Homemade nearly-free Soldering Iron Stand

Why pay megabucks for a fancy Soldering Iron stand when you can build one yourself with scrap?

Or, why use that flimsy plastic stand that comes with your cheap pencil soldering iron, and risk burns, fire, or melted stuff?

Step 1: Parts

- piece of wood, appropriately sized for stability and weight
- heavy coat hangar wire
- broom handle (only needed temporarily.. borrow your mom's/wife's/roommate's broom for 5 minutes) or 3/4 - 1" dowel scrap
- half of a travel soap dish
- kitchen sponge

optional
- rubber feet, or just staple a piece of old bicycle inner tube to the bottom of the wood to make it non-slip

Step 2: Coil Iron Holder

Here's my trick for making a tidy coil out of stiff coat-hangar wire:

- drill a hole of the same side into the broomhandle.
- insert the wire
- slowly, neatly wrap the wire into a coil a dozen times.

(here's the trick)
- since it is now 'locked' onto the broomhandle, get your metal-blade hacksaw and cut the wire exactly where it enters the hole. Now freed, remove the coil, throw out the leftover bit of wire, and return the broomhandle to mom's closet (shhh.)

Step 3: Remaining Assembly Steps

- bend the wire into two legs (a u-shaped arrangement, look at the pic)
- drill two holes in your baseboard to accomodate the U. The first hole is more oval-shaped, to accomodate the two diameters of wire that have to fit in there.
- nail or staple the plastic soap dish tray
- cut the sponge to nicely fit into the soap dish

note: the Coil can conveniently be removed from the holes in the base, for compact storage. Or, if collapsibility is not important, mount the wire to the board using screws, using a drilled-through hole, or any number of methods of your own invention.

FYI, when soldering, a key trick is to keep the tip nice and clean ("silvered" or "tinned"). This is the purpose of the sponge. Make sure it is wet when you're using it.

Comments

[pfred1]

I have also made something sort of like this. You can see it in this image:
http://home.comcast.net/~pcf1/DesolderBench.jpg
I used some sort of a spring and wrapped a strip of sheetmetal into the spring, welded that to a 1/4x20 bolt then welded a 1/4x20 nut to a scrap of steel I welded to an 1900 box I wired with a receptacle and a switch, to switch the lower outlet. I went with antislip rubber feet too.
I still should put a pilot light into this thing someday.

Now that I picked up a Weller station at a flea market I use that more.
I'm stripping some boards in that picture. That pot works really well for tinning iron tips too. Or tinning plumbing fittings, or what have you. Whenever you need 5 pounds of molten solder I guess.

[pfred2]

Wow a post of mine from 2006! I might as well update my comment being as the link is no longer any good. I can't get Comcast where I moved to, or my old account back on this site either for that matter.

I like your holder too jaimie9999 by the way. Good stuff!

[k4mik4ze]

Instead of using a broom handle since their thickness may vary, It'd be better to just put something abt 4-5mm thick next to your soldering iron's metal area and wrap the metal hangar around that, that way you ensure a snug fit for your soldering iron.

[mason0190]

mine is a chisel tip is there a place where i can get a pointey tip?

[stephenniall]

Rated 5/5 It works very very well!

[Stew2]

Thanks for the instructable, it works fantastic. Too bad I am still a lousy solderer. Maybe I can just blame my cheap Radio Shack iron for that though : )

[Yerboogieman]

what helps is not to put solder on before you start, using helping hands, cleaning it often, and using a sharp tip. makes you look like a pro in front of other people.

[endolith]

Cut a hole in the center of your sponge! We got new irons at work with a hole in the sponge instead of ridges, and it's such a simple change, but makes a big difference. With the ridges, you get all this crap stuck in the grooves and it just makes a mess. With the hole you just get a little mountain of solder globs in the middle. Not the same as this, but you can see the hole:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000B5YCSK.01-A2SHU9394LE8AJ._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_V40054434_.jpg

[Crash2108]

You should have drilled out a space for the sponge.

[mrbob1000]

i just made one and let me tell you it rocks

[The3rror]

I made something similar once except your coat hanger wire is twisted much better than mine does.