I was tired of breathing solder fumes so I decided to make myself a fume extractor – in its simplest form a fume extractor sucks the soldering fumes up and passes them through a filter, in this case I used and activated carbon filter.
You can buy fume extractors from anywhere $30 to thousands but since I already had everything to make this (except the carbon filters and the tin) I decided to go the DIY route. The filters were $11 for a big roll (enough to cut a few dozen filters for this) and $3 for the tin.
Parts - small round tin, 40mm high speed fan, 12v wall wart, mini toggle switch, adjustable (gooseneck) lamp neck, carbon filter, and a pink pencil.
The tin I found (at Fred Meyer) had a magnet glued to it that had to be taken off.
The magnet peeled cleanly off.
Before I cut into the tin I drew out on paper how I was going to cut the fan opening.
I used blue painters tape so I could draw the cutout pattern on the tin. The darker lines get cut (used a Dremel).
Fan opening cut and mounting holes drilled.
I ran the power cable through the lamp neck.
I extended the leads on the fan and had to cut one corner off to get the fan to clear the neck bolt.
All secure - I had to scrap the toggle switch because it broke 
I cut the carbon filters to fit inside the tin lid (popped out the plastic that was there). I found that layering two filters worked best for filtering while still giving enough air flow.
Works like a charm.
I can clamp it to the base of my PanaVise or anywhere else I may need it to suck fumes.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Where did you get that carbon filter?
@jonnny126
Sorry for the delay in replying – I was on vacation…
I got the carbon filter from Fred Meyer’s… noting fancy just a replacement filter for some whole room air purifier. You could pick something similar up at a similar store, or home improvement store.
Good option, I will test it.
Thanks
@German
Sweet, would love to hear how it turns out.