Micro SF

A soldering fume extractor captures the smoke that comes off the iron and filters it before it reaches the operator. Because hand soldering happens inches from the face, capture distance matters more than raw airflow. The extractor pulls fume at the tip, filters both the particulate and the gases, and returns clean air to the room rather than venting outdoors.

Mostly flux, not metal. The visible smoke rising off a joint is the flux decomposing and vaporizing at soldering temperature, not the solder itself. That means solder fume is largely a gas-phase and fine particulate problem, which is why a HEPA filter on its own is not enough. Rosin-based flux fume in particular is widely recognised as a respiratory sensitiser in occupational health guidance, which is the reason extraction matters on a soldering bench at all.

Yes. It runs three stages: a glass fiber pre-filter for coarse and fine particulate, a HEPA for the ultrafine fraction, and 20 lbs of coconut shell carbon with potassium permanganate for the gases and odors. That carbon stage is the one doing the work on flux fume, since particle filters do nothing to gas-phase contaminants.

Close to the tip, and positioned so the fume moves away from you rather than past your face. The common mistake is placing the nozzle behind the work, which pulls the plume straight through the operator's breathing zone on its way to the filter. Get the inlet within a few inches of the joint and off to the side or beyond it. Capture falls off sharply with distance, so a few inches of repositioning changes more than a bigger blower would.

Less than you would think, provided the capture point is close. Hand soldering produces a small, slow-rising plume, so 128 CFM at a few inches from the tip does more than several times that airflow from across the bench. The Micro SF is sized for single-station hand soldering with the inlet positioned at the work. If you are extracting from further away, or covering multiple stations, contact the factory rather than assuming one unit will cover it.

That is what it was designed for. At 26 inches high, 10 wide, and 17 deep it tucks under standard work tables and desks, which keeps the bench surface clear. Two extraction arm options are available, one mounted on the extractor and one that clamps to the table, so you can set the capture point where the work actually happens.

Yes. Every Filtrabox unit is designed for indoor use with no outdoor ventilation required. Air is captured at the source, filtered, and recirculated back into the workspace, which means no ducting through a wall or roof and no conditioned air being pumped outside. One thing to confirm for your process: recirculation depends on the filtration matching what you produce. Particulate is handled by the standard configuration, and gases or VOCs require the carbon cartridge.

They do different jobs and they are not interchangeable. The pre-filter takes the coarse and fine particulate first, so the HEPA only has to deal with what gets past it. The HEPA then captures the ultrafine submicron material at 99.999% efficiency on 0.3 micron particles. Because the pre-filter absorbs most of the loading, it is the element you replace more often, and it is the cheaper of the two. That is by design.

No. The pre-filter, HEPA, and carbon cartridge are all replacement items. Blowing out or washing filter media damages the fibers and destroys the efficiency rating, which defeats the point of having a HEPA at all. Carbon works by adsorption and is spent once it is saturated, so cleaning does nothing for it either. The pre-filter is designed to load first and be replaced most often, which is what protects the more expensive elements behind it.

There is no fixed interval, because filter life depends on what you weld, how much, and at what duty cycle. A shop running production all day loads filters far faster than one welding a few hours a week, and heavier particulate processes load them faster still. Rather than guess at a calendar, watch the pressure gauge. Rising pressure across the filter means it is loading up and approaching replacement. The pre-filter is designed to be the element you change most often, which protects the more expensive HEPA behind it.