Why does smoke from a soldering iron ALWAYS go towards your face???
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- Опубликовано: 27 май 2020
- Today I've finally answered a question that's bothered me for a long time - if you've ever used a soldering iron, it FEELS like the smoke is ALWAYS blowing directly towards your face, but for years I wrote it off as confirmation bias. It's not. There's a real physical reason the smoke is funneled annoyingly towards your eyeballs, and in this video, aided by a plane laser and a smoke machine, I figure it out!
CORRECTIONS:
1: Safety! Turns out mineral oil smoke CAN be toxic and produce Lipoid Pneumonia, thanks to Cheetah Spottycat below for pointing this out. I chose it initially because the internet told me it wouldn't leave residue all over my garage, but I cannot endorse it as a try-this-at-home technique!
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#Science #Lasers #Soldering
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As a guy with stage technician experience, I can tell you: Yes, evaporated baby oil is in fact harmful to your lungs, and can cause what is called Lipoid Pneumonia. If you want to be safe, use regular fogger fluid, which is a mixture of water and propylene glycol or glycerin, which is perfectly safe and won't hurt your lungs.
(And why the hell does this channel have so few subsribers ... it's awesome!)
So, what’s actually safe about fogger/vape fluid? It still accumulates in your lungs, and it doesn’t evaporate, right? Is it absorbed by your lung tissue and later removed from your bloodstream by the kidney? While for stage smoke you’ll often want it to be buoyant enough to fill a room, but using dry-ice or an ultrasonic exciter should work well enough for this sort of temporary use. Surprised ultrasonic vape pens aren’t more popular.
Also I’m pretty sure professional haze machines use oils, not glycol/glycerin, so in small amounts it’s probably acceptable. Though you’d probably get more particulate oil from working with an air compressor than going working at a concert venue.
Glad you liked the video, and wish I knew about the subs lol. I still have fun making stuff xD
Thanks for the info about oil smoke! I initially chose it because the internet said it wouldn't leave residue all over my garage but maybe I should have included a few more criteria... I added this to the description as a safety correction!
@@Scrogan Propylene glycol does evaporate, albeit slowly. Glycerol evaporates even more slowly. They are also metabolized in the body, and some gets expelled by the kidneys.
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Probably a good idea to pin that comment in case someone is thinking about trying the setup shown in the video
You can use 0% nicotine vape fluid also.
Basic materials and equipment to make a soldering station:
- soldering iron
- solder
- sponge
*- cardboard cutout of yourself staring into your soul at opposite end of the table to invert draft.*
Never forget punching bag for when your hands just wont stop shaking
@@sagebalsys7390 yep
Make the cutout double your size so it doesn't cancel out but inverts it by 50%
@@sagebalsys7390 I always make the mistake of drinking a triple shot latte before working on things... Doesn't go very well
@@untitled2792 nice pfp
Well done, young man. I've been soldering for 47 years and have been a professional electronics tech for 44 years and I've certainly been aware of the "smoke in the face" phenomenon for that entire time. I never knew why, until now. Thanks for teaching an old man something he didn't know about his specialty.
wholesome
Oh yeah? I've been soldering for 74. Young man.
@@octosaurinvasion 👎
@@octosaurinvasion this isnt a competition.
@@TantalumPolytope i was making fun of the use of 'young man', i'm 16.
Bro. Seriously. These are some corners where people won't even care to look. You got it created in lab and explained the effects in detail. I seriously love your dedication and in-depth analysis.
NICE!! after 45 years of holding my breath, I finally know why this happens. btw Steve Mould send me. Subscribed :-)
Yeah it's driven me nuts... glad Steve sent you my way!
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel A Pirate walks into a bar... ;-)
Arrrrg
Impressive that you've been holding your breath for 45 years, I can only do 2 minutes
A smoke filter isn't expensive. Just sayin.
Excuse me, mr. algorithm, why haven't you suggested this channel before? After all we've been through you still don't know me at all?
Your first mistake is thinking of The Algorithm as a person :)
I feel like my hours of watching styropyro alone should directly get me recommended this channel
Hello, 10 months later and this channel is continuously being suggested to me in recent days.
You've been chosen by the Algo!
@@MadScientist267 I would say the algorithm has a much much better understanding of me than random FB friends do, than acquaintances, and even better than crappy friends. It suggested this to me for example, and always manages to select weird engineering/science/literature/maths and sometimes gaming videos. It's actually pretty damn good.
As long as you treat it like what it is, a suggestion, than I find it introduces me to tons of interesting content. The problem is that some people treat it like it's their SO or close friends, it's not, it will suggest things you aren't that interested in a huge amount of the time, but even the 20% or so success it has with me is incredibly useful for finding channels like this.
Same with virtually every welding and plasma process known to man... Many times - while coming down from a bad case of the zinc shakes (in spite of holding my breath and having strategically placed to blow across my back) I've said to myself that if I ever decided to pursue my engineering PhD, it would address this very phenomena. Thank you for saving me from that fate... from now on, I'll place the fan so it blows under the chin of my welding helmet.... :)
People: don’t breath the smoke when soldering
Solder smoke: bich you gonna inhale me weather you like it or not
Super interesting! Thanks for resolving one of life's mysteries.
Are you indian ?
Hey Samy, What have you been up to?! you haven't posted anything in forever!
I swear I just need to follow you around on youtube. You're always in the comments of the best videos. Samy actually is my hero.
but most of all, Samy is my hero
Oh, I remember you! We were friends on MySpace :)
When you threw your 3 other hypothesis i thought
"Damn, this guy is smart"
well you HAVE to try to prove yourself wrong or it isn't science! =D
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel and the way you said "do prove me wrong" that gained my respect
I was nearly shouting "ARMS" at the video for a while, which means I was engaged in learning and forming a hypothesis. You're a great teacher.
Your problem solving skills are truly a feat. I love how you eliminate possibilities. Brilliant stuff.
I have only soldered maybe a dozen times, but it only took about 5 mins for me to figure out to set my desk fan next to what I was soldering. Thanks for confirming.
Low tech solution boys, just exhale when you're actually making a solder joint. Works 60% of the time, every time.
Instructions unclear, inhaled it instead.
Instructions unclear, inhaled the solder iron instead
@@dvy6660 tasty lead
Instructions unclear, inhaled drugs
Instructions clear, made a solid solder connection AND inhaled drugs
As an Occupational Hygenist, I find this explanation very useful. Please use a P100 mask when soldering so you don't inhale tin or other hazardous metal particles. The smaller the particle, the worst for your lungs.
And having a little object perturbing the air like a small desk fan will help as well, if only to lower the concentration of smoke particles in the air you breathe.
Most of the harmful stuff is the flux, which is pretty nasty
What a gem of a video. Thoroughly enjoyed and closed the video expecting hundreds of thousands of subscribers! Wishing your channel/personal endeavors the best!
"now I feel really old"
Get used to that feeling, it's going to be with you for the next 60+ years.
Oh fuck
"hope this stuff isn't toxic" yeah that's why they use glycerol nowadays :P
He bout to get EVALI with all them lipids going into his lungs.
I just watched the first 3:31, and my suspicions were confirmed. Sentience, dark magic, malice. Checks out.
😂
The same premise as all smoke. Camp fires do the same thing
Once again, *proof that you have one of the best channels and are one the most fascinating, intelligent, entertaining, and best TEACHERS on the Internet*
I cannot thank you enough for your efforts
Sir, thank you for making this video. All this time I thought I had incredibly bad luck with natural air currents. I knew there was a pattern, but because my soldering situations were so different each time it would be very difficult to isolate the cause. Sometimes I'm soldering outside on a car, etc.
This question teased me for a long long time... Now I'm 62 and you gave me the answer! Yes! the arms! Thanks!
It infuriates me that such a small number of people know about this great channel. I'd say you're definitely up there in terms of video quality with channels like vsauce, numberphile, veritasium etc.
Thanks! I appreciate the support! Those are some great names to be compared to! I've seen Michael Stevens at an in-person show... I don't think I;ll be going on tour anytime soon xD
It feels like "all the big channels" have somehow had a few easily-widely-shareable-and-therefore-viral videos that initiated their fanbase, or got featured by a much larger entity at some point in their history and unfortunately I haven't had either of those YET. Getting chains of people to share videos would be awesome! I fear that my content is too eclectic and my publish schedule too random as well...
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Came here after Steve Mould mentioned you in his video
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel It's funny I like your videos because they are eclectic. It shows that science does not have boundaries but instead bridges between everything in the world around us.
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel you definitely are a real scientist unlike veritasium and other channels host. I like your videos more than any of them combined. Don't worry about getting million subscribers. Focus on creating interesting scientific videos . I love your kind of eclectic stuff. Maybe because you are great at experimentation.
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel There's also a slight difference in clickbaityness and production value. But you're awesome, keep it up!
This channel answers so may questions I never knew I had.
Awesome video! I basically assumed this was the case after a few years of soldering as a kid. I knew it had something to do with drafts and heat currents. Glad to know I was quite close to the truth, although not quite in the way I thought. Thanks for testing it!
I have never soldered without a fan running, so I didn't even know this was a problem until now.
There are definitely cases where you're working on something "in-place" where you can't use a fan, but otherwise, yeah... Just use a little extractor fan. Should be part of standard soldering kits... But isn't.
as a kid, I used to deliberately inhale solder smoke and try to blow it out my mouth... not knowing it contained lead. Now I just use lead free solder.. lol
@@turbo2ltr The fumes aren't actually lead, it's the rosin in the solder. Still not great for you though
@@satiric_ it could contain lead if the solder isnt lead-free
@@awesomestuff9715 The boiling point of lead is around 2000 K. Soldering irons usually run cooler than 700 K. Even if you're using nearly pure lead solder, the amount of lead in the fumes is extremely small.
I love how you slowly give your audience info and gradually clue them in. It gave me the sense that I was a science detective rounding up clues to solve the mystery. Very well set out and very well paced. You've got a new subscriber 🙂
The question of a lifetime of soldering finally answered!
Bravo!
This is so amazing, finally the mistery is solved. I always hate this if iam working in my bench without fans or so... your second video I found randomly. Your vids are so awesome! You deserve at least an abo!
And here I was all along thinking it was confirmation bias. Surely the soldering iron isn't evil. Yet here we are
I have always wondered why. Now I know. This was very entertaining too! One of these days your subscriber count is gonna explode.
Yeah I was certainly happy to figure it out! Glad you liked the video and hope you're right about the channel eventually exploding - I think it just takes a whole lot of people with a whole lot of followers sharing and sharing and that's so hard to initiate organically...
@@AlphaPhoenixChannel It should explode. Great video, subscribed. I'll share this with my friends too, as it has great explanation of why that happens. :)
It may be about to. I’ve just got sent here from Steve Mould’s channel.
The prophet!
It certainly did explode
Amazing!! I too have suffered with this, and since I've done a lot of proyects, have not been a smoker and yet ended up with some EPOC lung impairment, I've always thought this could have been the reason for it. Pehaps having the solder work near the edge of the table and leaving some space between you and the table could also avoid this "magnetic" attraction of the fumes. Great discovery!!!
Dude, this is awesome! I've always had this problem when soldering, and it drives me crazy. Thanks for putting in the scientific leg work to arrive at an answer!
Brilliant!
Steve Mould brought me here. That's some high quality setup you've done for this. Subscribed!
Steve Mould brought me here as well. I see that your sub count just jumped by half in the last day.
yes i am one of them and i am very happy to discover this channel.
Me three! Great video! Definitely need more subs. Subbing to await your next one!
Ha Steve Mould did not bring me here, but my first thought was. "hmmm, Steve Mould would love this guy"
I love this dudes passion and curiosity.
Think you are the first to nail this. Wish I knew this when I was 11 in my dad's workshop spending weeks in there. Awesome vid, thanks
i've been binging your videos all day and i have to say this is the *exact* kind of content i want to see more of on youtube
Thanks! Spread the word 😁
Loving your content. Always a simple question and answer but throughly researched and tested to the point that you make it all so interesting even if it’s a mundane topic.
For years I've pondered over this exact same phenomenon!! Brilliant, absolutely amazing 👏
Bravo!! I’m amazed by your very scientific approach to analyzing this very interesting fluid dynamics problem! You could turn this into a PhD thesis by adding more details on the theory and experimental method and get yourself another degree 👏👏👏
Wow, someone actually did some research on this issue. I just bought a small fan for this purpose.
Also, you could just have put some flux on the soldering iron with screwdriver or some tool, it would have been much cheaper than melting expensive solder ;) Great content my friend
but even the flux makes smokes :(
@@e_sence That's the point. He could've used something cheaper like flux to see where the smoke goes instead of something more expensive like solder
Cant even find flux in the pandemic..
Hey this came out great. love your logo stinger, love your coverage of the various theories. I'm hittin' subscribe.
This reminds me of the casimir effect. I've noticed that tree leaves tend to collect in semi-enclosed areas that are lower pressure to the wind gusts in most cases, sort of like how antinodes would buck material off into nodal wells. There are less directions for wind to come from to pick those leaves back up and throw them back into the yard or the street. Its all just pressure mediation.
Why this channel is not so popular? I am so amazed to see this. Anyways I am a subscriber now. 🙂
Great video! In the begining i thought that maybe there is something with a static charge of smoke or face))) However thanks for explanation of that annoing smoke))) Subscribed, came from Stieve Mould)
That was my initial thought, too
Wow such s great video. The explainition and the visual were absolutely fantastic
this is fascinating .. best undiscovered channel in a WHILE
Wow! Thanks. Working in electronics for most or my career, I also noticed how the smoke always came into my face and I also wondered why. And like you, I have actually moved to the other side of a table and observed it following me so it wasn't the air currents in the room (due to HVAC?) Your elimination of several possible causes, one of which I would have bet on and final explanation of the actual reason was great.
Mystery solved!
Awesome work, I had thoughts about black magic too. Thanks for your advice!
Steve mould makes good recommendations!
Thank you so much, this bothered me for years! Great video and nice approach finding the reason. Also your other videos are really interesting, just subscribed
Every time no matter if your sitting standing if the work is above your head or below that smoke will find your face it's nice to know why and that it happens to more the just me thanks for the video
This could explain campfire smoke following you around no matter where you sit.
If I lived in a less windy area, I'd try that too!
This would be neat! I wonder if someone has written a paper on a thermodynamics simulation of a bondfire? Sounds like a good grad thesis to me lol
It is one of the rules of the universe silly, like loosing your car keys when you just had them and you are running late, or getting all red traffic lights when you are running late and all green lights when you have lots of time to spare. Rules of the universe just work that way.
or if u drop a slice of buttered bread, its gonna always fall buttered side Down! LOL
@@skip741x3 Especially if it hasjam on it and your wearing nice clothing.
We have the same energy and curiousity/passion in physics, sir. I love your videos as I discovered it just this day. I don't knwo why it took me so long. I assumed you are a college/highschool student but turns out you are a freaking doctor! I aspire to be like that. Niceee videos!
I haven't watched yet but it is true and I have wondered for years. Stoked to see an analysis of the phenomenon
This was amazing, and you deserve 100x the subscribers. I'm gonna recommend you to all the tech people I know. You're DOPE.
fantastic video. you deserve more views!
First time viewer here - genuinely impressed by the methodology here and. Great video - I look forward to viewer your back-catalogue! :)
Nice… I had pondered this for a long while too, and some years ago tried looking for answers. Hand position was definitely found to be important, so I think we reached a similar conclusion. I also found a difference when wearing a ground strap, so I believe whether you are carrying a static charge contributes too, but I didn’t investigate the point much. What I failed to do was find a universal solution unless you’re happy to use a fume extractor (too much noise for me), so as with most, I just hold my breath.
You had me at sentient soldering irons
*breaks spaghetti in half*
Italians: and so I took that personally
Knowing Italians and their obsession with pasta I'm sure there is already a named variety that is exactly like spaghetti but half the length. I'm not going to look it up because I'm certain that's correct. So, really it's...
Itallians: Ma! Perché non hai usato solo i mezzi spaghetti?
It's a silly thing to do even if you're cooking in a small pot. The variance in doneness due to half of the spaghetti spending slightly less time in the water isn't perceptible, especially since it's all going to get mixed up together before consumption.
I'M ITALIAN, I ALWAYS BREAK SPAGHETTI IN HALF BECAUSE I'M A MAD MAN
Finally ! I was guessing something like that but not sure and always wondering exactly why and you did the experiments ! Thanks a lot
RUclips has gifted my new Knowledge again, knowledge that i didnt know i needed but i did^^
Thank you Phoenix
How bout putting the work at the very edge of the table and sittin a bit back, or putting the work on a tiny table on the workbench, then here could be airflow between the arms, body and table, right?
I almost always solder at the edge of the table, and smoke still goes into my face if I don’t use a fan. That’s why I’m guessing it’s a combination of these effects or maybe there’s another factor.
I’ve noticed that when it’s cold, smoke more aggressively attacks my face, so I think body-heat updraft plays at least some role.
I've noticed how you hold the soldering iron and solder affects this. If you point the soldering iron and solder more forward as well as keeping your hands further back on the solder tends to massively reduce this effect.
I try to just solder with a directional fan going to blow the fumes away before they get to my face
Solder splashes on balls, bad day mate
new sub here. steve mould promoted your channel in his latest vid. I really like your intro video at 0:28
Never thought about it, but it‘s a nice to know!
Thank you for explaining!
Thank you for such a engaging video! I love the way you take us through your thought process!!
Next: solve the “drop a piece of tissue paper into the wastebasket and watch it sidestep the basket and land on floor” problem. Some how some way, the problem is air currants. Or maybe raisins. Let me rethink this question.
As it falls the tissue pushes a tiny whiff of air ahead of it. The air inside the waste basket has nowhere to go. So the tissue slides off the resulting tiny dome of higher pressure and misses the basket.
How 'bout other mysteries, like why does toast always fall butter side down, or that more ancient riddle, where do the socks go that get lost in the washer or dryer?
@@TropicalCoder it probably goes butter side down because the butter makes the bread that little bit heavier on one side, and maybe because bread is flat on 2 sides it wants to stand up straight but the side with the butter is heavier. That's my theorie.
I never use butter tho, and if I do it's over my plate.
@@c.l.h.bokhorst6687 The butter's weight would only be relevant if it also significantly affected the aerodynamic forces on the toast. Don't forget that a feather falls at exactly the same speed as a bowling ball in a vacuum. The only reason a feather normally falls really slowly is that it has a large surface area but doesn't have enough weight to push the air out of the way.
"Air is transparent."
100km worth of atmospheric perspective would have to disagree with you, but I concede the point for limited cases.
"Who would'vee thunk it?"
Yes, context is important. Thank you for pointing that out.
This, to me, is a really refreshing and inspiring illustration of what science really is. Playful curiosity supported by a solid method.
absolutely love you man i been thinking about this since i was 8 years old. i put my own fan from a fridge compressor inside a small closed in desk. not fancy but effective... not everything can be soldered at a desk either
You just figured this out? I've soldering telekinetic-ly for who knows how long precisely because of this.
Good vid, that was fun and I learned something new today.
I would have guessed that the soldering smoke has static electricity in it some how.
Love your enthusiasm. Keep it up, you will do well here.
Great vid. A desktop mini-fan faced away really helps lol. Prob should have a filter too, but at least the former for the cost conscious helps a ton.
Well, a solder fume sucker obviously helps, and they're relatively inexpensive. But now I'm wondering: what if your table had perforations, at least around the soldering area? Would this be sufficient to cause an updraft through the perforations that would drastically improve matters?
Wait till you spill a container of smd packages
@@peppersalt lol, good point.
Mmmm, sweet rosin smoke
I was thinking the other day, man I should really turn on a fan when I solder. Now I know why. This video is the reason I subscribed.
Thanks for the info, I always just figured it was a rite of passage in soldering, sort of like a sacrifice burn on your fingers when you keep holding on because you don't want the wire or part to move until the solder sets.
The same thing happens with camp fires, they always blow smoke in your face.
Freaking genius. Do you think this is what causes a similar phenomenon with campfires?
Particularly when used as a heat source for soldering
@@polyhistorphilomath I too, solder using a campfire.
Irons are overrated.
Nice research :) My solution to this problem is using a small computer fan to suck away the smoke. It is important here that the fan really sucks. If it blows, it is cooling the soldering iron too much.
lol, just literaly finished soldering and was wondering why the smoke goes to you. great video!
Here from steve mould
I've thought of this my whole life, not just the soldering iron, welding fumes seem to be drawn to your mask as well. It's infuriating
this was awesome! ive always noticed this, and did a bit of testing myself, but didnt look too much into it, so this was a super fun watch!
Thanks! I got many ideas to solve this problem. One lf them, cut a hole or better, a long thin slot in your workbench in the low pressure area, and have a small fan under the table.
Is this why the smoke always moves with me when I move my seat around the campfire? (Probably not. We know smoke is sentient and evil)
Your body has a positive charge that attracts the vaporized metal’s .
Thank you for this. I tried to think of the answer before I clicked and thought ' it has to be body heat draft'. Seeing cardboard capable of producing the same effect demonstrated it wasn't the body heat, but just the body is enough to produce asymmetric draft. Amazing.
This brings up a life lesson I have learned and is constantly reinforced. Just because you can't see how your wrong (in the moment), doesn't mean you are right. The world would be a better place if it was more socially acceptable to change your mind in the face of countering evidence.
Thanks! I’ve also been wondering about this for a ridiculously long time.
I love the way Americans pronounce it "soddering iron", like the thing you look at yourself in - outside the US, they'd pronounce mirror as "mira" in the United states you hear "mere"
Thanks for giving me the answer to the same question that i had in my mind for very long time!
Half way through the video, I started to think it was because of the static charges accumulated on the body. But this was super interesting ! Thanks a lot for this video !
Bro. I'm here for the material you cover....but i gotta say...that voice of yours is also very nice. Just sounds good to me. Good day!
Omg, I’ve been holding my breath and getting angry without realising I could just not use my hands to solder! This was a great watch!
I knew it had to be the human body but never once thought the hands had a part to play!! Thanks for confirming and correcting an explanation I have theorized for myself to the same question.
Great Video, ive been soldering most my life now and What I do to combat this is I use a small muffin fan about a foot away and blowing gently across what I'm soldering , works better than the fan up close try to suck the smoke away.
Thank you for solving this - I’ve always wondered if it was just me.