Flux Suckers are now for sale.
Airflow up to 200 CFM evacuates solder smoke efficiently.
Small footprint saves valuable assembly space real estate.
Rugged design withstands heavy use, and abuse.
Developed in conjunction with a Beta Test Team over 5 years.
This is The Best Solder Smoke Evacuation Fan you can buy.
$130, shipping or delivery available.
I've been building the first production run of the Flux Suckers. This is my solder smoke extraction fan that I have been developing over the past 5 years. This whole idea started when I had to start using a solder with no clean flux. The solder smoke was acrid, and caused me to have a autonomic cough response whenever I got the solder smoke close to my face. Gotta keep that smoke away, so I needed a good solder fan to do that. And, Flux Suckers was born...
It started with selfish intent, I gotta keep that smoke away from me, but I could see that the other solder technicians around me had the same problem. The acrid no-clean solder smoke was irritating them as well. So, I started building copies, and developing the Flux Suckers. The very first Flux Sucker was very sophisticated. It had a PIC Processor which used Digital Pulse Width Modulation to bias a MOSFET which was driving the Fan. It was very effective, but also very expensive. One of my first tasks was to knock the bottom out of the cost, so I changed the speed control to a Linear Regulator scheme. At the time I was building the Flux Suckers with salvaged computer case fans.
I also used all sorts of salvaged parts to make the control head, and base. This gave my Flux Suckers a ragged appearance seeing how they were literally made from salvaged parts, and junk. I recently scrapped out all the old Flux Suckers, and reminisced about all the crazy impromptu designs I had come up with. Over the last year or so I wanted to take the Flux Suckers to a manufactured product level. This lead me to generate a Bill of Materials in order to reliably source cost effective parts. I also made mechanical drawings to make the parts that needed to be fabricated uniform. The performance was also a big issue. I wanted Flux Suckers to be cost effective, but also perform at a levels where there are no complaints. So now Flux Suckers has a switching regulator that can deliver up to 3 Amps. The fan is a very powerful server fan which delivers up to 200 CFM, maybe about three times what it normally needed to serve this function. In normal operation the Flux Sucker is relatively quiet, but you can crank up the power when you need it to handle a bigger task.
Originally my prototype Water Vitalizer was using a motor that was salvaged from a broken Ryobi drill. It was a good use of salvage parts, but not practical in that I would have to find an obsolete Ryobi drill, and salvage the motor out of it. So,I got an off-the-shelf surplus drill motor, and adapted it to the Water Vitalizer. This required that I modify the mounting bolt pattern for the new motor, and modify the air vent holes in the mounting plate to accommodate the vent holes in the new motor. So I marked up the motor mounting plate, and then used the Z.Monkey Mini Mill to modify the Motor Mounting Plate on the Water Vitalizer.
I call this process Nibbling, or making Nibbles. There is a tool called a Nibbler, and it is different than what I am doing here. I literally mark the plate with the areas I want to cut using a Blue Sharpie, and then use an End Mill to nibble out the areas I want to remove. The Milling Table let me make some very precise little cuts, and I can sneak up on the patterns, or shapes I want easily. This motor mounting plate is 1/8" aluminum, so it is relatively easy to cut. Then after I get the new motor pattern cut into the motor mounting plate I put the Water Vitalizer back together for a test. It's been running for a few days now, so I think I'll say it is working good...
Am I considerably disappointed with plumbers at the moment. I've had three independent plumbers out to my house to look at the sewer pipe issue. All three of them told me the sewer pipes are shot, and the only option is to replace them. This would be a considerable expense, like $20K. So, since I got these estimates my mind has been stewing on this problem. I formulated a plan, executed the plan, and got the sewer pipes working again. AND... The cost was negligible. I already had a fifty foot pipe snake, and the only expense was hot water, dish soap, and my tenacious labor. Within a few hours of "working the pipe" it was free flowing again, and now the study bathroom is back in service, as well as the laundry room. Here is a video of the free flowing drain at the service cleanout...
My process partially depends on the clogged drain pipe. The pipe isn't flowing, so I can fill it with hot, soapy water. Then I use the Pipe Snake to work the pipe. This breaks up the stuff that it clogging the pipe, and suspends the stuff in the water so I can flush it through the drain pipe. This doesn't happen instantaneously. You have to work the pipe to get the stuff clogging the pipe suspended in the water, and help push it out of the drain pipe system. The four inch pipes under my house empty into much larger pipes in the city's sewer system, so if you can get the krud out of the local drain system, it can be pushed downstream easily. So, after many iterations of my clean out process the result is a clear flowing drain pipe.
Over the weekend I cleared the drain pipe for the study bathroom, and laundry room. Then, also, I cleared the kitchen drain pipe which has been clogged for many years. I ran a bypass drain that went around the kitchen drain pipe before I had the fifty foot pipe snake. I was using a different clean out method before, which didn't work on the kitchen drain pipe. Now, with the pipe snake, I was able to clear out the kitchen drain. It had been sitting dry for many years, and was rather krunchy. After applying my new drain clearing method I was able to soften up the clogs, and flush them out. Now the kitchen drain is running clear also. Yeah, this process is werkin' good...
The main sewer pipe is compromised. We tried to snake it out, and it is very gunky. I'm kind of bummed out about this, but not surprised. These pipes have been in the ground since 1978, so 42 years... That's a lot of shit, LOL!, and other stuff too... So, we need a work around. This affects the Laundry Room, and the Study Bathroom. We have two other bathrooms, so the Study Bathroom isn't such a problem, but the Laundry Room is necessary. Then the only thing in the Laundry Room that has been compromised is the Washing Machine Drain. The fresh water supply, and the electricity work fine. So, I needed to find a way to drain the Washing Machine without using the sewer pipe.
So, I needed a way to adapt to the Washing Machine drain hose. It is a specialized hose, and I started looking for some sort of coupler so I could adapt the Washing Machine drain hose to a garden hose. Well, didn't find much there. Then I had an idea that I would use a compression fitting to adapt the Washing Machine drain hose to a similar size hose. I did find some compression fittings that were meant for gas lines, and they were very expensive. Also the gas line hose was very expensive. OK, that's out. Finally I found some tubing that is meant to be drain hose for landscaping.
Saturday Night... I'm fixin' to watch Buck Rogers, working on cleaning up the house after Christmas, making some food, and doing some laundry. Kim had some issue we needed to talk about, and then I heard the sound of a waterfall. Water pouring out onto a stone surface. WTF Batman... So I went to look for the source of the sound, and it is the toilet. The toilet was pouring water out of the bowl onto the floor into the study bathroom...
Fucking Yay! I just love sewage backups, especially on Saturday Night when I'm fixin' to watch Buck Rogers... I've got this crappy old sewer pipe system that was built in 1978, with iron pipes. The pipes pretty much disintegrate with oxidation, then are subject to penetration by roots, or just being crushed by the shifting of the house. Fucking Yay!
Hey! Lets throw in some collateral problems as well... I renewed this toilet maybe three, or four years ago, and the hardware is rusted shut. Yay! I just love cutting rusted bolts off plumbing, most especially toilets...
I've got a drain auger that I use to clean out sewer pipes. The screwy thing there is attached to 50 foot long cable. I push it through the stuck pipe, and it can usually bust the clog. This time it didn't work... I went through maybe 35 feet of pipe, very gunky, and didn't open the drain. So, I'm kinda stuck here at the moment. I don't know what else to do but call the plumber. That is going to be very expensive...
I've got this same problem all around the fence. The old cedar posts have been saturated with water, and are starting to decay. The lateral forces on the fence panels cause the posts to bend back, and forth right at the base of the post. Then over tine the post will start to break right where it meets the ground, and will ultimately fail, and break. When I started this process I had about eight posts that were in this condition. Here the two posts in the foreground are broken in this manner, but the fence is still standing because of the steel reinforcements I added, and the recently renewed gate section close to the house.
So, there are two things I want to do here simultaneously. First, repair the broken posts, but also redouble the strength of the fence in general. At the moment I am concentrating on replacing the broken parts of the fence. In the near future, after the posts are repaired, I start renewing the fence panels, and integrating my Flow Through Privacy Design where the pickets are spaced apart, and staggered on opposite sides of the fence.
First, I planted the posts in the new locations making sure they are plumb, and level. I want to have really solid footings for these new posts, so after planting them I leave them alone for several days to make sure the concrete is completely cured before I put any stress on them. I have experimented with planting posts a lot in the past. Before I had some novel ideas that didn't work out so well. This method has worked the best.
