Mini Fume Extractor

 I don't have a lot of money, especially since I have an hour to commute and gas is at a bazillion dollars a gallon. I started building my own equipment. I've a bird and i don't want it dead... wife would come unglued at me if it was my fault. So I started looking at options for the fumes created by the soldering iron. I came across this and decided to build one. I've an old tin I had used for my bus pirate, and an old hard-drive enclosure that had a small 12v fan.

 I picked up the voltage regulator, and some 9v connectors, started putting this thing together. The 9v batteries are wired in parallel to give 18v. The regulator can take 37v, I was tempted not to regulate it. and just let it eat 18v but I figured it's better to stick with directions this time.  The best way to keep things from shorting is a bit of shrink tubing.. I'm not supposed to solder in the dining room anymore... so I used the kitchen.

 The extra wire goes to the fan. I wired the switch into the ground side floating it. really the hardest part was the switch. I used one that I had lying around, it was pretty small. My el-cheapo iron is all clunky it's like tapping in a finishing nail with a cinder-block.

 

 Here it is all wired together 18v on the high side of the regulator, fan on the low side, switch floating the ground. I managed to source a filter by using a sponge type fish filter. It was stopping the fan though. What I did was took some wire and folded it over, going from the middle of each side to compress it down. I forgot a picture of it, but it's figureoutable.

so here is a sideways picture of the finished product. I dremmeled a design on one side, (not in the dining room this time, I went into the kitchen to do it) the other side is just straight-ish lines. You can see the switch on the side (top) I secured it in to place with hot glue. Painted it red... cuz I had red paint. So that is the Altoids mini fume extractor. I call it a success!

a quest for a home for TBP

I had it housed in an Altoids can (thought it fitting) but I was at the store and saw Altoids smalls... The can looked like it was the right size, so I bought one and brought it home. I'm pretty generous with them so it doesn't take me long to go through them. Before I knew it I had it cleaned out and was trying to fit the bus pirate in... and it didn't fit. 

 So not wanting to start over, and being SO close.. I picked up my trusty dremmel and started shaving off the corners, being careful not to shave off anything important... A few minutes and an annoyed wife later it fit snugly in the tin. (protip: the wife doesn't like you grinding pcb board in the dining room)

 After finishing with the board, I marked where the holes for the I/O cable and the USB cable were. I don't have some fancy calipers or anything... I have a jusabout. That hole goes jusabout here... this hole goes jusabout there... another dremmeling and I have two new holes... the holes aren't perfect but neither am I. Just ask my wife... (another ProTip: if your not allowed to grind PCB in the dining room, you probably aren't supposed to cut metal either, so make sure the wife isn't home.)

So to keep it from shorting out I added some electrical tape. I'd like to put in some tiny holes and use some hotglue and perhaps even some fiberoptic wire I have somewhere to make light pipes for the status lights, but this works so far. It's much more compact, fits in the box I keep it in better. Now to find things to use it on... MUAHAHAHHAHHAAA!