We all know the pain of cleaning tacky flux from PCBs, and vapor phase PCB cleaners come to the rescue -- except that they don't come cheap.
I was thinking if I can make one from easily obtainable materials and form a closed system that can be placed on my desk.
This is a draft of my design. Peltier element (5) heats the beaker containing acetone, and the hot side of Peltier is roughly held at BP of acetone.
Vapor travels through beaker to the top, where the majority gets condensed by parabolic condenser (2), which is cooled with water.
Escaped vapor gets confined in cover (4), travels down to Peltier cooled cold plate (6) and gets condensed.
To further decrease cold plate temperature, thermally insulating material (7) is used to prevent heat transfer from bench top to cold plate (6).
Out of the system, a pump circulates water between heat exchanger (1) and a radiator to keep condenser (2) cool.
Overall, Peltier element (5) introduces heat into the system, and heat exchanger (1) removes heat from the system.
A silicone dam surrounding the Peltier element (5) and its cables prevents acetone corrosion.
This system, if will work, can be made cheaply with Hobby grade materials.
Peltier element (5) can be purchased form Mouser, CUI makes them.
Beaker (3) can be a normal tall beaker from any chemical supply store.
Parabolic condenser (2) is the only part that needs to be machined, but it can be made of easily machinable materials like 6061.
Heat exchanger (1), pump and radiator can be purchased as a kit from any computer watercool system store.
Dripping pan (6) can be any thermally conductive metal pan, a meat loaf pan glued on top of an aluminum sheet is more than enough.
Cover (4) can be an inverted glass jar or 5 glass panels glued together with RTV (or anything resisting acetone).
Thermally insulating material (7) can be a block of wood or better, refraction brick, or just dried soldering sponge.
Including an AIO CPU cooler, the entire system can be made for less than $100 (excluding power supply).
Any ideas if this will work?
//Edit: typo.