On Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 9:08:56 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Saw this at Walmart yesterday and wondered whether or not it could be
used for solder smoke or fumes/ smoke obtained from poking holes in
plastic with heated nails?

Suction is subject to inverse-square rules - inasmuch as it decays by the square of the distance between the source (smoke) and the suction. You will note that the picture shows the cigarette directly below the fan. At your soldering station, unless you position the fan within a very few (less than 2) inches from the soldering head - as the solder is applied - it will do nothing useful. As to poking holes in plastic with hot nails - same issue.

There are these (attachments to common extraction systems):

https://www.all-spec.com/Catalog/Sol...53637299-12200

that I am sure you could rig up from some flexible hose and either a vacuum cleaner (noisy) or a fairly powerful muffin-fan. This could be directed to the source of the smoke and either run outside, or into a charcoal filter arrangement.

Either way, not a great deal of $$ involved, just a certain amount of rigging time and careful design.

Or, bite the bullet and get a bench-top fume extractor designed for exactly what you intend.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bench+top...f=nb_sb_no ss

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA