Soldering Station

Step 3 Adding power cord and switch

A warning: playing with electricity from your outlet is dangerous...I was mildly electrocuted here and, though it went great lengths to wake me up at 3 AM, it should be avoided.

I wanted electricity from the wall to go directly to the station via an indoor-type extension cord. The cord would pass into the station and it's plug would lie flush with the wooden face. The soldering iron is plugged in here. The switch's position determines whether the extension cord is hot or not (and thus when the soldering iron is on).

The switch I used is supposed to light up when the circuit's live...this worked sporadically at first and then ceased to function. I don't know why. The light's a nice function as it lets you know immediately that your soldering iron is heating up even though the tip still looks cold. I'm fine without the light since my iron has a little ring of indicator LEDs that come on when it's plugged in.

Comments

[josh.wingo]

also might want to think about using wire nuts for your connections, not hot glue.

[ajmontag]

since your using 120v i would definitely use an electrical box ( http://www.seabay.org/articles/HTH/in_box.jpg ) and a real wall outlet, and light switch, just for safety reasons. i wouldn't want that setup anywhere near my house.

[static]

Not that scary. A double gang box fill with a standard receptacle feed by a standard light dimmer. All in a metal enclosure, would be more of a pro look.

[digrat]

The switch I used is supposed to light up when the circuit's live...this worked sporadically at first and then ceased to function. I don't know why.

What voltage was the LED inside the switch supposed to run at? I didn't see any resistors in your setup, so the LED probably blew from too much juice.

[n0ukf]

Rather than an LED, the switch may have a neon light in it, Neons don't have the long life of LEDs.