Soldering fume absorber, necessary?

[EspressoJunkie]

I'm going to be building a small drone and this means some late night soldering in my rather poorly ventilated dining room.

I've seen fume absorbers online (small fan sucks the fumes into a carbon pad). Are these necessary? I've not done any soldering since school (and I was crap then) so I can't recall how much smoke or fumes there may be!

 

[ancient_mariner]

No, they aren't necessary unless you're doing a lot of soldering on a regular basis. Are they a good idea? That depends on the type of solder you use, the heat of the iron, your technique etc etc and whether you are very concerned about inhaling solder fumes.

I've built a few guitar amps over the last decade, and will happily continue to do so without an extractor of some kind, but I'm not young and inclined toward a robust approach to these things where the more H&S conscious might blanch a little.

 

[Steve B]

For the amount you will be doing they are not really needed.
There is no lead in solder these days and the amount of flux giving off hydrochloric fumes will be minimal.
Get the iron good and hot, then in and out quickly to make the join and the fumes will be given off for a fraction of a second.

 

[Steep]

I love the smell of solder smoke in the morning.

 

[EspressoJunkie]

I love the smell of solder smoke in the morning.

Lol I'm not sure the wife will though......!

 

[AJQS]

No not really necessary, though if you ever need to solder low melt 70 degree stuff then yes it might be a good idea, that stuff is nasty!

 

[cosmicma]

still using leaded solder
never got used to the lead free stuff, leaded solder just seams to flow better

all i can say is iv'e been soldering stuff for the last 40 years or so and have never used any kind of fume absorber and i'm still here