with this filter before discharging the air into my workspace.

I wanted to make it possible to change out the chosen filter media of a cotton ball from time to time. So I designed a threaded filter housing using Tinkercad. Forutunately Tinkercad already has a shape to create threads easily. It can be found in the shape generator area (See Picture).

Use the "threaded" design found in the lower left of the shape generator and then size and duplicate it. Use one of the threaded parts to make a threaded hole in the top of the cylinder and use the other to make a solid threaded screw-on cap. I didn't want to use all of the threads offered in the design, so I cut it down to three threads. Important Note: You will need to reduce the width of the cap threads by 1 to 2mm, but do not change the height of the threads, otherwise the threads will not fit together. It also helps to use a silicone grease to help the threads move easier but not at all necessary.

I hollowed out the cylinder that holds a cotton ball and added a 9mm hole in the top for the rubber tubing to seat into. I used 5mm height on the top of the cap and the top of the main housing to give it enough room to seat and hold the tubing in place. Meaning the tubing is compression fit into the holes.

As shown in the Supplies List, I am using Duralast #50211 7/32” windshield washer hose/vacuum tubing that was purchased from Autozone.

3D print the cylinder and cap. Fill the cylinder with an expanded cotton ball (a single cotton ball stretched out to fill the cylinder) and screw on the lid.

I uploaded two Filler Cap designs. One has a 9mm hole to hold the vacuum tubing from Duralast tubing and the one labeled larger has a 10.5mm hole to connect to the tube provided with the pump used.

I downloaded the weighted base and helping hands files from Thingiverse from designer, "AirwavesTed". See Supplies List for a link.

I then modified the hands to receive and hold the hoses from the inlet side of the pump. I added the oval to the outside of the hands to give the hole for the tubing a little more support. This simple process can be seen in the first two pictures.

Now make a duplicate copy of the revised clamp. With this duplicate copy take the Tinkercad mirroring tool and inverse it.

The picture of the mirroring tool is shown in a picture above. All you do is use the lower arrow to flip/mirror it. Now you have two parts in a mirror image as needed for the weighted base.

The final picture shows all of the 3D printed parts for this project on one Tinkercad build plate. One change to note is that there are now two holes in the lower base of the filter cylinder as I decided to put the housing on the inlet side of the pump (as opposed to the outlet size) and run both hoses into it. This was an easier way of getting the two hoses combined into one.

I have shared the files here for the modified clamps to accomodate the hose ends and the weighted base. The filter housing files are in the section above.

Assembling all of the parts is easy and does not require any tools.

Fill the filter housing with a stretched out cotton ball or other filter media. You can see that I shredded the cotton ball to give it less airflow restriction and to completely fill the filter cylinder.

Fill the weighted base with sand and glue on the end plate all the way around to keep the sand sealed inside. It can be used without filling with sand, but it only weighs 2.2 ounces without the sand and 4.6 ounces filled with sand. I recommend filling it so that it is better stablized.

Assemble the left and right helping hand pieces and attach a rubberband or spring to each. Install the clamps onto the weighted base.

Attach the hoses to the helping hands as seen in the photo. Then attach the other ends of the hoses to the filter housing. Lastly attach the filter housing to the inlet side of the air pump.

If you wish you can put a hose on the outlet side of the pump to further push the air away from your workspace or leave it open as I have.

I chose the lowest powered air pump but there are several higher powered pumps in the same configuration and available on the same Amazon link at a higher cost. I have not fully tested it in action but I did put a iron loaded with solder into the work zone and it drew most of the fumes away. I have added a video of it removing smoke from an extinguished match.

I liked the results enough to add the system to my soldering equipment case and look forward to using it. The pump draws fumes away pretty well, but it is fairly noisy and it vibrates enough to move around on a smooth surface. Further testing is needed to confirm if the pump needs to be locked down to the workspace.

You can hear and see the unit in the attached video.

If I were to make another one, I probably would purchase the next higher flow rated pump, but this configuration does draw fumes away as designed and is much better than no fume extraction at all.

If you are using a different style of Helping hands you could easily modify them to hold the tubes in place with what you are using. It appears to me that the ends of the tubes need to be adjustable to locate them fairly close to the soldering zone.