Soldering Station

Step 8 Mistakes, fixes, and things for version 2.0

I guess the internal layout could have been thought through more carefully...the tip of the iron is a little to close to the switch's wiring. If one's not really paying attention, the tip could be put through the face and potentially hit the wires (melting insulation, messing up the iron's tip, possible electrocution...not good). I put a guardrail in place; it's just a bent piece of coathanger. It deflects the tip away from the wires in cases of bad aim.

Update! PKM suggested I make a wire coil to further protect the box's internals. I had seen this implemented in jaime9999's iron holder but for whatever reason never thought to implement it here. Great idea!

The "right eye" washer began sliding off after the first use of the station since the melting point of hot glue was easily exceeded by the soldering iron. That fix was easy enough, I had found my superglue by that point and used it to reattach the washer.

Remember how I cut that latch slot too long? Turns out it was just what I needed. When packing this station up you can open the top, put the plug end of the extension cord inside and then close the lid, allowing the middle section of the cord to protrude through that slot (I stuff the remainder of the cord into the box at this point). It's actually the only way to store that cord and far better than wrapping it around the station, in my mind.

Improvements
(1) Think of how to incorporate a sponge, maybe on the lid. I think we could do better than just slapping a wet sponge onto the table.
(2) Add wire and wick (desoldering braid) dispensers.
(3) Functional light switch...

Comments

[yaly]

you could add something like a drawer to put a sponge in it but pad the interior of the drawer with fiberglass or rubber to avoid the wood sucking the water.you could add a nose to the face and from the two nostrils one is for wick and the other for the wire.you may also add adjustable ears and at the end is some LEDs popping out when the lid is opened and a switch beneath the main one and a wall-wart adapter for the leds and two dimmer switches for the LED brightness and temperature control.

[freakyqwerty]

Put two draws in side by side and electronic components that you use often use in one and the sponge in the other…

[wilwrk4tls]

 You could maybe Velcro (or similarly fashion) a plastic travel soap container that is hinged or separated along the long edge onto the lid and keep the sponge in it.  I was going to say to use the ubiquitous Altoids can, but seeing as how it will eventually rust and all the plastic may fare better.