A few years ago, I started working on a little project: building a DIY solder fume extractor. I had a vision of a neat setup—a fan with a potentiometer to control the speed, housed in a 3D-printed enclosure. I got as far as gathering materials and sketching out plans, but then life happened. New hobbies, work, and everything else took over, and the project got shelved.

Fast-forward to now, when I had some soldering to do and didn’t want to go out and buy a fume extractor. I dusted off the fan and filter I’d put aside years ago and decided it was time to get this done. The final design was a bit less sophisticated than my original concept—I swapped the potentiometer for a simple on/off switch and used glue to attach the filter to the fan housing. It’s not polished, but it’s functional, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Finishing this little project reminded me of something important: sometimes it’s better to just do a project instead of letting it sit unfinished while you aim for perfection. It might not be fancy, but it works, and that’s what matters.

See it in action below!