Add-ons for a six-armed, third hand.

This design is based on kits that use a small fan and a torch light.  

The fan is claimed to cool solder joints and to blow away soldering fumes. Blowing it away in your direction. So I looked for a small printable fume extractor. The small extractors I found have a filter at the front. This works fine for larger workshop fans, but a small fan needs to work much harder to overcome the reduction of air intake. Air volume decreases, so does efficiency and lifespan is lowered. Questionable that mesh size, thickness and surface of the filter in such a set-up is effective.

Usually these kits are an angry fruit salad of parts. The aluminium base and flexible arms are sold online. Luckily, I found a black and white version at AliExpress without the fan and light.

My approach...

• Place a filter at the back of the fan. Slant the filter so fumes and particles travel a longer distance to be trapped inside the filter. Double the surface of the filter, so the fan doesn't have to deliver additional pressure at the expense of air volume.

• Design the filter holder and the inner profile using aerodynamic principles for good air flow. Optimize geometrically to print with a 0.4 nozzle.

• Twist-lock housing with small hooks to keep the filter at place.

• 40mm fan for a fair balance between compactness and power.

• 3D printable template to cut out filters.

• Screw-in holes for the fan holder and power splitter. No pre-drilling, tapping, metal inserts or nuts needed.

• Flexible (silicone) wiring through tubes and splitter.

• LED light mounted flush in a tube.

Bill of materials:

• A piece of active carbon filter for purification. The denser the mesh the better. 4 to 5 mm thick.

• 40x40x10mm fan with finger guard. Sunon V1 type used here.

• Small power supply like an old phone charger with a Ø5,5mm plug/jack. 5V or 12V depending on your fan and light.

• Ø5mm LED light. Best to buy one with a built in resistor, high Lm

• Threaded LED holder. Through hole diameter between 6mm and 7mm will fit inside the plastic tube.

• Ø 8mm through hole socket/LED holder. Threaded works too.

• Ø 3mm LED indicator lights. Best to buy ones with built in resistors. Indicator LEDs are optional to connect to the switches. Glue them inside the small round holes of the cover. One LED to indicate the power supply is in the AC socket. Use a second one to indicate the fan is running.

• Two basic toggle switches, one for the fan, one for the light. Max body dimensions: 15mm wide, 8mm deep and 15mm high. Through hole radius is Ø6mm. Single or double pole will do. 

• One meter of wiring, two colours, 0,25mm2 or 24AWG.

• Four M3 x 16mm and one M3 x 6mm screw with Ø6mm washers.

About the files...

• Fusion360 base design included.

• Splitter covers for 0, 1 or 2 LEDs to choose from.

• Remove the covers you don't wish to use in the 3MF file.

Cheerio!
David

Print instructions

• Design is optimized for standard 0.40mm nozzle.

• Print at least 3 perimeters to attain enough strength.

• Model shown is printed with nGen by Colorfabb.