On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 2:20 PM, Daniel Donnelly KC7VDA@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> My stepfather solved the problem for under $15.00, He put a box fan with a furnace filter on my bench ... end of problem. No expensive fume hood needed.
A furnace filter is going to do absolutely nothing for flux fumes. This worked because it blew the fumes away from your work area. While you were not breathing the concentrated fumes as you would with still air, you are still breathing the air with the diluted fumes.
> I have used the same type of filter on every job where I have had to solder or work around others soldering.
While this is of absolutely no concern for the hobbyist who is only doing light-duty soldering, the same ∗cannot∗ be said in an industrial environment where you have many people in the same room soldering all day long.
> When I was employed as a quality control engineer by San Fernando electric ( At that time they produced Capacitor and Inductors) I specified the same type of filter at every work station, with the result that lost production due to illness dropped dramatically.
If you were not using an activated carbon filter I would chalk this up as a psychosomatic effect.
> I suggest anyone worried about fumes from soldering with either lead or lead free solder do the same, this is a simple, easy (and best of all) cheap solution to the problem.
I agree that even a simple muffin fan will provide a substantial benefit to the light-duty home solderer, but that is the extent of it.
-p.