Re: Fume extractor recommendation
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Metcal made (makes?) a HEPA solution that can be placed on/near/under the bench. I got a used one off the auction site for a fairly reasonable price by waiting for the right deal to come along. General model number is BVX-100. There's a few different configurations (with or without the hose, and possibly with or without the HEPA-rated second filter).
Dave Casey
On Wed, Apr 10, 2024 at 8:19?PM Radu Bogdan Dicher < vondicher@...> wrote: Thank you all. Plenty of paranoia here, but backed with some reality - I have young kids and the kitchen is a literal 20 feet? from the bench. Being in CA, I have zero alternative options to reconfigure this. I at least keep my bench in the garage, so there's no chance (or they're quasi-zero) I'd recirculate this through the home HVAC system. Paranoid enough to change my slippers between home and garage, so I'd not walk any dust in the house. The way I'm wired, one just can't possibly be careful enough. I also need a hair of stress - oh, I'm the best there is at this! - to lose sleep and that's just not something I?target.? What I'm concerned about is the typical stuff in regular solder, particularly in old equipment (which I tend to collect, repair, restore, calibrate, etc.). Obviously lead, and, as far as I know, stuff in the metrology realm - my relatively new interest of excitement - can also contain cadmium in low-emf positions.?
Also, I have no way to easily exhaust to the outdoors. The garage has only two vents, one of which I've taken with an AC/heat pump unit needing to expel heat outside (of course). The high vent is open but has just about 1ppm efficiency, I'd say.?
I think what I need is at least a two-stage thing: HEPA and active carbon. I'm not obsessing over odors or VOCs as much, it's the heavy metals I'm concerned about.?
I'm close to a bunch of universities, I'll seek to inquire. Some sell affordable used lab equipment, but I know myself enough I'll not touch that stuff with a 25 foot pole.? Radu.?
I think you need to be a little more specific. Do you want a full hood and exhaust outside, or trap the fumes in filter/chemical media? Or, do you just want to get it out of the work zone and diluted?
The most volatile toxic metal that could be encountered in soldering (or brazing) would be Cd, I think. Hg would not be in solders, but any spillage would be a problem. If such spillage is likely, keep a jar of flowers (dust) of sulfur on hand to help trap the vapors - just sprinkle it on generously. Cd should be fairly stable but easy to vaporize at elevated temperatures (like soldering), so you don't want that hanging around. Once things cool down, you'll have particles of the metals like Cd and the ubiquitous Pb (and its oxide) in the form of toxic dust - that's a good thing to trap out in filters. Any Hg around will eventually evaporate away and bind with O2 or S. The sulfide is fairly benign, unless you cook it out.
Ed
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