Altoids Fume Extractor

Lately I've been soldering quite a bit at home and thought a fan based fume extractor would be a good investment. I came across this MAKE video recently that describes how to build one that fits in an Altoids box.

I dug around in my junk box and found a 24VDC fan. This fan was a bit too deep to fit in a single Altoids box and still have room for a carbon filter, so I had the idea to solder two Altoids boxes together. One would house a 9V battery, the Switch and the Fan. The other box would house 1/2 a Pet Co. Aquarium Carbon Filter and one more 9V battery.

Below is what I came up with:

The two 9V batteries in series get me 18V which is a bit low for the 24V fan, but it still works well and uses parts I just had lying around. The two boxes soldered together solution worked out well because it stands up better and won't tip over as easily as the single Altoids box version would.

Now I can solder away all day and not get a sore throat from all the flux fumes!