Improving the Weller EC-1201-AFE tip fumes extractor

Improving the Weller EC-1201-AFE tip fumes extractor
by sv3ora

This article relates to more advanced level of hand soldering. When you, as a technitian, hand-solder on a daily basis, a serious fumes extraction system is not a joke but mandatory! I am currently using the Weller WFE-P tip fume extraction system in conjunction with the EC-1201-AFE soldering iron shown below, to filtrate solder fumes.

As you can see, the iron has a straight steel tube that sucks in the fumes, guiding them to the filter system. The tube is cut diagonally on the front and this diagonal section is adjusted to be placed right above the tinned section of the iron tip. There are several problems with this system Weller uses:

The tube gets in the way all of the time.
During soldering, many times you rotate the soldering iron axially, diagonally or even vertically, to appropriately access the solder joint. Because the tube is not concentric but on one side of the tip, it also rotates on the right or on the left. On tightly spaced PCBs this is a huge problem as it interferes with the rest of the components around (especially if you solder more than one placed components at a time), making the access to the pad that you want to solder difficult, if not impossible.
The tube cannot suck in all of the fumes.
Even though the WFE-P system has a relatively good suction pressure, even with one of the two suction ports closed (to further increase the pressure), the tube is a bit far away from the tip and it is unable to suck in 100% of the fumes. When you do fast movements on the iron (for example when you put the iron back onto the resting holder) the fumes escape.

To solve both of those problems, I made a home brew tube. This funny shaped tube, is bent downwards very close to the tip. Notice that there is a special bottom opening which allows for the tube to be more closely to the tip and also increases the downwards fumes sucking. The tube, does not sit directly above the tinned part of the tip. This would be problematic, as this would increase the possibility to suck in molten solder and interfere with the work. Instead, the tube sits right behind the tinned portion of the tip, as shown in the next picture.

The results are amazing! I tried to move the iron as fast as I could, back and forth to the resting holder and I could not notice any fumes to escape, on a black background. I actually can barely see any fumes stream to show up from the hot tip to the tube, like if the tip is cold, since the tube directly sucks it in very closely and just behind the tip. Problem solved:

100% fumes suction.
There are really no fumes that can escape from this setup. All fumes from the tip, end up in the tube. The only fumes that still escape, are the ones that are not produced by the tip itself, such as spill droplets of boiled flux that generate their own fumes away from the tip or the odors of the heated PCB and components.
The tip can be cleaned more easily.
Since the tube is behind the tinned portion of the tip and close to the tip, the tube does not interfere with the cleaning of the tip onto the sponge.
The tip can slid in more tightly spaces.
Since the tip protrudes the tube, this leaves clearance for the tip to access the closely spaced pads.
No suck in of molten solder.
Despite the tube being so close to the tip, the tube opening is slightly behind the tinned portion of the tip and this make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to drag in molten solder to the tube.

So, what is the catch? Usually, placing the suction tube that close to the tip, cools the tip more, since there is a much greater air flow to the tip. IN PRACTICE, I have not noticed any degradation on this 45W iron, even when soldering the heaviest all-metal BNC connectors that I use to solder. Sure, the soldering station is consuming more average power, trying to more constantly keep the tip into the right temperature. But that's not a big deal unless you care about power consumption when soldering. Most importantly, you care about a good sucking action on the fumes, when you decide to use a tip fumes extractor. And this modified tube sucks it all in!

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