Power Tool Battery Fume Extractor

A solder fume extractor is something we could probably all use. While there isn’t much to them, [Steven Bennett] put a lot of thought into making one that was better for him, and we admired his design process, as well as the extractor fan itself. You can see the finished result in the video below.

The electrical design, of course, is trivial. A computer fan, a switch, and a battery — in this case, a Makita power tool battery. But the Fusion 360 design for the 3D printed parts got a lot of thought to make this one of the best fume extractor fans we’ve seen.

There are a lot of details that go into making something like this look professional. For example, the plastic used matches the Makita color scheme, and the nameplate matches the Makita logo. Knowing how to interface with the battery opens up a lot of portable projects. For example, we use a similar battery to power our portable soldering irons.

This is one of those projects where you can easily get carried away. But [Steven’s] design is simple yet functional. Sometimes it seems like the overriding design factor is color matching.