A fan will not produce enough air pressure to flow through the tube, and
will probably over heat from the effort with no through flow.

At 05:53 PM 1/30/2003, you wrote:
>So I'm thinking -- how about mounting a PC fan in a
>small plastic box (like a hobby electronic project
>enclosure), and running the tubing from there.  The
>airflow can then be controlled by varying the
>voltage to the fan, and we wouldn't have to futz
>with the steel-wool etc.
>
>Cheers,
>-Neil.
>
>
>Johnathan Corgan scribbled:
> >
> > I've recently tried this with (very) limited success.  The comment the
> > article makes about being sensitive to airflow is true; I've tried a
> > variety of flow "restrictors" (minced desoldering wick, steel wool,
> > etc.) and I still either get lots of cold (well, not hot enough) air, or
> > so little air that it can't heat up anything (except the tip of my
> > finger, ouch :)  It's been able to melt bare solder placed directly in
> > front of the airflow, but not solder or solder paste applied to a
> > board/component.  Still tinkering.
> >
> > A couple of things learned along the way--the air inlet tube is slightly
> >   too big for standard aquarium pump tubing, so you have to go up a
> > size. Also, the tubing gets a little soft when heated so you have to be
> > careful not to jostle it or it will literally rip (I put on a strain
> > relief to the handle of the soldering iron).  There's a warning about
> > turning off the iron and leaving the airflow on until it cools off to
> > avoid melting the tubing, but for me this hasn't been a problem.
> >
> > Incidentally, I've gotten the toaster oven method to work, at least in
> > principle, but need to figure out a more repeatable method for
> > controlling the temperature profile other than "ooh, it melted, better
> > shut it off now." :)
> >
> > -Johnathan, AE6HO
>
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